Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas Every Businesses Can Use

Love is in the air, and it’s time to paint the town pink. If your business isn’t celebrating Valentine’s Day yet, it’s not too late to start spreading the love and winning the hearts of your customers.

As a business owner, you know by now that every holiday offers a great theme for your marketing and promotions. In the run-up to this international holiday, ride the wave of what everyone’s talking about and help get your brand out there.

Every business can take advantage of this romantic holiday by offering unique promotions and fun Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns that appeal to their audience.

Not sure how to do it?

Here are plenty ideas businesses can use to create a spark and increase business this Valentine’s Day

1. Create and send a loving promotion via text

In this day and age, smartphones are an everyday accessory. You can bet that a person’s smartphone isn’t more than three feet from their reach at any given time, so why not use this to your advantage by sending promotions via text?

The average person responds to a text within 90 seconds, versus 90 minutes with email.

For Valentine’s Day, consider sending a 2-for-1 deal.

– Fast casual restaurants, for example, can offer two meals for the price of one, or two desserts for the price of one.
– Boutiques could offer two (travel size) fragrances for the price of one.

Of course, you can always offer a specific discount, like 20 percent off baked goods or candy.

Whatever the promotion, be sure to mention Valentine’s Day in the text and include “romantic wording.” In other words, use words like ‘love,’ ‘special someone,’ ‘sweet,’ or ‘heart.’

Here’s an example :

Got love? Celebrate Valentine’s Day at Joe’s Pizzaria with our 2-for-1 special today. Just show this text.

2. Celebrate the Perfect Match

Valentine’s Day is all about things (or people) that go well together. Couples everywhere are celebrating what makes them the perfect match for each other, like wine and cheese or burgers and fries. No doubt, you’ve got items or services in your inventory that are better together.

Highlight the perfect matches that you have already got on hand with this easy Valentine theme.

3. Ask Your Customers Who (and What) They Love

Get your audience involved in your effort by asking them who and what they love. If the world around you is celebrating love, you might as well do it, too. Showcase the stories you hear from your customers on your social media to show off the human side of your business. Your customers’ warm, fuzzy feelings for your brand will trickle into sales later on.

4. Share the love on social

Ask your audience to “Share the Love” on a social site. Ask customers to share sweet stories, poems, or pictures that represent love, romance, or friendship on Facebook or Instagram. Be sure to have participants include a specific hashtag or include your business name on the post.

United Airlines, for example, ran a “Love in the Air” promotion asking customers who met or fell in love while traveling to share their love stories. The airline selected finalists and gave the winning couple roundtrip tickets to anywhere in the U.S.

Your prize doesn’t have to be quite that grand, but it should align with your brand. For example, give the winner 2 free items at your store (one for them, one for their companion), or a coupon/store credit good towards anything in your store.

Of course, you can also take this idea and flip it around. Valentine’s Day isn’t all roses and champagne for everyone. There are plenty of singles out there, so try catering to them.

Ask your customers to submit their best (or worst) break-up story in 140 characters or less on Twitter, or have them submit it using emojis only.

Pick the best break-up story and give them a shout out on social, and a prize for sharing their story.

If you want something even easier that still garners engagement – Consider doing a “share the love” giveaway. Simply post a Valentine’s Day related picture on social, tell folks what you’ll be giving away, and ask people to like, share, retweet or pin the photo to be entered to win.

5. Show A Little Extra Love

It’s well known that charitable businesses make consumers feel better about their purchases. Use this month to show a little extra Valentine-themed love to your community to encourage buyers out of their shells. Don’t just stop at making donations, though. Make sure your consumers know what they are supporting.

This heartwarming effort is a sure way to drum up some interest in your company.

You might consider teaming up with a heart-themed charity like your local chapter of the American Heart Association or the Children’s Heart Foundation. Macy’s, for example, teamed up with Go Red For Women, with a simple social media campaign. The retailer donated $2 for every picture that was uploaded on Valentine’s Day.

Be sure to promote the event like crazy. 🙂 Hang fliers in your store, advertise on your social pages, create an event on Facebook so customers can RSVP and have cashiers mention it to customers at checkout.

6. Make a quick video with gift ideas

Everyone needs a little gift inspiration, especially on Valentine’s Day when the same-old chocolates or flowers just won’t cut it.

Consider creating a gift guide that’s full of great Valentine’s Day gifts from your store. Add a cool twist by turning the guide into a movie.

Have the store owner stand in front of the camera and show customers three hot Valentine’s Day gifts, or create a musical slideshow that’s full of product pictures.

Remember, creating a video doesn’t require a video production team. All you need is your smartphone, a good staging area and a little help from DIY tools.

For example, consider using Vine, the six-second video app from Twitter to shoot videos. Each video clip can showcase one gift. Share a new video each day leading up to Valentine’s Day.

If the owner wants to showcase products, find a picture-worthy spot in the store to set up a table of gifts. Avoid the windows, and make sure the background isn’t a blank white wall. Pick a wall with a little detail, set up a table that’s covered with a cloth and shoot the video with your smartphone. Use editing tools like WeVideo or Pixorial to add final touches.

Creating this resource to help couples find ideas that include your own products is a great way to highlight how your brand can help them. Going over the top, though, can make your good intentions cross the line into overly-promotional. Showcase the best ways to help your customers and build their trust in your brand for the longer-term.

7. Become a Date Destination

Whether you are a typical event or date destination or not, it is possible for every small business to become a destination on Valentine’s Day. Host events – like couples classes – that teach skills your market might be interested in. If you are a cafe or restaurant, create menu-items specific to the big day that help you customers celebrate their love.

8. Cater to Procrastinators

Not all of your customers have planned in advance. Lend a hand to procrastinators by targeting last-minute messages and easy-to-execute Valentine’s Day ideas. They will be relieved to find a helping hand in your business when they are scrambling on February 13th, and their love for you will only grow from there.

9. Don’t Forget the Singles

It is important to remember the other side of this holiday – the single folks! If celebrating Valentine’s Day with pink and red hearts everywhere isn’t your vibe, you could always spend the month with the singles. Either way, don’t forget that this massive market might have an extra incentive to indulge in your brand this month!

What Valentine’s Day promotion are you planning this year? Have any examples from above of your own? Share your ideas with others in the comment section below.