International Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated on March 8th since 1911. As the IWD say’s: “IWD belongs to all who care about gender equality. Celebrate women's achievements. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to forge gender parity. All IWD activity is valid, that's what makes IWD so inclusive.”
For brands, business owners, and marketers, IWD is a fantastic opportunity to showcase their commitment to women’s fight for equity while increasing sales through targeted women's day posts.
With over a month before IWD 2026, now is the time to create and schedule your social media campaigns to ensure you take part in this year’s celebrations and show your commitment to the cause of women’s equality.
This year’s IWD theme is Give To Gain.
“Give To Gain emphasizes the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organisations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction; it's intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise.
Whether through donations, knowledge, resources, infrastructure, visibility, advocacy, education, training, mentoring, or time, contributing to women's advancement helps create a more supportive and interconnected world.
What will you Give to Gain gender equality?”
As long as you do this authentically, supporting this cause is a meaningful way to support women everywhere, and show women you are a true ally in a world that seems to be turning back the clock on women’s empowerment.
IWD 2026 Give to Gain #GivetoGain #IWD2026
Consider highlighting how your brand gives:
Before we get into women’s day post ideas, we need to address a problem that brands encounter and get called out about every single year: Pinkwashing.
Pinkwashing is the act of associating a brand with IWD, LGBTQ+ themes (like rainbow logos during Pride), or breast cancer charities, while deliberately doing things that contradict those positive messages.
“Woke washing” is another term associated with pinkwashing and carries similar sentiments. Here is how you avoid trying to look good while at the same time falling short of the aims of IWD and being a true ally to women everywhere:
Don’t talk about eliminating the gender pay gap (especially as that’s what this year’s IWD is about: gender equality) if you know women or contractors are being paid less in your company. Numerous brands and businesses were caught out by a pay gap app in 2023 (@PayGapApp), including the so-called “led by women for women” fashion brand, Ann Summers, with a 31% gender pay gap.
Don’t launch products that look or sound sexist or are tone deaf, like BrewDog’s "pink beer for girls.” Even though it was priced to reflect the gender pay gap, it was perceived as a cynical marketing stunt.
Don’t publish anything that clearly sounds tone deaf, despite it being done for the best of intentions. Like Burger King’s 2021 campaign, "Women belong in the kitchen," designed to encourage more women to get into the hospitality industry. Despite apologising and announcing a scholarship program, the damage was done at the time.
Don’t engage in anything surface-level and performative, like numerous other brands over the years. This includes but isn’t limited to Amazon, Avon, McDonald’s, Shell, and Gillette (Procter & Gamble).
In other words, before developing an IWD campaign plan and creating women’s day posts, make sure your business (or the business you’re representing as a marketing agency or freelancer) does what it says. Performative posts are pointless if your products or services, or gender pay gap, exploit women. Or if your business has ever sacked or pushed out a woman for being pregnant.
Now, with the above in mind, let’s look at six ways you can plan and create authentic women’s day posts that will make a positive impact this IWD.
Building International Women’s Day digital marketing campaigns helps your audience recognise you as a business that shares their values. In this guide, we handpicked the most effective ways to create engaging and meaningful International Women’s Day posts:
Before diving into product promotions, special discounts, or empowering events, we should go through building a dedicated landing page for International Women’s Day. It’s a page on your website designed to drive traffic when people use relevant keywords to search for products, services, or events related to the occasion.
Seasonal landing pages are streamlined to promote specific products or events for a limited time. Therefore, you have to design them to minimise distractions that could cause visitors to leave your website. It’s not as hard as it sounds, thanks to numerous
landing page builders that make the process easier. These tools provide you with ready-made, visually appealing landing page templates you can tweak to match your branding and objectives.
Make sure to hook them from the start by showcasing how you support women’s causes. Your IWD landing page should include optimised content centered around search phrases that will bring the right visitors to your website. Carefully selecting the right products to create a special Women’s Day product feed is of utmost importance, whether it’s featuring limited-edition items or packaged sets as purchasing incentives.
But even more importantly, such a page generates email subscribers, since people have to fill in their contact information to enjoy your offers. An IWD landing page is also a great place to direct your social media audience for exclusive promotions or events.
For example, IWD offers loads of free tools, promotional packs, ideas, and inspiration for how brands can make the most of this day. It’s worth mining free resources from them first.
Partnering with a cause is key to getting the right message across and showing leads you are a brand that cares for more than selling. By partnering with a women-related charity organisation, prospective customers know you aren’t all talk - and they highly appreciate it. Choose an organisation whose mission aligns with your audience’s values, and donate a portion of your earnings to actively show your support.
Your donation will help organisations that cater to women’s needs worldwide and make a difference in their lives. As a result, you enable them to continue providing resources to improve the circumstances of women in need. If your business operates locally, donating to a local event to support the community while raising brand awareness is a good practice.
From a marketing perspective, a giveaway delivers results and offers a more personalised way to connect with your audience. IWD is an excellent occasion to run a giveaway contest on your social media or your website for charity or business purposes.
Ask your followers or visitors to honour special women in their lives by nominating them for recognition, or by tagging friends. For example, it could be a photo contest of them using your products. Then, you must randomly select the winners and send them their prizes.
Ensure the prizes you give away align with your audience’s preferences and overall brand. Also, encourage them to share their contest entries on social media to increase your website traffic.
To earn extra points and enhance customer loyalty, send a thank-you email after the giveaway to show appreciation for their participation.
Luminary Bakery does an excellent job with its IWD giveaway, offering an exclusive treat bundle. The brand isn’t limited to running the contest, though. The bundle itself contains products from female-led brands, thereby celebrating their contribution to making the market an equal space.
Here are lots of different ways that organisations and brands can offer meaningful IWD support on the day and year-round (and if you do any of these things, make women’s day posts about them):
Your International Women’s Day posts could focus on a new product or service that you plan to launch around this time of year. Especially if you think it would appeal to women, it’s the perfect time to do so. There are numerous ways to go about it. For example, you could offer a discount on all orders placed on March 8th, whether you run a physical or e-commerce store.
It’s particularly important you do this if your brand is specifically for women: 60% of female shoppers expect IWD promotions from fashion/beauty brands.
You could offer free shipping on every order over a certain spend amount as an alternative. Free shipping is an effective incentive for consumers who wouldn’t make it to the finish line because of shipping costs.
You could limit free shipping to the actual day or make it a limited-time offer to attract more customers. Or you could even send special coupon codes to women customers to increase the likelihood they make a purchase.
In its limited-time promotion, Balipura offered followers a 40% discount on its selection of essential oils and crystal mists to honour the special women in their lives. Regardless of the occasion, the brand’s mission is to empower women and support their well-being year-round through its products, and the post content highlights this commitment.
Marketing during International Women’s Day is all about making the day special and showing that you have put in extra effort beyond regular marketing. Your consumers will highly appreciate special products or product bundles that you design with the day in mind.
Leverage the occasion to launch an alternative product you've been considering to see how your audience responds. Instead of just creating the product, add value by donating a portion of the revenue to a women's cause, such as an organisation fighting domestic violence.
If you think you don’t want to invest much effort into it, consider customising your packaging design for limited-edition products. Custom packaging design shows your customers you value everything this day stands for.
Sephora Middle East chose TikTok to launch an International Women’s Day digital marketing campaign and promote its specially designed product collection. The packaging of this women’s day special collection was designed by a Saudi artist, thus offering women a piece of art that they could hold on to remember the day.
This final marketing tip is intended to boost morale. By sharing the stories of successful women from your brand, industry, or community, you demonstrate what is possible and inspire women in similar situations.
The women you choose to present will serve as role models for every woman experiencing discrimination and inequity. Let them share their stories to encourage women to take on activities that help them reach their full potential.
On International Women’s Day, introduce customers to the powerful women working in different departments of your business. Not only do you help prospects put faces to your brand, but you also recognise the hard work of your female employees and make them feel valued.
Conduct interviews with them in which they can discuss their achievements, social issues, or any topic you think interests your audience. And remember that representation is a powerful tool, so choose videos to communicate your message, as nothing beats the engagement it brings.
To further help you build your International Women’s Day marketing strategy, we gathered some extra tips to implement and make the most out of this amazing day:
In addition to a themed landing page, develop a Women’s Day theme for your website, social media posts, or app. Consider revamping some of your brand identity elements to demonstrate to your female leads that you care to represent them. We don’t mean turning everything pink; most women find it outdated and annoying.
Take the extra effort to identify what resonates most with your target audience so they know you are serious about adjusting your branding for this day.
But if we have to pick colours, add some purple to your theme. It’s the official colour of Women’s Day, representing gender equality and dignity.
As effective as social media is as an IWD marketing tool, neglecting your email marketing is like leaving money on the table. Newsletters let you reach your leads in their most personal digital space: their inboxes.
You can use email marketing to show your support for women-related organisations, introduce your female employees, promote a social media giveaway, or offer gift cards or discount codes to recipients who have already interacted with your brand.
This will urge them to revisit your website and perhaps make a purchase - even more so if they know they are supporting a specific cause by doing so.
What’s great about email marketing is that you can divide your customers into different segments and send them personalised email content based on their demographics, preferences, and behavioural data.
And it doesn’t take too much time or effort with the segmentation and personalisation options most email marketing platforms offer.
Saucey leveraged the occasion to motivate subscribers to send an appreciation drink to the special women in their lives. The brand also uses its IWD email campaign to promote its referral program, encouraging recipients to invite friends and earn a $10 credit.
The whole point of creating an International Women’s Day digital marketing campaign is to motivate your customers to drive positive change in society and the business world, whether by sharing stories of women who escaped discriminatory environments or paved the way for gender equality. Your content should focus on celebrating the progress made so far and inspiring people to accelerate it further.
Even if your target audience is primarily men, you should consider adjusting your messaging for IWD. Regardless of your niche, you can find creative ways to mark the occasion with tailored content while staying relevant to your main buyer personas. For instance, you can highlight a women-related cause or educate your audience about the fight for equity and women’s rights.
There are numerous hashtags it’s worth using across every social media channel for IWD. These include, but aren’t limited to the following:
#IWD2026
#GiveToGain
#BalanceTheScales (The UN theme, focusing on dismantling systemic barriers)
#InternationalWomensDay
#WomensDay
#WomenSupportingWomen
#EmpowerWomen
#WomenInBusiness
#GenderEquality
#Solidarity
#Feminism
#WomenInLeadership
#SheLeads
#DiversityAndInclusion
As we approach this year’s IWD, there are many ways to celebrate and honour women. Some brands optimise their holiday content marketing efforts with inclusive content, while others share stories to promote workplace equity or organize events to raise awareness. All in all, there are countless ways to celebrate women’s rights and market your business.
IWD is an opportunity to deliver value to customers, rather than just another day on your calendar or another social media trend. It can also be profitable for every business willing to shape the conversation and be part of the solution.
Use Sendible’s content calendar and AI tools to generate women’s day post ideas to ensure you’re making the most of IWD 2026.