I can see you singing along but let’s substitute what you were thinking with the word ‘customer(s)’. Valentine’s is coming, where are your customers? January is said to be a slow month, so what’s your plan for February? Event days such as Valentine’s Day represent a huge opportunity for a sales and marketing push to boost your bottom line. Unfortunately, many times locally, we are caught up with our personal beliefs of the ‘Valentine’s occasion’ and forget that it’s a commercial opportunity. Even though you may not personally celebrate or see the point of it, there are still hundreds of people who will be filling up restaurants and purchasing vouchers and other gifts for their loved ones. What will you be doing for your brand or business?
You don’t have to sell chocolates and flowers to show love to your customers. It all comes down to strategy. Here are a few tips:

Plan your specials well – Is it a one-day sale or is it a week-long offer?

What type of content will you be using on social media? Will you be targeting couples? Or do you have something for singles? Be clear about your messaging. What does a successful Valentine’s promotion look like for your brand? Have you set sales targets or audience growth metrics?

Use the power of love – It’s been proven by psychologists that most decisions are based on emotions rather than logic and the most powerful emotions when it comes to buying are: greed, pride, fear, guilt and love. You can use colours, brand imagery and videos all together to target one or more of these emotions, thus inspiring people to purchase from you.

Use customer data and insights – If you don’t have a database or customer software, hopefully
you kept track of customers that purchased from you last Valentine’s. This is the opportune time to retarget them. Everyone likes to feel special and appreciated. For example, if you’re a florist, send a personalized text or WhatsApp message or email saying e.g. Send a bouquet of roses to your special lady. That’s a message that can be sent to men who previously purchased.

Reward loyal customers – Bit by bit social media is being filled with menus from caterers as well as dessert chefs. However, how many of you have put together a special offer for previous purchasers? Year in and year out you may have customers who always order at Valentine’s or who order cakes and other desserts throughout the year, how are you showing them love this Valentine’s?

Measure success –After your promotion is completed, its vital to measure your success. That
includes your social media metrics, e.g. how many people shared your posts or viewed your content? The metrics you track should be linked to your goals so before you launch your
Valentine’s promotions, you should set the goals you wish to achieve e.g. if you wish to increase your online audience, track follower growth; if you wish to boost website traffic, track profile visits.

Candice Sealey is the Founder & Principal Consultant at Ignite! a Full-service Marketing & PR Consultancy that helps businesses/brands to stand out and communicate the right message to the right people at the right time through Strategy, Marketing, Media services and Design solutions. She is also a freelance content writer, advertising copywriter, voice over talent, media personality. Follow us on FB & IG @igniteresults Phone:784-432-2223. Email: igniteresults@gmail.com