6 Loveable Marketing Ideas for Valentine’s
Ever since St. Valentine literally lost his head for secretly marrying folks against the emperor’s decree, folks have been losing their heads over this romance-saturated holiday. In this year alone, Americans are projected to spend more than $24 billion dollars on Valentine’s cards, candy, dining, travel, lingerie, and other assorted merchandise. So how does a retail business like yours cash in on this love bug? Agency Creative shares six marketing ideas for Valentine’s.
1) User-generated Love Stories
Back in the day, young lovers would scissor out paper hearts to demonstrate their undying affection. That took talent! Today, we have social media platforms to promote user-generated love notes. Consider a Valentine Love Challenge where your subscribers describe their sexiest Valentine’s dinner. Invite your Instagram followers to submit videos of their sexiest ballroom dance moves. Or what about photos of the most elaborate marriage proposal?
Last year, a brand called MeUndies launched an Instagram campaign asking couples to share photos of themselves wearing matching underwear with the hash tag #MatchMeUndies. That gave them a lot of exposure.
2) Dollars to Donuts, Any Business Can make a V-DAY Event
You don’t have to be a greeting card or lingerie brand to leverage Valentine’s. Dunkin’ Donuts utilized their social platforms to invite customers to compete in a “Dunkin’ Love” Instagram contest, streaming on Facebook Live, and having Snapchat Geofilters. Sold a lot of cruellers.
3) What’s love got to do with it?
You don’t have to be Irish to drink green beer on St Paddy’s Day. So who says Valentine’s Day has to be focused on couples?
Consider spreading the V-Day net a bit wider.
Design a promotion that transcends romance. Think Bromance, dudes! Or heck, what about a Galentine’s Day Sale, ladies? The fact is single, unattached folks routinely meet for drinks, dinner, or go clubbing on this night of nights. Why isn’t your brand taking advantage of this? The Body Shop’s #SendingAKiss contest asking their Instagram followers to send in photos of themselves blowing a kiss to a friend.
And what about aiming Cupid’s arrow at man’s best friend? After all, who loves you more than your Golden Retriever? Sound crazy? Pet subscription service BarkBox is already doing it. They launched their “Palentine’s Day” collection in 2019. Woof!
4) Referred Love
Invite customers to review your brand on Google. The best 20 referrals get a free something. Starbucks Card? Diamond necklace? We’re spit balling here.
5) Who do You Love?
That’s right? Why make your Valentine’s campaign about your customer’s love life? Who do YOU love? Your customers of course! Use Valentine’s Day to launch a loyalty campaign. Print up a punch card and reward your customer’s regular patronage.
6) The Anti-Cupid
Okay. Not a big secret. Some people absolutely detest Valentine’s Day. The right brand can use this to their advantage. If you have a bakery business, bake an anti-cupid cake helping celebrate your customer’s recent divorce. If you have an apparel brand, remember T-shirts can be sassy.
You get the idea. Valentine’s Day is a big deal. Take advantage of it.
