Valentine’s Day is the day of love, but for many retailers and service providers, it can also be a very profitable occasion. With this special day on the horizon, we have to ask: Do you have your marketing plans in place to take advantage of these love-inspired buyers?
According to a survey conducted last year by Caddle and the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), people shop for Valentine’s Day in the two weeks leading up to February 14. In 2023, 84% of Canadians who celebrated Valentine’s Day planned to spend the same or more as last year, with food, alcohol, candies, and restaurants as the top spending categories. Almost half (48%) of Canadians spend over $50 on this special day, and 16.4% buy their Valentine’s Day products online.
If you don’t already have an advertising and marketing plan in place, these are a few ideas to inspire your strategies so that you can quickly get the ball rolling before it’s too late.
Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas That Stand Out
If you’re not in the business of food, flowers, or candy, you can still take advantage of this happy occasion. Try something along the lines of…
- Offering exclusive Valentine’s Day deals like special prices, bundled products, love-themed gifts with purchases, free shipping, or reward bonuses. Craft your offer and add them to your website’s homepage or build a landing page specifically for them which you can direct your advertising campaigns to. Many people look for creative, personal gift ideas and experiences so be sure to focus on that kind of a spin.
- Create budget-friendly Valentine’s Day gift ideas and money-saving tips that you send in an email and share them on your social media feeds since many people are budget-conscious right now.
- A lot of customers today are very conscious of social issues. Supporting a local charity makes them feel good about you and helps out people in need. For example, if someone books an appointment before Valentine’s Day, maybe you’ll donate $10 to the local food bank or animal shelter. Messaging like send a gift of love and get XYZ at the same time. The gift of love is your donation to a charity and the product or service is connected to the purchase they make before Valentine’s Day or maybe even on Valentine’s Day.
- Not everyone is in a relationship but don’t forget about them. 27% of consumers like to treat themselves on special occasions, like a birthday or Valentine’s Day. Expand your Valentine’s Day suggestions to include gifts for singles, pets, kids, and close friends or family. You might even think about promoting Galentine’s Day and Palentine’s Day through advertising campaigns, blogs and social media posts.
Deciding How To Promote Your Valentine’s Day Offers
One of the best pieces of advice for your Valentine’s Day marketing campaign is to START NOW! Today’s consumers like to do their research before they buy so be sure they can see your ads whenever they’re online BEFORE the big day.
- Make sure your marketing message is the same in all your digital media, throughout your website, and you advertising. Promote your sale or gift guide with a similar message and image in all your advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Google display, and Tiktok, as well as in your organic social media posts to ensure you have a unified image or presence.
- Create videos for your website, YouTube, TikTok or Instagram reels that showcase your product and advertise your promotion to customers at the same time.
- Write a blog to share your gift giving guide or best money-saving tips if you’re offering deals or discount. This will give you fresh content to promote on your social media pages where you can talk up your Valentine’s Day offer while focusing more on your customer than your deal. It’s a bit of a reverse psychology approach if you will.
- Start sending your emails out early and keep them going. Promote your offers, make gift suggestions, do a countdown, and, when Valentine’s Day is over, offer extra discounts for “the gifts you wanted but didn’t get”.
- Add some quizzes and interactive content to your Instagram stories that are related to love themes during the Valentine’s Day season so that your followers are more likely to keep you top of mind when they are shopping. Make sure to add your offers to the graphics but, all your social content shouldn’t focus just on selling. Come up with different ways to talk about Valentine’s day related to your product but without directly selling for the best impact. For example if you have two gift baskets for Valentine’s Day show a photo of each and ask “this or that?”. Reviewing the results or comments on that post could also give you ideas for future sales while also learning which baskets your customers are more interested in.
- You’re sending people to your website so update your homepage with your offer or gift guide. Put any special offers or deals front and center at he top of the page and on a landing page all about the offer itself so people understand exactly what you want them to buy. Tell them what it is, what’s included, what the cost is etc. Don’t forget to use the same look and feel that is shared across your Valentine’s Day advertising campaigns too.
Valentine’s Day is Coming Soon So Don’t Waste Time Get Started ASAP!
Valentine’s Day and any special holiday really is a great opportunity to get your products or services in front of people who aren’t always shopping online. By showing up in the places where they are surfing the world wide web in addition to talking up your offers in more traditional advertising like with radio or direct mail, Valentine’s Day you’ll see a lift in sales!
Whether for a special occasion or sale, at 3SIXTY Marketing Solutions, we specialize in helping you get the word out, with a targeted approach. You might even say our marketing arrows land more accurately than Cupids. Want to learn more? Book a free consultation by clicking here or give us a call at 647-250-1494.
