Valentine’s Day dominates the retail calendar in February, driving more than $18 billion in consumer purchases in the United States alone, including, by some accounts, $5.4 billion in ecommerce sales.
Valentine’s Day spending often includes dinner out, movie tickets, and flowers. But there is still plenty of opportunity for online retailers. The challenge is in how to attract those purchases. One solution is content marketing.
In February, produce and distribute content — articles, videos, podcasts, and similar — to attract, engage, and retain customers. When you give shoppers valuable content that is useful, informative, or entertaining, many will reciprocate with purchases and loyalty.
This reciprocation is, in fact, why content marketing can be so effective. Your company’s useful content helps build a relationship with your customers that may lead to sales.
1. Valentine’s Day: February 14
Valentine’s Day can be a high-pressure holiday for some American shoppers.
Depending on how serious someone’s significant other takes the holiday, a lot has to go almost perfectly on February 14. Content marketers can help folks enjoy the holiday and be a bit less stressed.
Date night on Valentine’s Day can be a big event for some couples. Offer tips and recommendations to help the folks who read or watch your content have an enjoyable evening.
Offer your audience members tips and recommendations that will help them get date night right. Here are a few ideas.
- An apparel retailer might publish a list of suitable restaurants in New York, Chicago, and San Diego, including tips for when to make a reservation, what to order from the menu, and (remember this is an apparel retailer) what to wear.
- An online luggage store could post suggestions for Valentine’s Day vacations. If a shopper lives in Boston, where Valentine’s Day can be a snowy mess, a tip about a getaway to Bermuda will be a welcome read. In 2017, Americans reportedly spent $4.9 billion on Valentine’s getaways.
- A store that sells makeup and perfume could offer suggestions or even tutorials for mood-setting scents, makeup, and hairstyles — helping folks look just right for the big night.
2. Valentine’s Day Gift Guides
Flowers, confectionaries, and greeting cards are certainly the staples of Valentine’s Day gift giving. Many shoppers will at least start with these, but they need not be done giving with just roses and chocolates.
Traditional Valentine’s Day gifts like candy or flowers are a mainstay. But shoppers can buy gifts as diverse as clothing or fishing gear.
For your audience of customers and prospects, publish industry-specific gift-giving guides that help shoppers discover interesting or unique gifts tailored to their partner’s specific interests.
Consider content that makes sense for your business’s products, customers, and industry. An online fishing supply store can publish Valentine’s gift guides for folks who fish. An online vegan grocer should publish gift-giving guides for your vegan sweetheart.
3. Valentine’s Day Facts and History
Content marketers may also be able to attract readers or viewers with historical Valentine’s Day facts or stories.
Every holiday affords content creators the opportunity to describe its origins, meaning, and celebration. These descriptions can make for engaging articles, podcasts, and videos.
The video below from Good Mythical More describes “5 Facts You Don’t Know About Valentine’s Day.” The 8-minute video is pure entertainment. For some retail businesses, it could be an example of just the sort video to create for Valentine’s Day this year.
4. Valentine’s Day Love Stories
While this suggestion may not work for every ecommerce business, there may be an opportunity for some marketers to tell Valentine’s inspired love stories.
Loves stories are at the heart of Valentine’s Day celebrations.
Perhaps start by asking colleagues about some of their favorite love stories. If you discover tales of romance, publish them in an interesting way as an article or video.
Your content marketing goal will be to entertain and, perhaps, inspire your Valentine’s Day audience.
5. Not-Valentine Listicles
Thus far, I’ve devoted this entire article to content marketing ideas for the lover’s holiday. It is now time to branch out.
For February find any topic you can think of that isn’t about Valentine’s Day and create a listicle or list video.
Done all you can with Valentine’s Day? How about content around Groundhog Day?
You could create listicles around popular events and holidays, such as the following.
- Groundhog Day on February 2
- Super Bowl 52 on February 4
- Mardi Gras on February 13
- The Daytona 500 on February 18
- Presidents’ Day on February 19
Possible titles could include posts like these.
- “11 Things That Won’t Happen on Groundhog Day”
- “21 Facts about the Evolution of Groundhog Day”
- “52 Surprising Facts about the Super Bowl”
- “17 Reasons You Must Watch the Super Bowl in 2018”
- “10 Government Secrets Revealed on Presidents’ Day”