Love is in the air for Kiwis with Valentine’s day around the corner. Reports state that Kiwi consumers have shown a sustained increase in spending on Valentine’s Day. Over a 5 year period, spending in the country has continuously increased by 9% on average; from the same day a week before.
In 2020, Kiwis spent $216 million on Valentine’s day with restaurants ($18.8 million), florists ($1.3 million), jewellers ($1.2 million) and general gift stores seeing some of the highest share of spending to celebrate Valentine’s day.
Add some romantic flair to your social media
All holidays generate a lot of conversations on social media so given it’s going to be trending regardless, there’s an opportunity to find new customers and get in front of them.
We know social media remains a powerful marketing tool, however no matter what the campaign, it’s important to be authentic to your brand.
- Remember, the audience is different for Valentine’s Day so look at who is likely to buy your product as a gift and create a social media campaign that speaks to the buyer, not your normal customer (most likely the recipient).
- Creating emotion around this day is key. Not everyone jumps on board with Valentine’s Day but creating an emotive post is more likely to gain traction.
- Create a social media competition to drive engagement. You could ask your followers to share your post and tag their friends to win or ask your audience to share their love stories, finding a way to tie in the question with your brand, create a trending hashtag and build user-generated content to repurpose.
Show your customers some love with a promotion or discount
Thematic promotions and discounts work well to create engagement and increase sales during crucial festive occasions. Some of the things you can do for these include:
- Run a Valentine’s Day sale which could include free shipping, 2-for-1 deals or offer discount promotional codes.
- Offer your customers an additional percentage off if they sign up to your loyalty program. This not only allows you to capture data but is also building your customer base. If they are already a loyalty member, offer double the points!
- One idea is a Valentine’s themed gift with purchase – even something small like a little heart shaped chocolate or treat goes a long way with customers when it comes to receiving a thoughtful something “extra”.
- Urge your customers to spread the love by earning extra referral points when they share offers with friends and family. Loyal customers and brand advocates are your best tool when it comes to spreading the word about your business so why not leverage this power for your Valentine’s Day marketing?
Create a Valentine’s Day Gift Guide
For many customers, one of the challenging parts of Valentine’s Day is knowing what to give a loved one but you can help overcome this by creating a gift guide. This is also a great way for you to highlight products in your business that customers might not normally purchase.
Offer gift guides in the lead up to Valentine’s Day and deliver these through digital channels such as your landing page or pop-ups on your website, social media and email marketing.
Another approach to a Valentine’s Day gift guide idea is to create gift bundles instead. This encourages people to make a purchase without having to decide which items they want to buy. Depending on your business products, you can arrange gift ideas:
- Traditionally – gifts for her, him, couples and friends
- Thematically – gifts for outdoor, lifestyle, musical, food and wine lovers etc.
- By price point – gifts under $100, gifts under $50 etc.
Redefine Valentine’s Day
These days, more customers are looking to celebrate Valentine’s Day with their friends and not just their partners creating a perfect opportunity to market to many audiences. If your business doesn’t overly resonate with ‘love’ or Valentine’s Day, consider focusing your marketing efforts on friendship instead and even create a ‘Galentine’s Day’ campaign for all the female friendships and bonds out there!
Secondly, not everyone is in a relationship, and it’s important to keep that in mind during any Valentine’s Day campaign. In addition to addressing couples or ‘Galentine’s’, you could also send some love to your single followers by offering special deals that apply to everyone – no matter what his/her relationship status is.
Partner with another small business
Valentine’s Day can be good for business especially if you’re having a lull period post the busy Christmas season, however given it’s a one-off day you’re also contending with other businesses regardless of the type, for the share of customers. So, you could try partnering up with another local business to help you reach a bigger audience.
You could create a community gift guide to encourage shopping locally which will help all of the businesses involved to gain new customers. You can promote each other’s products or offer them collectively in a gift bundle, however your partnership should be one that benefits you all mutually. Choose a business that is not a direct competitor but one that complements the products/services you provide.
Seasonal campaigns such as Valentine’s Day are great boosters for a business’s bottom line. Adopting any of the above strategies and showing your existing customers ‘the love’ this Valentine’s Day will help to create a successful campaign but hopefully allow you to also tap into new consumer segments to expand your customer base.