By Kelsey Jones

The annual holiday of love is fast approaching, and for many people, finding the right Valentine’s Day gift for their family members or significant other to express their affection is fast becoming more crucial. For marketer and advertisers, the Valentine’s Day gift, floral, and greeting card traditions make it worthwhile to offer special discounts and products.

Because they are looking for one another, whether someone is a consumer looking for the perfect gift ideas, or a marketer, wanting to promote their company’s products and services, finding the best place to find and advertise Valentine’s Day gifts can usually be found in the same places.

Search Engines

This is usually a good place that consumers are going to look first. Current top Valentine’s Day searches include:

  • Valentine ideas / ideas for Valentines – 450,000 monthly searches each in the United States
  • Ideas for Valentine’s Day / Valentine’s Day ideas – 368,000 monthly searches each in the United States
  • Valentine’s Day gift – 246,000 monthly searches in the United States
  • Valentine’s Day gift ideas – 201,000 monthly searches in the United States

Monopolizing on this traffic by making Valentine’s Day sales and products available by companies will both help the search user find a gift that’s perfect for their intended recipient, and can help drive and increase online Valentine’s Day e-commerce sales. Besides running paid search advertising campaigns (PPC), retailers could also publish blog posts advertising their Valentine’s Day products and gift ideas, which is fresh content that can help the site get picked up by the search engines.

Blogs

Because blogs have regularly relevant and updated content, they also appear high in search results. Companies can reach out to popular bloggers to hold giveaways, custom coupon codes, and product reviews for the products and services that they want to promote during Valentine’s Day. Bloggers and their readers will appreciate the free products and the information on a product they may have not otherwise been exposed to.

Social Media

Social media sites can also be a good way to advertise Valentine’s Day gift ideas, either through wall posts or custom tabs on a company’s Facebook page. A custom tab could offer an exclusive coupon code (which can also be advertised through the company’s Twitter account). A good way to combine product promotion and social media is to get customers involved. Ask them to post a video of their favorite Valentine’s Day memory or the story of how they met their significant other. The best video (as chosen by other social media users) could get an all-expense paid vacation for two. Hosting giveaways give people the initiative to check out a brand’s online community and possibly use their products if that is a requirement of the contest entry (e.g. “Tell us which Valentine’s Day treat you made with one of our baking products to win an All-Expense Paid Trip to Paris”).

 

The bottom line is, customers are looking for ideas, not necessarily specific products. Companies can help customers fulfill this request by offering ideas that may include their products (e.g. Dove Soap could say  “Create a custom gift basket with spa products like Dove soap, facial masks, and body scrubs”).

To learn more about Valentine’s Day internet marketing, check out these resources:

 

This post was sponsored by Auction-Hunters.com, an online educational site about bidding at self storage auctions.

Kelsey Jones

Kelsey Jones

Founder/Chief Marketing Consultant at Six Stories
Kelsey Jones helps clients around the world grow their social media, content, and search marketing presence. She enjoys writing and consuming all kinds of content, both in digital and tattered paperback form.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones