Valentine’s Day is an opportune time for brands to flex their marketing muscles and boost revenues. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), US consumers alone are expected to spend $21.8 bn on Valentine’s Day celebrations in 2021. GMS has gathered a few tips and tricks that will help you build more thoughtful connections with your customers, and tap their spending power.
1. Share your love with your customers
Valentine’s Day is all about love. Why not express your affection to your customer? A playful little note can help set the mood, and it won’t hurt if you throw in a special offer either. A sticker pack or a series of smart Valentine’s day cards shared on social media will further improve your brand’s presence and help engage new clients.
2. Collaborate with a Non-Competing Business
Tapping into other people’s audiences is not an inherently bad thing. If you sell grape jelly, why not partner with a peanut butter manufacturer for some sweet, sweet synergy? Sharing promotional expenses just makes sense when both brands offer complementary goods. And you can always play the “X + Y = LOVE” card for bonus points.
3. Last-minute flash sales
Holiday-specific flash sales, limited time offers, and last-minute promotions are very effective for engaging with the clients who have either forgotten to buy a present or simply procrastinated long enough. Either way, enter you with some oh-so-needed gifts.
Add a countdown timer as a finishing touch (and to capitalise on clients’ FOMO). Lastly, don’t forget to promote the sale across all platforms: social media, emails, messengers, push notifications and SMS.
4. Utilise your mobile app’s potential to the fullest with Push notifications
Push notifications provide many opportunities for engaging with your mobile app’s audience at different stages of their journey. Due to the pandemic, Push notifications reached their absolute highest average rate in more than four years in March 2020.
Push notifications will help you support your sales by reminding your customer about the abandoned cart, delivering personalised offers to your most active customers or complimentary gifts for new users. And remember: while generally the best time to send push notification is between 7 am-10 am and between 6 pm-10 pm, you can always go the extra mile by analysing the information about your audience to identify when your users are most open to notifications.
5. Create Gift Guides
Coming up with a fitting present can be a real challenge. A proper gift guide can alleviate the doubts customers face while trying to choose the one perfect present. This way, you can inspire your buyers with some creative ideas, while moving them down the funnel towards a purchasing decision.
For the best results, you can segment your target audience by splitting it into groups based on their hobbies, gender, or other interests, and creating gift guides for each separate group. A few examples include “Valentine’s Gift Guide for Hiking Enthusiasts”, “Valentine’s Gift Ideas for Her”, and so on. You can also be more specific and offer a guide with gifts under a certain sum of money like “Valentine’s Gifts under $15”.
6. Instagram Ads
An average Instagram user browses the platform for 30 minutes per day, and 130 million Instagram users tap on shopping posts every month. Two hundred million users visit at least one business profile a day, so it is no wonder that 70% of brands consider Instagram as one of the most effective platforms for achieving their business goals.
Instagram is also an excellent avenue for reaching out to younger people: 65% of the Instagram audience are aged between 18 and 34, with a fairly even gender mix of 51% female and 49% male users.
7. Multiply your ROI by adding more channels
According to the Hootsuite Social Trends 2021 report, multichannel campaigns tend to have a higher ROI than single media campaigns. In fact, for every channel you add, you can improve your ROI and effectiveness by up to 35%. Having access to a multichannel communication platform will help you engage with your clients regardless of their preferred channel, bringing your campaigns’ efficiency to a new level.
In conclusion
While love is in the air, we should remember that successful marketing for Valentine’s Day is equal parts about the human feelings and the holiday rush; therefore, your fundamental goal is to provide a clear message while remaining relatable. And don’t forget to check out our holiday marketing guide for even more insights!