It’s the time of the year again when everyone buys heart-shaped chocolates and giant teddy bears for their loved ones. These lovers are enjoying this special day and you should too. This is the perfect time to boost your marketing campaign and increase your sales. For more details, hop into this article entitled, “Digital Marketing for Valentine’s Day: 10 Tactics to Spice It Up!”
Digital Marketing for Valentine’s Day
Most people will surely celebrate Valentine’s Day with heartwarming gifts while you are utilizing this opportunity to increase your sales. You may already have a plan for this lovely time but the question is, is it enough? Are you sure that you are leveraging Valentine’s Day to the full extent?
Surely, you will be selling your products and services in-store but everyone who owns a small business will do this too. There’s a lot of stores that will definitely sell the same products as yours.
The form of your chocolate cake might be different but there will be businesses that will market the same products and might be more unique than yours. There might be variations on the arrangements of your flowers but there are other sellers who sell the same too and they might even sell it at a lower price than yours.
You see, with Valentine’s Day approaching, competitors will also use this opportunity to increase their sales. There will definitely be other businesses that sell the same products and services like yours.
However, when you are the first business who has presented the perfect product and service right in front of your customer’s eyes, then these people will surely choose you over your competition.
The key here is not just originality anymore, it is efficiency. Be the first one to sell Valentine’s day-themed products and services and be the only business that your customers will see even when they go offline. Most importantly, be easy to find online.
So, how will you do it? Well, you should really have a digital presence. Create a website for your business online. Build your social media presence by creating accounts on the biggest social networking platforms on the Internet. Hence, be on the places where your target customers are.
Start Your Online Presence
Nowadays, having an online presence is really important. Whether you are an owner of a big brand or a local marketer, people will most likely to search for your business on the Internet to see what you can offer to them.
However, when you haven’t build your digital store, then those people who should have been your customers will definitely become loyal ambassadors of your competitors.
If you haven’t noticed yet, people across the globe are already on the Internet and are utilizing it at every moment of their lives.
As of October 2019, there are almost 4.48 billion active Internet users across the globe and 85% of these consumers conduct online research first before making a purchase. These people are constantly searching for the newest trends and they do this research online.
Moreover, consumers also use the Internet to buy products and services online. Data showed that 97% of Internet users learn more about a local company online than anywhere else and before visiting a store, consumers first search for local businesses within five miles.
This only means that if these consumers won’t see your products and services on the Internet, then you won’t really increase your revenue. Hence, you should leverage your marketing strategy, not just in-store but also online.
You might already have a website and accounts on the top social media platforms on the Internet but with Valentine’s Day shooting the days of February, have you already updated your tactics on digital marketing for Valentine’s Day?
Well, if you haven’t, worry no more because, in this article, you will be reading the top 10 Tactics to Spice Up your Digital Marketing for Valentine’s Day!
Tactics on Digital Marketing for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a celebration for people who are in love. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it is just for these lovers. Everyone can celebrate this lovely day too. Even those who are single for all their lives can treat themselves or celebrate Valentine’s Day with their friends and families. As long as love is in the air, Valentine’s Day won’t really be a pointless celebration.
With this in mind, you might be wondering about what you should do to help these people who are searching for products and services perfect for the celebration. Probably, you might just want to post pictures of your products on your various e-commerce platforms and call it a day.
However, you should not just do that. Don’t be one of those businesses that don’t plan their marketing strategies online. Be creative with your campaign and don’t forget to use these 10 Tactics to Spice Up your Digital Marketing for Valentine’s Day!
1. Add romance to all of your platforms.
To start with your Valentine’s Day campaign, you should first create romance on all of your online platforms. Sprinkle some love in your business accounts, add the color red in all of your collaterals, and make sure that when your prospects visit your website or your social media accounts, they will surely feel in love with your brand.
Moreover, because the main color of this celebration is red, you should really add it to your marketing strategies. If you are running a campaign specifically for this festivity, then you should match all of your marketing collaterals to this color. You might want to add cupid or fourteen red hearts in your logo.
Of course, if you don’t want to edit your company logo and cover photo, then you can just add the color of love in your other collaterals.
Also, you can add some visual materials that directly tell your customers that it’s already Valentine’s Day. This way, they will know that you are celebrating it and therefore, they should be online for the treat.
2. Ask for customer recommendations.
They say that the customer knows best. With the things that you want to give to your customers, you might want to ask their suggestions first. You will really be shocked by the things that you haven’t known yet and you can use their answers to create better products and services for them. This is also a perfect time for your business to bond together with them.
So, there are various ways that you can ask for recommendations from your customers. With social media platforms, you can create interactive content that allows you to engage with your audience. You can ask questions through posts, quizzes, polls, Stories, or through online voting. Then, you can also ask for your customer’s recommendations through email if you have an email list or you are doing email campaigns.
With Valentine’s Day, you surely do have ideas for your products and services but when you are not sure what to give to your customers, the key is to ask them first. Asking customers for recommendations is not a sign of weakness for your business, it only means that you trust your customers.
Doing this also creates an interaction between your brand and your customers. Even when you just want to ask them about what they want to do on Valentine’s Day, you can still use this tactic to create conversation.
You can create an image with an open-ended question and wait for your audience to answer in the comment section. Then, when the conversation starts, don’t just let your prospects and customers do the talking, be the one to lead the conversation.
Besides, social media platforms prefer engagement and if you achieve this, you will surely increase your brand awareness. Hence, ensure that you are creating bonds and deepen your relationship with your customers.
3. Make your e-commerce website Valentine’s ready.
Making your website ready is the most important aspect before creating a campaign online, especially if you want to market your products and services through your website. Although this is one of the essential parts of every digital marketing strategy, most businesses still forget about this and it negatively affects the sales of their business. In order to avoid this, you should make your website Valentine’s Day ready.
Create a website.
First, do you have a website? If you don’t, then you should create one for your business. Invest in a domain name, web hosting, and a professional-looking website as this gives your customers the idea that you are serious about your service and you surely provide great results. Don’t just settle in free domains from WordPress or other website building platforms.
Although investing in a professional-looking website requires money, you will surely not regret creating one than using a free version. Besides, why would your customers buy your products and services when you don’t even invest in a professional-looking website, right?
Moreover, is your digital store presentable? Remember that your website is the representation of your physical store. Present visually appealing images and designs in your website.
Because you are celebrating Valentine’s Day, then you should also make your website Valentine’s friendly. As said in the tactic number one, make sure that you add the color of love and anything that symbolizes Valentine’s Day. If you don’t want to break your branding, you can just create a welcome image that has greetings on it when your customers visit your website.
In addition, make sure that you are not just perfect for your customer’s eyes, your business also provides information that will completely fill their needs.
Provide the needed company details on your website and ensure your customers that whatever information they want, they can directly see it in your e-commerce site.
Besides, this will help your business to rank higher in local searches as 78% of location-based queries result in an offline purchase. So, secure that your website is an eye candy and a library of information.
Optimize your website.
Lastly, is your website mobile friendly? If not, then you should really know that 61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact local businesses with mobile-friendly sites.
Consider that nowadays, people are mostly utilizing mobile phones rather than laptops, computers, and other devices as these are handier than the latter.
Besides, who would wait for a website to load if they can just visit another website right? So, as part of your marketing tactic, create a website that is not just meant for one device.
4. Provide essential Valentine’s gift ideas.
During celebrations like Valentine’s Day, most people have very little idea on what to buy for their loved ones and if they do, they are waiting until the last minute to buy their gifts. In this case, you can use the purchasing behavior of your customers to increase your sales.
You can do it by providing a Valentine’s Day gift ideas that they won’t avoid. There are various ways that you can use to provide gift ideas for your customers.
You can create a promotional video, photo story, carousel, GIF, Story, and other content to showcase the best things to buy for this lovely occasion on your social media accounts.
Moreover, you can develop a series of blog posts on your website highlighting your product and services and a few others from non-competitors. With your blog posts, you can also add an infographic for your customers to download so that they can have a checklist on what they should buy.
Make sure that with these gift ideas, include eye-catching and visually-appealing images, engaging descriptions with offers that come with that product or service, and a CTA that prompts your customers to buy the things you have added in your blog posts.
Moreover, to ensure these people that all the information you have added in the blog is available, you should include its individual links too.
Then, you can also utilize this to mention your other offers, contests and other campaigns for Valentine’s Day. Thereby, make it easy for your customers to choose what products and services they should obtain.
Local SEO.
Do keep in mind that consumers use local searches to obtain products and services that are near their area. This is especially important when Valentine’s Day is near and they don’t know what to do.
Due to this, they search for local businesses around their city or nearby areas. When you have a blog about the essential gift ideas that are easily obtainable in their area, they will directly click and read what you can offer.
However, in order to achieve this, your content should be seen by your target customers. Besides, 92% of searchers are most likely to pick businesses on the first page of local search results. Hence, you should make your blog post on the top page of the results.
To do this, use search engine optimization (SEO) on your website. Write blog content that is helpful to your customers and is optimized for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Another thing that could boost your local search engine ranking is listing your store to Google My Business as this is one of the core elements of local SEO.
READ ALSO: The Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing Strategies for Local Businesses
5. Launch Valentine’s video campaign.
Before consumers only watch videos on television but with YouTube and other social media platforms, people right now are mostly watching videos on their mobile phones or other devices that are connected with the Internet. With 55% of Internet users watching videos per day, you should make sure to utilize this for your Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns.
As the celebrations come, make sure that you have a campaign for Valentine’s Day. Take Jollibee, the Filipino multinational chain of fast-food restaurants, for example.
The franchise created a video series entitled, “Kwentong Jollibee” and with Valentine’s Day, they created three videos solely for it. In the picture below, you will certainly see the results of just one of their video campaigns.
It gathered almost six million views and over thousands of reactions, comments, and shares. That’s just on Facebook alone, what about more on other social media platforms, especially YouTube?
You might be wondering what makes Jollibee’s video campaign successful. Well, the success of the brand is not really due to its name but because of the story each of the videos offers.
According to Jollibee Foods Corporation’s brand communications head, Arline Adeva, that they used the power of storytelling to create videos that are relatable to their customers.
Capture human-interest.
So, how can local businesses use this to sell products and services for Valentine’s Day? Well, create videos that are targeted to the hearts of your audience. Produce a video that your audiences and customers would love. Think about the things that everyone wants to see and remember during this celebration and use video as a key to tell it better.
Then, when you already know what to shoot, start taking a video out of it. You can simply create one for your products and services, offer tips and tricks related to your business, share your Valentine’s Day offers, contests and other campaigns, or create a human-interest video inspired by your customer’s story.
Hence, don’t forget that in order to achieve your goal, you should catch your customer’s attention. Make a video that is valuable and engaging as 72% of customers would rather learn about your product or service through it.
6. Surprise customers with special Valentine’s offers.
During this time, customers are mostly searching for the best gifts for their loved ones. Because of this, you should surprise them with your campaigns created solely for this lovely day. So, step up your Valentine’s Day marketing campaign with offers, flash sales, promos, gifts, incentives, and Valentine’s Day-themed products!
Create Valentine’s specials.
The first thing to consider is that customers want to buy products specifically made for the celebration. With Valentine’s Day, you can create various products accompanied by the color of love and use quotations or anything related to the word love and romance.
Then, you should also create a twist into your services whether its for lovers, single, families, or friends. If you don’t know what to offer to your customers, then you should ask them about what they want during Valentine’s Day. Simply use the second tactic in this article.
Keep in mind that during this time, it is important that your customers can feel that your products and services are solely made for the celebration. This increases the chance to target more customers, improve customer satisfaction, and increase your sales.
Sales and other special offers.
Then, if your products and services are all ready, entice your customers more. Surprise them with flash sales wherein they can only get your offers for a specific period of time.
You can also add gifts, incentives, and special offers for your loyal customers who kept coming back to your online and offline store. Doing this is also a good way to convert your audiences (those who are eyeing your website and social media accounts and those who are part of your email list) into customers.
In doing this, you can either give vouchers in person or give a code online or through email. Just highlight your offer so that it will spark your audiences’ interests.
Make your products and services stand out.
Lastly, keep in mind that the key here is to make your Valentine’s Day campaign unique and efficient. Create unique products and services that are not usually seen in other small businesses.
You might offer a free gift wrap for every purchase of your products or give a free rose to every woman that comes into your local coffee shop.
Also, be the first one to entice your target market by creating this Valentine’s Day campaign months ahead of the celebration and surprising consumers with Valentine’s Day-themed products and services by advertising this in-store and online.
7. Run Valentine’s contest or event.
Want to reach more people while providing customer engagement? Well, you should run a Valentine’s Day contests and events.
Customers love it when their favorite businesses create these kinds of activities as this gives them something valuable. However, this doesn’t mean that they are the only ones who could benefit these. Doing these activities strongly increases your brand awareness and you could also gain user-generated content out of this.
Create guidelines.
So, if you want to create contests and events for Valentine’s Day, make sure that you announce it to the public. But before doing so, you should first examine everything. Carefully analyze your contest guidelines and prizes.
What is your event all about? Is it appropriate for the celebration? Do you want your contest to the public or only for those who have transacted with your brands? What is the time-frame of your events? Who will be the judges? Where will it happen? What are the prices? What are other things that you should add to your guidelines?
Answer all of the questions above and make sure that everything is clear before posting your contest and event to prevent problems and confusion.
Tackle other important aspects.
Moreover, there are other things that you should include while making these. First, ensure that your budget is enough for the whole duration of the contest. Then, add your branded hashtag (a combination of your business and contest names) in your announcement. Keep in mind that this hashtag is important if you are tracking contest entries on social media platforms.
By creating a Valentine’s Day contests and events, your business will also gather user-generated content that you can use in your website and social media posts. These types of contents are especially important in building the name of your local business online and increases the trust of your prospects. However, before using these types of contents, ask the permission of its owners first and when posting, always mention or even link them into it.
8. Use relevant Valentine’s hashtags.
Hashtags are important in building your brand on social media. This is a perfect way to promote your business on the platform. These are also useful in tracking your campaigns. So, how will you create this for your Valentine’s Day campaigns?
Well, here are the things that you should do with your campaign hashtags. First, choose an appropriate hashtag for your business. If you have a unique business name, then it is already good to go. However, if your name is long and is generic, then you should create a unique hashtag for your business and shorten it.
Afterward, choose a hashtag for your campaign. Because we are celebrating Valentine’s Day, you can use this into your other hashtags too. However, for your main campaign hashtag, you should create a unique one that can also be associated with your campaign but is not generic so that your marketing will not be associated with other businesses.
Then, you can just combine the official hashtag of your business and your Valentine’s Day campaign or just use the latter as your main campaign hashtag.
Lastly, add generic hashtags for Valentine’s day into your campaign posts. Some of the generic tags for this celebration include #valentines, #valentinesday, #lovemonth, and others.
Remember that hashtags are key in reaching more people into your Valentine’s Day marketing campaign. So, carefully select a hashtag that will represent your local business.
9. Send virtual Valentine’s greetings.
One thing that you can give to your customers is greetings and because you are performing your digital marketing strategy, then you can send virtual greetings through their email addresses.
You can send your email lists Valentine’s greetings on or before the celebration. You can also broadcast your newest products inside the email with a link to your website or location of your physical store.
Also, you can include the details of your Valentine’s Day campaign in your email like your special offers, contests, events, gift ideas, or Valentine’s Day-themed videos, products, and services.
Doing this is not just a more personal way to communicate with your customers, this can also help you spread the word about your Valentine’s Day campaign.
This is also helpful to your business because you can track how your customers react when seeing the message. You can see if they have clicked your links or they just ignore your messages. This way, you can curate your email distribution lists and you can update it regularly according to the interests of your customers.
However, if your end goal is to make your customers visit your physical store, then you can also send them physical greetings too!
You might have a code for those who want to visit your shop and when they show or said the code, you will provide them greetings and add more special treats with it. This act will not just warm the heart of your customers, this will also tell them that you value them.
10. Advertise your overall Valentine’s campaign.
Advertising is most likely the end part of every marketing strategy. Businesses of all sizes use this strategy to increase the reach of their business.
And with the Internet taking over, this has also been used by online marketers and businesses that want to build their brand online. So, how can advertising help your Valentine’s Day campaign?
Well, by advertising your brand online, you are in control of what you do. You can choose to target specific or wide audiences in your locality or even around the globe.
Most importantly, with online advertising, you can track and analyze your performance with its analytics dashboard. Hence, you are the one who can control where your campaigns will reach and how to perform it.
This also helps you increase the reach of your Valentine’s Day campaign. With various advertising strategies, you can choose the right advertising strategy perfect for your digital marketing campaigns.
However, if you don’t have a budget for advertising, you can just use organic social media posting and website content marketing to increase the awareness of your local business.
Key Takeaways
Small businesses like yours should use celebrations like Valentine’s Day to step up your digital marketing strategy. There are a lot of tactics that you can use to leverage your digital marketing for Valentine’s Day and we have curated these top ten tactics just for you:
- Add romance to all of your platforms.
- Ask for customer recommendations.
- Make your e-commerce website Valentine’s ready.
- Provide essential Valentine’s gift ideas.
- Launch Valentine’s video campaign.
- Surprise customers with special Valentine’s offers.
- Run Valentine’s contest or event.
- Use relevant Valentine’s hashtags.
- Send virtual Valentine’s greetings.
- Advertise your overall Valentine’s campaign.
Do keep in mind that in implementing your digital marketing strategy, you should be able to keep it up until the end.
First, start with a website and social media platforms and include all of the information for your local business so that you will increase your rank in local SEO.
Then, make sure that you keep these platforms updated with content, posts, offers, and other seasonal marketing strategies like your Valentine’s Day campaign.
Lastly, track and analyze your digital marketing performance and online revenue.
However, as a business owner, it is understandable that you don’t have the time in the world to learn about digital marketing strategies, tactics, trends, and tools for small businesses.
So, we recommend that you outsource your digital marketing needs to an internationally-awarded digital marketing agency whose major strength is delivering output based on your needs!
Hence, these are the “10 Tactics to Spice Up your Digital Marketing for Valentine’s Day!” Use these to leverage your digital marketing strategies, improve the reach of your local small business, and increase your sales!
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