Table of contents
Valentine’s Day presents the perfect opportunity for businesses to kick-start the year on a high. It’s the first event of the year for many and can be a chance to build and expand your customer base. For Valentine’s Day 2021, £926 million was spent in the UK – so it may be worthwhile to rethink your business marketing ideas for Valentine’s Day 2024 to ensure your business capitalises on the upcoming occasion.
We’re going to reveal some key things you can do to boost your business around Valentine’s Day and Galentine’s Day including social media marketing, promotional sale strategies, and more.
Promote gift cards as the perfect present
Offering gift cards for Valentine’s Day is a great incentive to encourage purchases. If the gift giver knows someone loves a brand and store, but is unsure what they would want, a gift card is an ideal choice. Highlighting consumer demand, the GlobalData and UKGCVA found that the UK gift card market, was worth just under £7 billion in 2021.
Make sure people know you offer gift cards by shouting about them on social media, in store and online. Use pop ups and banners to show consumers how they can purchase gift cards and what they can be used for. You can even offer incentives, such as a free gift with every gift card bought.
When offering a gift card for a special occasion, like Valentine’s Day, don’t be afraid to get creative and add a design to suit the event. Gift card ideas for Valentine’s gift cards include:
- Fun and flirtatious messaging such as Be Mine!
- Themed pictures and colours, perhaps using heart graphics and colours like red and pink
With Square you can easily set up gift cards in just a few clicks. Choose from physical and digital gift cards and track and reload when necessary. So business owners can easily track where a gift card has been spent, and conveniently reload a gift card with a new balance any time.
Double Valentine business by celebrating Galentine’s Day
Galentine’s Day (Valentine’s Day for groups of girls) has been a thing since 2010, when season two of Parks and Recreation featured an episode titled “Galentine’s Day”. Celebrated on 13th February, it’s an opportunity for pals to get together and celebrate – you don’t have to be single to celebrate either – it’s all about women appreciating the amazing women in their lives.
Galentine’s Day gives businesses an extra day to promote the theme of gift giving. Businesses can use this as an opportunity to promote its products, services and more.
Some ideas on how to take advantage of Galentine’s Day include:
- Buy one get one free (BOGOF) deals. Whether it’s a treatment like a manicure or personalised cupcakes – Galentine’s is a special day for celebrating friendship, so BOGOF offers promote that social aspect.
- Create a discount code for the occasion. “Get ready to celebrate Galentine’s Day with 20% off!” You can even offer a great discount for those who share their unique code with their friends.
- Promote themed content on social media early and regularly – for instance, you could showcase female colleagues talking about who they’ll be celebrating this Galentine’s Day.
Spread the love on social media
Social media is a vital tool for your business. With a range of free platforms to choose from, you can reach new potential customers as well as encouraging engagement from existing customers. Ways to generate traffic and engagement to your social media channels include:
- Running polls
- Sharing reviews
- Promoting offers
- Social media giveaways
- Creating shareable content
- Using relevant hashtags to increase visibility, such as #ValentinesDay #BeMine #GalentinesDay
When using social media, it’s a good idea to look at trends. If using Instagram, for example, you need to create Stories and Reels to get seen. Over 500 million people use Stories every day, while Reels also generate millions of views.
To create an eye-catching, entertaining Reel, you should use trending sounds where possible. Visit the Reels tab on the app and look out for the arrow in the bottom left corner – this arrow means it’s a trend.
Shout about your new products and offers
Remember, your customers aren’t going to know about your new products and offerings unless you shout about them. To build up anticipation for the big day amongst your target audience, you should aim to plan content and post regularly on social media. You don’t always need to be sharing your products and can instead post witty quotes, inspiration and more – it will all help to boost your brand’s visibility.
Focus your efforts on promoting any seasonal products that are only going to be available for a limited time. The trick to getting these seen is to build up some anticipation among your customers by posting in advance. So when it comes to your Valentine’s Day business ideas, these should be planned in December, and teased on social media, in store and online throughout January. Promoting should then be ramped up in the first week of February – it’s never too early to start planning.
You can use Square Marketing to update customers of promotions. And the Square Photo Studio also allows you to quickly upload new products for sale to your online store.
Get prepared for Valentine’s bookings
While February may be the month of love, it’s also a very busy period for hair and beauty businesses. After all, a Valentine’s date night wouldn’t be complete without a fresh trim or trip to the beauticians! To help your business prepare for this busy time of year here are some simple steps to help you manage those all-important Valentine’s Day bookings:
Add decorations to your store to set the mood.
Entice foot traffic by displaying promotions at the front of your store.
Invest in a quality appointment software like Square’s Appointments to help you manage your pre-Valentine’s beauty bookings.
Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity for businesses to boost their sales and traffic at the start of the year, especially after the January blues. Use our handy tips to make the most of this upcoming Valentine’s Day.
With Square, small business owners are equipped with the essential tools they need, from promotions to booking management. More helpful guides and how-tos can be found on our Townsquare blog.
