Labeled as one of the Hallmark holidays, Valentine’s Day cards actually got started in England in the 18th century – long before the American greeting card company offered its first Valentine’s Day card in 1913. Nowadays, like most modern holidays, Valentine’s has morphed from a day to send sentiments to your true love to offering businesses and organizations many opportunities to raise brand awareness and boost sales (during what could be a slow time of the year).

As customers open hearts and wallets for loved ones, leveraging social media to promote holidays has proven to be a success. Holidays provide creative, business minds a venue to deliver added value to customers, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to get a good return on investment for your business… but timing is everything.

Delivering value

Creating Valentine’s Day coupons, offering free downloads, informing social media users of the best places to eat out or letting them in on hidden romantic getaways are all great ways to deliver value to your customers. Holidays can also be a perfect time to launch new products or services. Delivering something new on a holiday gives users another reason to visit your website. By using strong, seasonal calls to action for a launch, businesses encourage users to spread their message during times of the year when sharing and giving is more common place. 

But, it should also be about the fun! Contests during holidays can generate greater than usual audience engagement. By running contests like knowgifts.com’s the “cutest couple” retailers are able to build business and at the same time engage their audience. To make the most of your contest, run it on your most popular social media channels and encourage participant sharing and implement a public voting scheme.

Holidays like Valentine’s Day don’t only have to be about sales and marketing. If you lack the creativity or time to pull off an epic promotion, you still have a wonderful chance to greet or say thank you to your audience and customers for their loyalty. Doing this, you are bound to get a positive response from your followers.

So, from all of us at ZN, may you have a cozy and relaxing Valentine’s Day tomorrow!