Valentine's Day Guide for SMS Marketing

The most romantic day of the year is just around the corner, and this is a perfect opportunity for you as an e-commerce owner to increase sales after a slow month of January.

Did you know that SMS is one of the best ways to engage your customers for Valentine's Day? SMS has an average 97% open rate, and the conversion rate absolutely amazing if done correctly.

During Valentine's Day, however, there are endless marketing efforts and promotions from other companies flooding your customer's inboxes, so it's important that your campaigns stand out from the crowd in order to leave an impression.

So get ready! Today we are going to take a look at some smart ideas for creating unique campaigns that generate profit and build long-term customer relationships.

Where does Valentine's Day come from?

The origin is often debated, but many claim that it comes from the saint "Valentine" who defied the emperor Claudius II by secretly marrying young love couples, which was illegal under Claudius' rule.

However, Valentine's Day did not become popular until the Middle Ages, when love letters began to rise in popularity. Thanks to developments in printing technology, Valentine's Day quickly became a phenomenon that spread around the world.

Things to keep in mind for your Valentine's Day SMS marketing

Before we dive into our Valentine's Day SMS marketing tips...

You should first go through this checklist to make sure you get as many customers as you can to your subscriber list and create custom SMS marketing campaigns that convert.

Emotions & Behavior

Valentine's day is a very special day where we celebrate love, whether it is romantic or in some other form. Partners, couples, friends, and family are all involved in the celebration.

So when planning your campaign, tone and offer; Remember that emotions are the deciding factor. Focusing on facts will not help your customers buy.

Audit your target audience and try to customize your message as best you can. And try to not leave anyone out!

Creating campaigns for married couples, friends, family and partners is a good idea and covers your entire customer base. This is also a great opportunity to tailor the highlighted products depending on the customer.

Of course, Valentine's Day is just one day, but your marketing campaign does not have to be! Read on and we will go through how to best prepare for the day.

Plan your campaigns

Google searches for Valentine's Day often take place as early as January, and increase gradually until February 14th.

You can start marketing for Valentine's Day in mid/late January. This way, your customers will have plenty of time to make a purchase. Keep in mind that most purchases are made the week before Valentine's Day, so it is important to gradually increase the frequency of your marketing efforts leading up to the day.

Personalization and choices

Keeping the same product/offer, you can add your valentines touch with personalized valentines day cards or gift boxes.

A handwritten Valentine's day card or a matching gift box goes a long way in building customer relationships. Review how you can best do "the little extra" to create customers who come back regularly.

Imagine receiving a handwritten card whenever you order something online... Now that's a personal touch!

Different campaigns for different customers

Many people boycott Valentine's Day because they feel left out or because it can trigger feelings about what they may personally miss.

While it's good to segment your audiences and customize offers for relevance, think about how you can also include as many audiences as possible. Many customers are happy to spread love to all their loved ones, not only romantic partners.

Ask yourself: How can you change your offer and include new customers while also helping these customers feel that they too can participate?

5 loving ideas for Valentine's day

Although many of your regular SMS campaigns will work well on Valentine's Day, it never hurts to get a little more creative!

Here are 5 unique marketing ideas for text messaging to get your Valentine's Day campaigns soaring!

1. Gift card

Many people completely forget about buying their gifts, and realize it too late.

A gift card gives you a product that can always be appreciated and delivered directly without any shipping time. A win-win for you, the customer and the recipient of the gift card.

2. Galentines

In order for everyone to be able to celebrate a day that is traditionally only for couples, it has now branched out to "Galentines".

Galentines is a day where women celebrate other women. It typically revolves around single women celebrating other single women as a community.

Customize your offers according to sisterhood and platonic love. Then segment your customer list to create a Galentines segment.

Gift guides and discounts work well here too. You can use any of these tips and apply it to Galentine's day as well!

Just remember that Galentines Day falls on February 13th, a day before Valentine's Day.

3. Emojis & Themes

Take the opportunity to use emojis and customize your landing pages and opt-in forms.

Colours, flowers and hearts are a hit on Valentine's Day, so be sure to use it to its full potential.❤️ 

4. 2-for-1 romantic deals

Imagine how happy all couples are when they receive two gifts for the price of one!

This is a really great offer when you need to clear some items from your stock, or sell something with a profit that has a high margin, or create more awareness for your product and brand.

5. Avoid Bad Valentine's Day Gifts

What is the worst possible fear for most customers on Valentine's Day?

In addition to forgetting to buy a gift entirely, it is of course to give a loved one a gift that they hate! Use this fear (and our tendency to wait until the last minute) to encourage customers to act quickly.

6. Self-love romance

One of the most difficult relationships in our lives is the relationship we have with ourselves.

Valentine's day can be a day to love others, but it can also be a time to evaluate and reflect on how we feel about ourselves. Help consumers raise their self-esteem by inviting them to share personal affirmations, motivational photos and songs, selfies or personal successes to help themselves and others better during a day that can often cause the opposite.

7. Love

Finally, create specialized gift guides for all the different loves that customers have in their lives.

A gift for a romantic partner, for family members, for your best work buddy, these guides are easy shortcuts for those who don't want to do their own research or are looking for a quick last-minute gift to buy.

Happy Valentine's Day to you! We hope you enjoy the tips and tricks for this year.

By having an overall picture of your website, your SMS, your emails and your sign-up form and adapting it for this loving holiday, you are guaranteed to see a big increase in your sales and the number of new customers on your SMS list.

With Jojka, you also have the opportunity to segment better, personalize mailings and track sales.