Valentine's Day 2023: Campaign Strategy [Updated]

Apart from candy shop owners, gift item stores, and florists, should any other business care about planning Valentine’s Day campaign in 2023? After being forced to juggle with masked gatherings, physical isolation, and virtual activities for the past couple of years, are people really in the mood for celebrating love? The statistics clearly prove that they are. Despite the emergence of the Delta COVID-19 variant back in 2021, individuals spent a record $21.8 billion on gifts for friends, partners, and pets on V-Day. Before that, in 2020, when everything was starting to shut down in efforts to control the pandemic, Valentine’s Day spendings of Americans managed to cross $27 billion.

As such, it is safe for eCommerce businesses to expect people to be in the mood for a lot of shopping during the next few days. But before the day arrives, it is vital to have a well-drafted Valentine’s Day campaign in 2023 in place to boost consumer engagement & sales. To ensure the success of your campaign, you must be properly informed about a few things - who your target shoppers are, what they’re planning to buy and how you can convert them into your V-day customers.

Express love with emojis

Make your subject lines creative

Adding excitement to your email subject lines during special events like Valentine's Day is crucial for successful email marketing. Using relevant keywords is essential, however, simply mentioning Valentine's Day won't entice your subscribers to open your emails. Get creative, trigger emotions, and meet your subscribers' needs by incorporating a fun and unique approach in your subject lines.

Work on making your content visually appealing

Valentine's Day presents a unique opportunity for retailers to create a lasting visual impression, especially for businesses selling visually appealing products like fashion brands, restaurants, and jewelry stores. This is the perfect time to showcase potential gifts, special deals, and must-have items to customers. Ensure your social media content is eye-catching and your website is designed to leave a lasting impression on visitors.

Pay attention to personalization

Valentine's Day provides marketers with a seasonal chance to add a personal touch to their customer interactions by using tailored recommendations based on individual preferences and past data, as well as incorporating personalization in email subjects and written content.

Use rewards to attract customer interest

The most effective method for boosting conversions during seasonal marketing is offering customers incentives. This is a time when consumers are ready to purchase, especially if they have a romantic inclination, but they need to be convinced that your product or service is what they need. You can pique their interest by offering a seasonal deal, using visually appealing content, and providing a loyalty reward or customer discount to close the sale. 

Use your campaign to target millennials

It’s true that the pandemic has left many individuals with tight finances. However, these troublesome times have also inspired many to understand the value of connections and relationships. As a lot of people felt the absence of people they cared about, it led to an inclusive Valentine’s Day marketing in 2021. Consumers bought all kinds of gifts including platonic, romantic, and self. According to the statistics collected by BalancingEverything, most of this gift shopping was done by singles and families aged between 25 to 44 years. Therefore, make sure that your marketing campaign is aimed at these individuals, and optimize your content with relevant promotions.

Traditional gifts dominate V-day purchases

Classic gift items such as perfumes, jewellery, lingerie, chocolates, and flowers appear to account for the majority of the gift shopping done on Valentine’s Day. But retailers dealing with clothing, specialty, self-care, and pet gift items can also expect to see some serious engagement this year. That is because plenty of Gen Z and millenials aren’t very fond of overly romantic gift items anymore. The pandemic has brought about a substantial change in the shopping preferences of the younger generation. It is, therefore, important to take these factors into consideration when planning your Valentine’s Day campaign.

Strategies to include in your campaign

• Contests are a great way to garner engagement from your followers and amplify your outreach. Create a contest that requires participants to refer or tag their friends, and include free goodies for the winner.
• Use an interactive campaign for directing the attention of Valentine’s Day shoppers to a new product.
• Plan and create a heartwarming or relatable video featuring your products, like how Panera Bread did for Valentine’s Day.
• Generate and publish gift guides to help your buyers decide what they ought to be purchasing for their loved ones, or even for themselves.

Bonus Info: Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas 2023 To Increase Sales

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