Valentine’s Day has been for years an opportunity for online stores to attract more customers and generate additional revenue over a normal period of the year. But to be more effective, in an increasingly competitive market, the stores need to build intelligent online campaigns to attract as many customers as possible.
Gun Media, an online marketing agency in Romania, focusing on performance campaigns (PPC, SEO & Social Media), has drawn up a list of things that should not be missed from Valentine’s Day sales campaigns.
“Properly implemented, an online marketing campaign dedicated to this period may add 10-15 percent more sales than a normal month. Obviously, the results of such a campaign vary according to the budget and effort of each company,” says Robert Trandafir, founder of Gun Media.
How To Get Effective In Love With Social Media
Social networks have become true sales generators in recent years, so they should not be excluded in any way from any sales strategy, no matter the occasion. According to specialists from the Gun Media social media department, it is imperative that banners are suggestive of the promoted product or service. Further, a dedicated and personalized landing page is needed with Valentine’s Day promotions, all in a concept that combines product or service with Valentine’s Day. It is also very important to allocate a budget dedicated to this campaign.
Key messages and texts need to be as creative as possible, depending on the audience you are targeting. It is important to create specific messages for both women and men, but also according to age segments.
Reengage users who have already visited your site, submit your campaign, and special discounts during this time. Facebook can help you target people who have the “Engaged” status, and this can be beneficial to your campaign results.
Gun Media specialists recommend awarding prizes. You don’t need any more than small Facebook contests where users interact with the page, get involved in your actions and then get rewarded.
Google campaigns can bring significant revenue into sales
Google Ads specialists recommend selecting products that are closest to the theme of love. This is a valid tip for any type of store. For example, even a sanitary ware shop can take advantage of offering reductions in hydromassage baths at this time. If they do not have matching products, they can bid 1 + 1. Buy a bath and get another product for free.
In terms of targeting, specialists recommend a high emphasis on young people under 35 for Valentine’s Day, and for Dragobete they can raise the age limit.
From a technical point of view, a Google campaign requires:
- Landing page dedicated to the promotion divided into 3 categories: “Gifts for Her”, “Gifts for Him”, “Young Gifts”;
- Promotion signage on the site’s home page (via a banner);
- Banner set for Google campaigns.
In Romania, interest in Valentine’s Day begins to grow on February 10
Search engine optimization is another component that should not be missed in any campaign. Gun Media specialists recommend retailers to use Google Trends to get the best out of the Valentine’s Day campaign. From Gun Media analyses, customer interest in Romania starts to rise on February 10th.
Website optimization for mobile is essential, especially in terms of user experience and page loading speed. Photos and videos must be compressed to load faster. At the same time, adding keywords to your photo elements and tags is recommended.
The landing page must be thematic. It is necessary to prepare a special page for Valentine’s Day products in which only the meta tags for this year should be changed from 2018 in 2019.
A very important tip is that the campaign year should not be added to the URL if retailers want to take advantage of Google’s indexation next year. I can have a landing page like “www.siteulmeu.ro/promotii-valentines-day”. From the technical point of view, the server on which the site is hosted must be able to withstand high traffic for that period.
Last but not least, the page should not be deleted after the end of the campaign, with an important role for the next year as well. Stores will have an edge over competitors who will create new pages.