10 Tips for Powerful Valentine’s Day Marketing

You know you can boost February sales with a strategic Valentine’s Day marketing campaign, but do you know how to increase revenues without increasing your marketing investment? The following ten tips for powerful Valentine’s Day marketing will help maximize your return on investment.

1. Create a special time-limited offer

Marketers are no strangers to special offers, but be sure yours includes a well-defined deadline to motivate customers to buy now. Be sure you consider your offer from your customers’ perspectives: is it really a great offer they can’t afford to miss out on? If not, it will underperform.

2. Create a clear call to action

Your call to action should make it exceedingly clear what customers need to do next to take advantage of your special offer. Don’t make them guess! If they have to visit your physical location, include your hours on your marketing materials. If they have to visit your website, include a coupon code so they can easily take advantage of your offer.

3. Make it easy

Speaking of ease, make it super-easy for customers to cash in on your special offer. If possible, let them make purchases however they’d like: online, offline, via telephone, or mail-order. Go through your online checkout process as if you were a customer to identify any hang-ups or bottlenecks – the last thing you want is a bunch of abandoned carts because your process is cumbersome.

4. Spell out your benefits

Why should customers buy from you? How can you solve their problems or enhance their quality of life? What is your unique selling proposition, or how is what you do different and better than the competition? The answers to those questions are the benefits you want to convey.

5. Invest in attention-getting design

Professional graphic designers know how design integrates with copy and images to influence customer behavior. If you don’t have design skills, hire a designer or use a well-designed template for your marketing materials. An attention-commanding design helps you get noticed and draws customers in to learn more about your offer.

6. Invest in multiple marketing channels

Don’t rely on a single marketing channel for Valentine’s Day success – that’s putting all your proverbial eggs in one basket. Incorporate a variety of digital and print marketing channels, as well as targeted advertising, to promote your Valentine’s Day specials. At the same time, don’t spread your investment so thin it can’t be effective in any channel. Seek channels that work together, so that your target audience sees your promotion in multiple places.

7. Focused targeting

Don’t try to sell to everyone; define your audience as well as you can, then focus your targeting. Sure, you’ll reach fewer people – but you’ll reach more likely buyers and your ROI will be greater for it.

8. Know who you’re selling to

At the same time, be sure to understand exactly who you’re selling to: are you trying to get wives to buy something for their husbands, or to tell their husbands what they want for Valentine’s Day? There can be major differences in how you reach your target audience, which isn’t necessarily the gift recipient buy the gift buyer.

9. Study your competitors, then beat them

Always pay attention to how your competitors are marketing their products and services, and brainstorm ways to outdo them. Even if you can’t use the information this year, next year you’ll have a good idea if what they’re doing is working if they run the same promotion.

10. Be helpful

Finally, see if you can find a way to be a useful resource for your audience. A jeweler might print a booklet on how to pick the perfect engagement ring, for example. Being helpful lends trust, credibility, and authority – which in turn leads to sales.

Read more:

• Boston Restaurant Offers $3,000 Burger with Engagement Ring for Valentine’s Day