It feels like you wrap up one holiday email campaign only to have the next one fast approaching; so goes the life of the marketer.
Valentine’s Day is most known for love and romance – do you know how your business fits into this intimate holiday?
Whoever you are and whatever you do, we have some suggestions for you. We looked at Valentine’s emails from some larger businesses to help spark ideas for all businesses.
If You Sell Valentine’s Gift-Worthy Products…
You have a really easy job! Last Valentine’s Day, people spent an average of $126.03 on their partners. Shoppers appreciate gift ideas, and you can position yourself as the ideal solution to their gift troubles. You just need to find a way to showcase what you’re offering. Customers enjoy seeing pictures of the products they want to buy, so don’t depend solely on basic descriptions.
Harry & David does this nicely in their email. The products are the main focus and it’s all laid out beautifully.
If you’re an AWeber customer and want to have this look in your email, check out the “Store” template. You can find it under the “Retail” category when you’re viewing templates in the message editor. This template allows you to easily show off images of your products (or whatever you want) in your emails.
If Your Business Makes For A Good Date…
Restaurants, theaters, museums and other attractions also have an advantage – they’re great places to spend Valentine’s Day. If you’re a business that attracts people to do or experience something, remind subscribers you’re open on the big day.
Spirit Cruises does this by creating a special evening complete with a rose and champagne toast. Subscribers can click to reserve right in their email.
If you plan to offer a coupon, discount or gift to subscribers who book with you, make sure you highlight that in your email. You’ll have plenty of competition that day; make sure you stand out.
If You Can Help With Valentine’s Plans…
If you don’t have a solution for what to give or where to go, help them figure out what to do. Valentine’s Day can also be about planning parties and cooking meals. Your role can be sharing tips on party planning, decorations, recipes or card-making.
Food Network did this perfectly by providing great recipes and a party suggestion.
If you don’t want to lose the opportunity to promote your own products or services, you can provide a coupon or some other “gift” as a Valentine’s gift to your subscribers. This fits the holiday theme while also making the push for sales.
If You Want To Make Your Products Fit Into the Holiday…
You might not have much advice to dish out if you’re a retail store, and you might not be selling products that make for popular gifts. This means you need to get a little creative.
Take Converse, for example. Converse shoes don’t make the top 10 Valentine’s gift list, but they still found a way to be relevant during the holiday by allowing people to design their own shoes. Converse showed how these shoes could be “relationship themed:”
If your store sells merchandise such as clothing or home decor, you can do a little work to make your products fit into Valentine’s Day. You might not have the resources to allow for customization, but if anything you sell is red, pink or contains hearts, you can tie it into the holiday.
If Your Business Can’t Relate To Valentine’s Day At All…
Not everyone can pull off one of the ideas listed above. You might find yourself in a place where your business has nothing to do or help with Valentine’s Day.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand fell into that category. As a charity helping kids fight cancer, they took a completely different approach to Valentine’s Day: asking people to take the time to think of the sick children and send some love to them.
Nonprofits can easily take the “don’t forget about us” approach with any holiday. If you’re not a nonprofit, you can still take a similar approach. For example, a financial consulting firm could let subscribers know their firm can help customers save money so that next Valentine’s Day their subscribers will have the money to buy more expensive gifts.
What Does Your Business Do?
If you’re looking for some sweet Valentine’s Day designs to send, check out these new templates.
We’d also like to know how you integrate the Valentine’s Day holiday into your emails – please comment and share!