Roses are red. Violets are blue. We know you love marketing as much as we do!

Okay, we know that’s not exactly how the poem really goes. However, we do know how important marketing is to your business and we’re here to support you on your success journey.

There’s no doubt that other local businesses are taking advantage of holiday marketing to increase brand awareness and boosting sales. 

Seasonal and holiday marketing can sometimes feel off-course from your normal promotional routine. But, it’s also an opportunity to get creative, have some fun and see how your audience reacts.

Things to remember when creating content to maximize your Valentine’s Day marketing efforts.

Keep your business goals in mind

Consider your business goals to guide your Valentine’s Day marketing strategy. Given the short nature of holidays, you will want a goal-based strategy that will be easy to implement and measure. Your goals will help you decide which marketing tactic will be best for your business.

For example, if one of your main goals is to increase traffic to your website, consider a Valentine’s Day sale or promotion that links to a dedicated page on your site. If your goal is to increase foot traffic to your store, you may want to send out a special in-store offer to draw people into your business location(s).

Know your target market

Imagine being in your customers shoes to better understand what your target audience might be looking for on Valentine’s Day.

For example, if you know your audience trends to a younger market, you might want messaging that speaks to singles rather than those in relationships. If your target is children, consider what speaks to the parents who ultimately make the purchasing decisions.

Use multiple marketing ideas

Maximize your efforts for success across multiple marketing channels. This can be that much more important during short-term promotions.

Since special holidays come and go quickly, you’ll want to increase your odds of gaining new customers by implementing a few different marketing ideas at the same time.

Below is a list of Valentine’s Day marketing ideas you can choose from. Our best recommendation is to implament 2-3 different ideas to capture our audience and track what works best.

Valentine’s Day can be huge for growing businesses. If you truly want to capitalize on special holidays, you’ll need to ensure you’re capturing the essence of the holiday across all your marketing channels.

Related: Need help planning your digital media strategy? Download our — Ultimate Social Media Content Planner on Etsy, to help you stay organized and strategically plan your digital marketing through the year.

Here are 10 Valentine’s Day marketing ideas you can implement right now!

1. Update your business listing on Google

It’s never too late for Valentine’s Day promotions. In fact, more than 60% of spending occurs on or within five days of the 14th. A great place to start is your local listings by extending your hours on Valentine’s Day. (Update your holiday hours on your Google Business Profile and your website).

Emphasize the “last-minute”, “special offer”, “deal ends tomorrow!” call-to-actions. For example, you could make a Google Business Profile post and share photos to your business listing to showcase limited edition Valentine’s Day products, services or deals.

Another aspect of your overall reputation management should be asking for Google reviews. This can increase your number of positive reviews and attract more new customers. Customers are generally happy to write reviews, you just need to know how to ask for them.

Once you start raking in reviews, be sure to respond to all of your reviews—good or bad. If you feel unsure of how to do so, check out our tips on — How to respond to Google reviews like a pro.

Get creative and fun! Use the holiday to your advantage. For example, hand out cards with each in-store purchase or send out an email asking your customers to share their love for your business on Google or other listing sites.

2. Create an experience

While gift giving is lovely creating a memorable experience takes special holiday’s to the next level. Maybe create a personalized or special in-store shopping experience, or offer a holiday insipred meal at your restaurant. Collaborate with another local business to offer a unique experience. Consider what that might look like for couples but also individuals or even kids depending on your target market.

3. Create a Valentine’s Day gift guide

Consumers are forever in search of the perfect gift for their loved ones and significant others. Suggesting gift ideas to your customers makes shopping easy in a pinch. It allows your business to build onoging trust with your customers. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to include some items from your own business on the list.

You can create a digital gift giving guide that can be avaibale on your website or sent out via your email list. This is a great one to promote on your social media channels, maybe even create a short video.

4. Offer a sweet deal

When it comes to Valentine’s Day marketing, don’t limit yourself to focusing on just couples’. For example, did you know people are estimated to have spent $23.9 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2022 with 1.7 billion spent on pets. About 85% of parents plan to give their children something on Valentine’s Day.

Keep this in mind as you create limited-edition Valentine’s Day products or offers. For example, you could position a product for “someone special” rather than a romantic partner to meet the various needs of your customers during this holiday.

5. Send a Valentine’s Day card to your customers

If you haven’t started ramping up your email marketing already, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to do so. While your loyal customers are giving you reviews, you can show them some love in return by sending along a simple “Happy Valentine’s Day” email.

You could take your Valentine’s Day email a step further by including a special offer that could even align with the above gift guide idea. These types of emails give you a great excuse to reach out to your customers again in a non-intrusive way.

6. Partner with a complimentary business

If you’re planning to show your own business some love this Valentine’s Day, you should do the same for other local businesses within your community. Reach out to a similar small business near you to tag one another on social media or share small giveaways.

For example, this idea could be lovely for a business in an industry that may not align with Valentine’s Day but could partner with a local bakery to hand out sweet samples.

If you don’t want to join forces for a Valentine’s Day offer, you could still give back to your community by volunteering with a local nonprofit instead. You could post updates about your day on social media and share with your customers your love for your own community!

7. Host an event

Your business’s event could be in-person at your office or store, or virtual. The point of this idea is to bring your employees and your customers together for some Valentine’s Day fun. You could do fun holiday-themed activities, like trivia with fun facts about Valentine’s Day. Include small prizes, like coupons or other freebies, to bring some excitement to your event.

The bonus with this Valentine’s Day marketing idea is you can share out information about the event before, during, and after it’s happened to maximize your chances for engagement with your audience.

8. Provide a special offer or promotion

If you have a popular product or service offering, try repositioning it for Valentine’s Day. For example, you could swap out the name of a service or colors of a product to match the theme of Valentine’s Day. This will make your offering feel “exclusive” to the season and could drive more demand during Valentine’s Day.

9. Create a bonus offer

Creating a special holiday deal that includes a follow up secondary offer is a great way to get your customers back in after their special holiday purchase. For example, if they are making an in-stor purchase you could slip a coupon into the bag with an offer that exipres at a later date. Or, you could ask for their email in the purchase process and send out a special email offer.

10. Offer a gift with purchase

Depending on your business you may consider a gift with pruchase to promote something new that you offer that might draw them in again.

This give customers an opportunity to sample something new that you offer that they might just fall in love with and draw them back in to purchase.

Fall in love with your Valentine’s Day marketing this year

Make long-lasting, positive results with these 10 simple Valentine’s Day marketing ideas maximize your marketing efforts and draw in more business. Planning your holiday marketing doesn’t have to take up a ton of time or resources but can be a huge win for your business. If you’re looking for ways to better plan your digital marketing, check out our our — Ultimate Social Media Content Planner on Etsy. This is a great way to help you stay organized and strategically plan your digital marketing through the year.