Valentine’s Day is the first major sales date of the year for retailers so we want to make sure you’re prepared for the next few weeks of increased demand.
Last year, Valentine’s Day sales totaled nearly $20 Billion in the U.S. alone.
This post features 10 tips to help you maximize Valentine’s marketing ideas strategy and start the year off right!
1. Understand Valentine’s Day Buyer Trends
First and foremost, understand your store’s inventory and identify which products may be well suited for a Valentine’s Day purchase.
Once you’ve figured this out, you now have a list of products to push with your marketing campaigns. Here’s a short list of key product categories that very much identify with Valentine’s Day.
Key Product Categories:
- Flowers
- Jewelry
- Clothing
- Dining
- Travel
- Hotels
- Events
- Candy
- Greeting Cards
Valentine’s Day shopping trends have changed quite a bit over the years.
Valentine’s Day is no longer just for romance. Consumers will spend money on family members, children, co-workers, pets, and even themselves. For example, consumers plan to spend just over $26 on their pets during Valentine’s Day. Even if you don’t sell traditional Valentine’s Day products, use the opportunity to reach out to leads and past customers.
Less planning goes into Valentine’s Day shopping which means that nearly half of shoppers plan to shop during early February. You’ve still got plenty of time to get your marketing plans in place.
Cart abandonment rates are especially high during Valentine’s shopping (76% for Retail and 86% for Travel). Be sure to implement cart abandonment solutions that will help you increase sales conversion during this period.
2. Engage Shoppers with Valentine’s Promotions
One of the easiest ways you can win sales during a busy shopping period is to engage your shoppers with holiday-specific promotions that will drive them to buy from you (and not one of your pesky competitors).
A sales promotion is most often seen in the form of a percentage discount but there are other options that may work better for you. Consider a dollar amount discount, free shipping, a gift with purchase, free gift wrapping, and so on.
Present shoppers with a Valentine’s themed promotion, a valuable incentive to purchase, and any other applicable info to the promotion itself (exclusions, order thresholds, etc.).
Onsite prompts like pop-ups and banner messages help conversion rates during Valentine’s Day shopping. These promotions have a 28% click to conversion rate for Retail and 12% for Travel.
To make things super easy, our team of conversion experts created a collection of pre-built promotions that you can add to your site in one click! Log in to your Justuno account to access the pre-built promotions!
3. Provide Shoppers with Gift Ideas
Most Valentine’s Day shoppers are looking for ideas and have very little direction on what to purchase for their significant other. Here’s an opportunity for some seasonal content marketing that focuses around the Valentine’s Day products that you’ve already identified.
Put together a series of blog posts or a downloadable buying guide filled with different gift ideas for men, women, pets, and friends. Be sure to link to your products so shoppers can immediately purchase from you when they find a gift idea they like.
Here’s an awesome gift guide for guys from Goop. Use this as inspiration for your buying guides.
4. Make It Easy for Your Shoppers
As mentioned in the previous section, most people have very little idea on what to purchase. They need help and direction and if you can provide a shopping experience that achieves this, you drastically increase the chance of converting that shopper into a paying customer.
Make things easy for your shoppers by building out specific landing pages and collections to hold all Valentine’s day focused products. You can even take it a step further by segmenting or sorting products by gender, type of personality, price point, and product type.
Nordstrom has a great V-Day collection with the ability to sort products and even has landing pages for specific price points.
5. Cross-Sell and Upsell Relevant Products
Valentine’s Day shoppers aren’t looking to skimp on gifts which means that cross-sells and upsells can be a great strategy for increasing order size. 39% of Valentine’s Day shoppers plan on spending over $50 on their significant other so this bodes well for this promotional tactic.
Here are instructions on how to implement cross-sells and upsells on Shopify.
6. V-Day Shoppers LOVE Email
Despite all of the other marketing channels out there, email still remains the most reliable and effective way to drive sales for your business. By now, we’ve hopefully identified our V-Day products, implemented promotional offers on site, created content around specific products, and built out a holiday specific landing page.
Now, you have some destinations to send shoppers to. Send out email campaigns that put your shoppers on the easiest path to conversion. By directing email traffic to relevant pages on site, you should see a significant increase in both sales and conversion rates.
One more thing, Re-engagement emails work. V-Day re-engagement emails boast a 5% conversion rate for Retail and 23% conversion rate for Travel. Consider setting up some lifecycle email campaigns to provide more opportunities for a purchase!
7. Offer Free Shipping
If there’s one thing that stands out to a shopper during their visit, it’s the prospect of free shipping. If you can offer it, then make sure you engage shoppers with a promotion stating that you offer free shipping.
Can’t offer free shipping on all orders? Implement a free shipping threshold. A free shipping threshold allows businesses to set a minimum order value that free shipping will be offered. For example, if it’s financially viable for you to offer free shipping on orders of $100 or more, then set your free shipping threshold at $100.
Another way to increase average order value is to set your free shipping threshold slightly higher than your average order size. If my average order is $50, then I’ll set free shipping to $75!
8. Market to Mobile Shoppers On-Site
Mobile now accounts for around 50% of total web traffic. If you’re ignoring your mobile experience, then you’re missing out on sales. Take a similar approach that you would with a desktop browser.
Present mobile shoppers with Valentine’s Day promotions and CTA’s to relevant landing pages.
9. Cater to Last Minute Shoppers
As is the case with all time-sensitive holidays, certain shoppers are going to procrastinate and wait till the last minute. Here’s a perfect time to promote gift cards, events, trips, and digital products like software and downloadables.
There are plenty of creative ways to offer something that will fulfill a last-minute shopper’s needs.
10. Don’t Forget About Single People
About half of consumers will not be celebrating Valentine’s Day. Rather than alienating this segment of the market by strictly promoting Valentine’s Day gifts for a significant other, mix in some other messaging that caters to those who are single.
Encourage single shoppers to treat themselves and offer discounts to make it worth their while.
Since it may be difficult to segment your shoppers by relationship status, you can always resort to incorporating a few single-focused emails in your campaigns.
You can also wait until February 14 or 15 to serve up messaging that caters to this audience.
Our Pro Tip: Leveraging Social Media for Valentine’s Day Engagement
In addition to the strategies already mentioned, harnessing the power of social media can be a game-changer for Valentine’s Day marketing.
Here’s how you can use different platforms to enhance your campaign:
Host Valentine’s Themed Contests on Social Media
Create engaging contests on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. For example, ask followers to share their love stories or best Valentine’s Day memories and tag your brand. Offer attractive prizes that align with the spirit of the holiday, like romantic dinner vouchers or custom gift hampers.
Collaborate with Influencers
Partner with social media influencers to promote your Valentine’s Day products. Influencers can create authentic content that resonates with their followers, thereby increasing your brand’s visibility and appeal. Choose influencers whose audience aligns with your target market for maximum impact.
Create Interactive Stories
Utilize Instagram and Facebook stories to post interactive content like polls, quizzes, and Q&A sessions about Valentine’s Day. This not only increases engagement but also helps you understand your audience’s preferences, allowing you to tailor your offerings accordingly.
Share User-Generated Content
Encourage customers to post pictures of them using your products or services with a specific Valentine’s Day hashtag. Share these posts on your social media profiles to build a community feeling and show real people enjoying what you offer.
Offer Exclusive Social Media Discounts
Create special discount codes for your social media followers for Valentine’s Day. This not only rewards your loyal followers but also encourages others to follow your profiles for future deals.
Post Gift Guides and Ideas
Share gift guides or creative gift ideas on your social media channels. This helps indecisive shoppers and directs them towards suitable products, increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
Create Valentine’s Themed Filters and AR Experiences
If you have the resources, develop custom filters or AR experiences for platforms like Snapchat and Instagram. For instance, a virtual try-on for jewelry or accessories can be a fun way for customers to engage with your brand.
Wrapping Up: Valentine’s Day Marketing Made Easy
There you have it, 10 actionable tips to help you sell more this Valentine’s marketing ideas shopping season! Even if you just have time to implement a couple of these marketing tactics, you’ll still see an impact on sales.
Feel free to share your own ideas in the comments below!
Read more: Valentine’s Day Marketing Tips for Your Online Shop