How To Create Valentines-Specific Marketing Strategies
According to Forbes, the expectedconsumer spending for Valentine’s Day in the U.S. in 2018 is $143.56, with thetop spending category being jewelry at $4.7b, and an evening out coming at aclose second at $3.7b. With love being a multi-billion industry, it pays to createa good seasonal content marketing strategy. Here are some tips to generate buzzfor your brand on this romantic day.
Involve the consumers
Eliciting consumer engagement can bedone through user generated content. Take United Airines for instance. Their‘Love in the Air’ campaign saw customers sharing heartfelt stories about howthey fell in love while traveling. The winning couple then received roundtriptickets to anywhere in America. This promotion aptly tapped on the spirit oflove while directly relating it back to the company’s offerings.
Tiffany & Co, on the other hand, created a The Tiffany Tattoo Shop campaign in 2018 which lets customersselect and personalize a tattoo-inspired sticker for Instagram posts, with ahashtag ‘#BelieveInLove’. On top of having a collection of brandeduser content, customers also got to interact with the brand on a more personallevel.
Don’tforget the singles
Alienating this segment of consumers isunwise. While all the spotlight is shone on couples, the singles representuntapped potential.
The Body Shop’s Instagram contestencouraged followers to post photos of themselves blowing a kiss to a friendwith the hashtag ‘#SendingAKiss’. The winner then walks away with newly releasedlip balms for themselves and their “Galentine’s.”. This allowed the company toreach new and relevant audience.
NinaRicci focused on independent women through their #MyBestValentine campaign.Recognising the social pressures for women to find a date, the company featureduser-submitted photos and videos showing best friends with their perfumes ontheir social media channels.
Show love to a charity
Oneway for your brand to reach out to both couples and singles would be tocommunicate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts to the audience.Valentines’ Day is not just a day to show love to your significant other or afriend. This care and concern can be extended to the disenfranchised. Macy’s,for example, worked with Go Red For Women and donated $2 for each imageuploaded on Valentine’s Day. To further engage the audience, CSR efforts can bepublicized on social networking sites online, as well as posters in-store.
Blast content on all channels
Anomni-channel strategy can allow your brand to capture more attention acrossvarious social media platforms. If you have a brand presence in a variety ofsocial media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, Vine andmore, make full use of it to reach out to different groups of fans. Be sure tomake small tweaks and repurpose the content accordingly such that it adds valueto fans who are subscribed to more than one channel.
Go big on emotions
Thereare a lot of ways to tell a story about love through social media. Google, forone, cleverly told a romantic story through a Google search bar with popularsearch items from users. The relatable nature of such content makes it a hitwith viewers.
eHarmonygot kids to talk about what Valentines’ Day means to them to filter out love toits core. The kids can then create their own adorable Valentines’ Day card tosend it to their loved ones online. Such heartwarming and creative means ofstorytelling can serve as an inspiration for your brand to work on somethingsimilar.
Rememberthat Valentines’ is also about heart breaks
Many marketers shy away from the ugly side ofValentines’ Day- break ups. However, a well executed and well thought outcampaign can bring out the potential of this undertapped story angle.
T-mobile’s refreshing break up letter letter campaignurged fans to tell their mobile phone companies why they will switch toT-mobile. Not only were fans engaged by this witty campaign, T-mobile also gotto hear invaluable consumer insights about what they love and hate. This is agreat example of how companies can conduct a simple market research to find outabout consumers’ pain points through the power of social media.
Makegift giving a breeze
Consumers may have a headache brainstorming gifts toget for their significant other or loved ones during this period. Leverage onthis opportunity by making life easier for unsure consumers. Craft a gift guidewith various budgets catered for your target segment. It can be an SGD100budget for alcoholics, or an SGD50 budget for dog lovers, whatever it is justbe sure to make the gift guide specific enough. To complement that, you caneven do up a series of gift-buying or gift-making articles and videos. Be sureto include links to the products so that interested consumers can access thepurchase easily.
Dosome housekeeping
Valentines’ Day is very close to the Chinese New Year. Assuch, be sure to create the correct festive spirit on your online and offlinepresence. Set a reminder to change the landing pages, banner, profile image,header and store decorations accordingly. Having a unified look and staying onthe ball will help your brand to fully capitalise on the shopping frenzy. Youmay also want to provide additional complimentary services such as free giftwrapping for the lazy, free express shipping for last minute shoppers, andmore.
Conclusion
Creatinga deep connection between your brand and your audience lies at the core of agood Valentine’s day marketing strategy.
(By Vanessa Ng)
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