Everyone loves love, well, maybe it would be more accurate to say most people love, love. Therefore, it stands to reason that every small business should try to capitalize on that idea of love as we head into February and as everyone’s favorite holiday, Valentine’s Day draws near. (Boy, I am full of broad generalizations today)! What isn’t a generalization is Valentine’s Day is a great time to show appreciation to your loyal customers and engage in heartfelt conversations with the people who help make your business what it is today. Here are some ideas to help you dote on your customers as well as continue to build brand awareness during the month of love.
Social
You are likely always engaging with your customers on social. There are a million different fun ideas to connect with current and potential customers through your social media accounts. These ideas give you an opportunity to share your brand, your people, your lighter side and your love.
You and your team could share a great (and short) love story and encourage your customers to do the same.
Host a “Spread the Love” campaign on social, where people share different ways they are sharing love in the community! You and your team can plan a few ways to share and video capture it, share it, and invite others to do it as well!
On the same note, take up a cause of you and your team’s choosing, partner with that cause/organization, and plan a virtual event to help raise money or goods for that cause. Maybe your team loves animals so partner with a local animal shelter to raise money or collect goods like: pet beds, food, animal toys, etc... to give to the shelter.
Encourage your team and your followers to try some self love and start a conversation centered around the theme, “Give yourself a Valentine.” Encourage your team and your customers to share different self care gifts that they are giving themselves.
Do a “We LOVE this...” post each day on your stories and share your products and even some of the products and services of others and cross promote with businesses you partner with.
Remember your hashtags! Some of the more popular one’s (with millions of posts each year) are:
#valentinesday
#happyvalentinesday
#valentinesday2021
Contests and Deals
There are a number of ways to promote and market your services and brands, and contests are one of your customers’ favorite ways. Brainstorm a bunch of ideas to get customers engaged and give them an opportunity to win a product/service. This is also a great way to introduce and educate people about what you do and why people need your services/products.
Host a “Worst Valentine’s Gift/Day Ever.” Patrons can share on social and you can even have the participants vote on their favorite. Give the winner, the best gift ever, one of your products/services to make up for it!
Two is better than one on Valentine’s Day so do a Two for the Price of One deal!
Don’t forget the singles out there, host a contest for them and have them share why it is better to be single on Valentine’s Day. I bet even your coupled-up followers will have a good time reading that one!
Give customers a gift for making a purchase on Valentine’s Day even if it is cliche like some chocolate or a flower! (Plus guys can re-gift it to their wives when they forget to pick something up--resulting in a loyal customer for life!)
Up your newsletter game
Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to send out a newsletter to those patrons you love and one’s you hope to pull onto your bandwagon.
Add a video portion to your newsletter. Have your crew film their Happy Valentine’s Day to their significant others (even if it is their pet canary) and put a collage together. At the end, you can all say Happy Valentine’s Day to your customers!
Add a subsection to the newsletter that says, “We are in love with these items/services” and promote some of your business’s top sellers or new products.
Add a special Valentine’s offer for mentioning the newsletter. Add a link to your online catalog!
Share a gift guide that not only includes your products and services but others that you know people would love. This “Gift Guide-Perfect gifts for the perfect significant other!” would make a great title for your newsletter because we are all in search of the perfect gift (and it’s the perfect title to get people to open their emails).
Along with Valentine’s Day, national holidays and other federal and local events are great marketing opportunities to have some fun while engaging customers and building your brand. Try some of these for Valentine’s Day to not only get you started, but to spread the love!