Valentine’s Day is exactly one week from today. Some of us think that Valentine’s Day was created several decades ago by Hallmark. This is not true. While it’s true that Valentine’s Day is a made up holiday. It’s not true that Hallmark, the candy industry, or flower companies had anything to do with it.
The exact origins of the holiday are a little sketchy. It was named after three religious men all named Valentine. Each of whom were martyred on February 14th. How they are connected to love, heart shaped candy and red roses is anyone’s guess.
No matter what the origins are of Valentine’s Day, its marketing power is undeniable. Besides Christmas, Valentine’s Day is the second biggest gift giving holiday of the year. According to the National Retailers Federation we are expected to spend $15.7 billion dollars this year on Valentine’s Day merchandise and gifts.
That kind money buys a lot of chocolates and flowers. As a business owner I want a piece of that $15 billion pie. In fact all business owners should harness the marketing power of any and all holidays to their advantage. Christmas may be the biggest and most profitable but it is not the only one. There are in fact hundreds of holidays marketers can make a profit off of. This month alone there is:
* Groundhog Day
* Valentine’s Day
* President’s Day
* Black History Month
* The Superbowl
* Mardi Gras
Each of these represents an opportunity you should be taking advantage of. First off, use the holiday as a way to make your promotions and content relevant. Using current events and timely subject matter is a way to get customers to read and open your mail. Include email subject lines and promotional headlines that have to do with an upcoming event. You can say something like, “Free Shipping Now until Valentine’s Day,” or “The Perfect Gift for Valentine’s Day.” Relevancy really drives response.
Using the name of the holiday or upcoming event can work exceptionally well when you are trying to attract traffic. Use the relevancy of the holiday or current event as a jumping off point to sell your products and/or services. For example, A panda born at the zoo, can be the subject line or headline for a keyword-rich article about pet insurance or pet merchandise. An article talking about how the teams played in The Superbowl yesterday can be the opening paragraph for an article or promotion about travel to the Dallas, Texas area or used as a hook to talk about health insurance. The point is to use these events as a means to draw in customers to your business.
In addition, use holidays and current events to offer sales to your customers. Everyone from big car companies to small businesses like myself use holidays as an excuse to hold a sale. It’s a gimmick, but one that’s proven to work.
Holding a sale though doesn’t automatically mean you need to discount your products and/or services. You’d be best to offer a range of promotions. What works for one customer won’t be enough to get all customers to buy. Offer a range of promotions that speak to different customers. For one customer, free shipping will be enough to entice them to buy. For another it might be the allure of the percentage discount. Try a different promotional discount every couple of days and track which pulls in a better response rate. Test and re-test these statistics in future holiday promotions.
If you don’t sell products or services that are traditionally given as gifts during a holiday you might be thinking this information is not for you. That is not true. While you might not be able to hold a sale you will be able to increase your brand awareness and increase exposure. Some years ago I heard a story about a radio station that held a Valentine’s Day contest for its listeners. The grand prize was a $250 gift card to Morton’s Steak House and a one night stay at a Ritz-Carlton hotel. To win participants had to find an intern that the stations DJ’s had locked in the trunk of a car somewhere in the city. Occasionally they would let the intern out so he could describe the area he was at and give clues to his whereabouts. This was a brilliant marketing effort on the radio stations part and it was a major success.
Things like this may not make your business a whole lot of immediate money, but they will exponentially increase awareness and exposure of your company. The main point of gimmicks like this is to create a favorable brand image and keep your name on everyone’s lips. Come up with your own unique twists to get customers excited and aware of what your company has to offer.
Remember that there are many holidays out there you can use to your advantage. Don’t get stuck on just the top tier ones like Christmas, Thanksgiving, July 4th and so on. The second tier holidays can be just as huge of a draw for your business. Use these events to attract interest from new customers and to keep your company’s name on the lips of existing ones.
Until next time…
Ethan Warrick
Editor & CEO
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