Valentine’s Day is a major consumer holiday and the perfect post-holiday sales opportunity for businesses. Did you know that Valentine’s Day is the fifth-largest consumer spending holiday in the United States? Love-crazed buyers have spent $21.8B (2021) and $27.4B (2020) on Valentine’s Day in the last two years alone.
Valentine’s Day promotions are key for capitalizing on this major spending event. Here are some ideas to woo your customers into purchasing your products or services.
Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating partners or spouses. However, you can show your customers some love and let them know how much you appreciate them too. Share your gratitude by placing outdoor banners with encouraging messages and customer appreciation specials. Decorate your window signs in shades of red, white, and pink to play up the holiday’s theme and create a festive atmosphere.
You can even print cute Valentine’s Day cards to distribute amongst your shoppers that offer discounts on key products or services. Use this holiday to create customer appreciation promotions and you will build a strong customer relationship that lasts through the years.
They say that the way to someone’s heart is through their stomachs. So why not win your customers over with food? Curating special menus around Valentine’s Day is an oft-used strategy practiced by food and beverage businesses.
While you’re curating Cupid-approved courses, don’t forget to invest in custom menus to highlight your promotional offerings. After all, the menu should stand out just as much as your food and support your signature special.
Okay, it’s impossible to imagine any major holiday without those last-minute distressed shoppers. Or maybe you’re met with those confused gift-givers, the ones who simply cannot decide what they wish to give. You can increase your sales by helping these stressed shoppers find the perfect gift for their paramour. Create printed and digital gift guides to take the confusion out of Valentine’s Day shopping.
Focus on best-selling items under appropriate categories and advertise them on your website, social media handles and outdoor banners. If you have the time and foresight, you can even create a fun flowchart or web app that helps people choose the perfect gift for their loved ones based on their personalities, product preferences and relationship type.
Create a unique atmosphere for your Valentine’s Day events with creative vendors. There is no shortage of amazing small businesses that can enhance your promotions. From flower crown florists to musical acts, tarot card readers to relationship expert influencers, you can find the perfect brand to partner with for your special occasion.
If you find a vendor with a large social media following, you can leverage social media posting and partnerships to expand your brand outreach. If you find a fantastic vendor, share this information with your customers on social media, through newsletters, and with storefront window signs.
Not everyone can be lucky in love. Don’t leave your love-lorn customers in the dust on Valentine’s Day. Instead, host a singles-only event to see if sparks fly. If your customers aren’t in the mood for love, you can host a lonely hearts party with custom menus that reflect the anti-Valentine’s sentiment with broken heart shaped cookies.
Contests are a great way to entice customers to participate in your big event. When it comes to Valentine’s Day, there’s lots of room for creative competitions. Use a step and repeat for customers to take candid photos and ask customers to upload their photos on social media. Get event attendees to vote on the photos with the best captions or costumes.
You can also make your sweepstakes sentimental with prizes for couples who have been together the longest. You can also encourage your guests to get crafty with prizes for the most original V-Day themed artwork. All of this user-generated content can be reused on the following Valentine’s Day when you honor their love by featuring their stories in brochures, banners, window decals and signs.
Finally, no marketing or promotional strategy can ever be complete without a strong online presence and email campaigns. The messages, deals and content printed on your banners and window signs should also make their way to your customers’ emails and social media feeds. So, craft content that tugs at the reader’s heartstrings and circulate your ideas across all digital and physical channels to ensure you reach the most people possible.