With the famous (and very commercial) Valentine’s Day just around the corner for the romantics among us, I decided to write this timely post to reflect on how to make our community of followers fall in love with heartwarming content.
As far-fetched as it may seem to some, any reason is a good reason to attract users with advertising. In fact, we consumers are often the ones waiting for these ads so we can make our buying decisions.
“Special dates usually bring a wave of campaigns and commercial practices created for the occasion.”
Valentine’s Day is precisely one of those perfect times of year to apply attraction techniques in email marketing and, in doing so, make our subscribers fall in love and build their loyalty.
Want to know how? In this article, I’ll show you how to bring out your brand’s romantic side on special dates with email marketing. Specifically, we’ll look at:
- How to plan your sends so your campaigns and promotions arrive in time for Valentine’s Day (what you should do before, during and after).
- Romantic ideas for your mailings, from original designs to offers that will fly off the shelves and themed content that will stir up passion.
We’ve already looked at how to plan a newsletter campaign.
That video may also be useful before you keep reading this post.
Here, we’ll focus on the email strategy for Valentine’s Day campaigns:
History and meaning of Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day began as a Roman festival called Lupercalia, which marked the start of spring with fertility rituals.
Over time, the Catholic Church turned this pagan celebration into a Christian feast in honor of Saint Valentine, a martyr associated with romantic love.
Over the centuries, Valentine’s Day has become a global date for celebrating love, taking on different forms and traditions across cultures.
Today, it is both a day of cultural significance and a major commercial occasion, focused on expressions of love and affection.
Valentine’s Day consumer trends
On Valentine’s Day, consumer trends show a clear preference for classic gifts such as flowers and chocolates.
According to the latest statistics, these categories lead sales, closely followed by jewelry and romantic dinners.
Average spending on gifts has risen significantly in recent years, reflecting not only the commercial value of this date but also its emotional value.
Online shopping has grown in popularity, making it easier to send gifts from a distance.
Trends also vary by region and demographic group, with growing interest in personalized experiences and sustainable gifts.
This diversity in consumer preferences highlights how Valentine’s Day has evolved into a holiday that goes beyond the conventional to embrace a wider range of expressions of love and affection.
How to plan your Valentine’s Day email sends
As I was saying, if you want to take advantage of this date to launch a special campaign, the first thing you need to do is plan it carefully. It’s not about sending a mailing on Valentine’s Day and seeing how it goes, but about working to a strategy.
That’s why you should prepare the ground in advance, so you can gauge the Valentine’s Day buying mood and intent of the users signed up to your subscriber database.
“A campaign without proper planning clearly looks rushed and gives any business a poor brand image. That’s why any effort and dedication is well worth it.”
1st send: before Valentine’s Day
I think this first step is more than necessary, since it’s your first point of contact. Bear in mind that your community may not be into this kind of holiday, and running a campaign just for Valentine’s Day could be wasted effort.
The perfect time for this send is 7 to 10 days before the date. With this lead time, you can test how well your subscribers receive the themed promotions or offers you want to launch and how interested they are, keep them informed of the dates of each event, and build some anticipation for new exclusive content.
Believe me, that’s the only way to spark some desire in your users so that, when the time comes, they’re much more receptive to your proposals and sales messages.
2nd send: on Valentine’s Day
Once your subscribers know about the campaign and everything you can offer them during these days, it’s time to keep your guard up: don’t let them forget you, and make sure you wish everyone a happy Valentine’s Day. Even if it feels a bit awkward at first, everyone loves a sweet gesture!
As well as sending your wishes, you can take the opportunity to:
- Send a reminder (what you’re offering and for how long).
- Offer a discount or exclusive content (for a limited time).
- Invite them to take some other action (leads for future campaigns).
3rd send: after Valentine’s Day
This final send is no less important just because it’s the last one. On the contrary, it’s vital for any kind of special mailing campaign.
However, many brands and online businesses tend to overlook it, missing the chance to learn such revealing data as:
- Satisfaction level: It tells you what users think of the marketing campaign you ran. For example, in your third send after the Valentine’s Day campaign, you can offer them a satisfaction survey, keep the email channel open so they can send you their replies, or encourage them to share their opinions on social media.
- Engagement level: Users like a personal, special touch, so a final send asking about their satisfaction can make them feel valued by a brand. If that’s not the case, your community’s relationship with your brand may not be very strong yet.
- Other conclusive statistics: With the data you gather from this third send, you can carry out an in-depth analysis of how the newsletter campaign performed as a whole. This will help you learn and keep improving for future campaigns.
In the message of your final post-Valentine’s Day send, you can:
- Send one last reminder (final hours before your offer ends).
- Give a preview of upcoming events, promotions or content.
- Promote a related product or service.
Romantic ideas your subscribers will love
Now that you know these 3 simple steps, planning the sends for your Valentine’s Day mailing campaign will surely feel much more manageable. Now it’s time to turn the theory into an action plan.
But before you draw up your own plan, I recommend giving free rein to your creativity and jotting down different ideas to give your mailings a different touch.
Personally, I find dates like Christmas or Valentine’s Day really inspiring, because our society has certain visual stereotypes that we see all the time. Here are some of my favorite ideas for your mailings.
· Romantic design
We all know the most common visual elements of Valentine’s Day, right? That’s right, hearts!
For decades, romantic love has been represented visually with red or pink hearts. Be careful, though: although this kind of love takes center stage on Valentine’s Day, other kinds are celebrated too, such as family love or friendship.
So if you want to be a bit more original than most brands, I recommend that, if you use the typical heart as your main element, you combine it with other elements such as flowers or a cute animal.
There’s no way around it. If you want a design for your mailings that is both romantic and different, the best thing to do is look for different ways to express these feelings.
A good example is this design by Llao Llao, where you can make out hearts in the background thanks to the overlapping flower petals. It’s subtle and makes you think of Valentine’s Day, but it isn’t obvious or clichéd.
· Offers and promotions that fly off the shelves
This kind of mailing campaign isn’t just about connecting with your users on a special date. They’ll expect you to offer them something of real value.
Remember: if you don’t, your competitors will, and users will find the buying decision very easy.
The idea here is to take advantage, occasionally (not frequently), of the days with the highest shopping volume by creating desire and urgency; if you’re going to offer them the same thing they can get any other day of the year, you won’t catch their attention.
This urgency should come across in your email, the way MediaMarkt achieves it with messages as direct as this one:
· Themed content
If you work with a content marketing strategy, you should also stay true to it on promotional dates. So, as always, focus on valuable content infused with your brand identity.
That said, there are some general ideas you can also apply to your strategy during these dates, such as:
- Valentine’s Day content formats (gifts, special places, etc.).
- Tutorials on giving a product a themed twist.
- Content about the history and tradition of Valentine’s Day.
- Relevant current news.
- Image galleries with a direct link.
Which type of content you use will depend on your business, the strategy you follow, and what your users like and what you usually create for them.
· Valentine’s Day vocabulary
Obviously, there’s also a certain vocabulary associated with this date. Words we all use, and that you can see throughout this article.
Verbs such as love, adore, fall in love or desire are used… All those that have to do with romantic love and can be extended to other uses.
For example, we all understand that “Want to make your customers fall in love?” is used to grab users’ attention when talking about how to surprise them and build their loyalty with your marketing strategy.
Then there are nouns, adverbs and adjectives of all kinds on the same theme: love, romance, romantic, lovers, couple, relationship, etc. Words that will help you reinforce your message on a special day.
· Colors and images that make people fall in love
The Valentine’s Day color par excellence is red because of what it signifies (it activates the pituitary gland, which is why we associate it with passion and excitement), but it isn’t the only one. Pink, purple, maroon and different combinations along these lines are also widely used.
That said, whatever you do, don’t send an email overloaded with red elements if your brand color is, say, orange. It could be a terrible mix!
Remember that there are other options that let you keep your corporate image. For example, you can use red more sparingly (in small elements and thumbnails) or simply choose other elements such as:
- Puzzles: They represent the bond between two people.
- Couples: For obvious reasons.
- Sweets: They’re one of the main gifts on this date.
- Flowers: Closely associated with Valentine’s Day, like hearts.
- Landscapes: They represent the future of a relationship.
- Other romantic elements: Candles, movie theaters, dinners, etc.
· Calls to action that stir up passion
This isn’t something exclusive to Valentine’s Day mailings; in fact, you should never leave it out of any kind of send. Calls to action should always be present in your emails to guide readers toward the steps you want them to take.
Include them in this campaign too to get the leads or conversions you’re looking for.
Using the vocabulary and visual elements we’ve discussed is a way to reinforce the spirit of the date and attract users in an original, eye-catching way.
Conclusion
Valentine’s Day is a date with high commercial potential for most industries. In fact, if your business is related to fashion or jewelry, you surely know how much this date affects your sales.
However, they’re not the only ones who benefit from this day. If what you offer is services, it’s also very likely that a good marketing campaign will boost your sales. And if what you want is to offer content, your visits can increase with a good action plan.
This is a time when users are more receptive to marketing campaigns, so I encourage you to apply some of the mailing ideas I’ve shared with you in this article 🙂
Do you usually run mailing campaigns for specific dates like Valentine’s Day? What results do you get from sending these emails?
