Valentine’s Day email marketing ideas

Over the years, February 14 has proven to be a joyful day for lovers and marketers. For lovers, it’s a day to share gifts and go out for romantic dinners. For marketers, on the other hand, it is a day to increase their email volume and generate significant revenue.

In the United States alone, Valentine’s Day shoppers were expected to spend 24 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Every year, these figures tend to increase and 2023 is no exception. Based on the aforementioned statistics, it is wise to consider how you can jump on the love bandwagon and send a few campaigns before Valentine's Day to increase your sales.

So how can you survive in the heat of inbox chaos and break new records for email marketing revenue when your competitors seize the opportunity and promote their sales too?

These easy-to-execute marketing strategies will help you turn your campaigns into a Valentine's Day conversion powerhouse.

Before we get into discussing some possible campaign ideas, here are our top two tips to keep in mind when planning your campaign(s).

Tip #1 Make a list of Valentine’s Day campaign ideas

Now, you might not have a list of good campaign ideas up your sleeve right now, but after reading this article you will surely have some inspiration to get you started. Therefore, when you’re done doing your research, we recommend documenting your ideas.

Having these ideas before you start will help you determine the purpose of your campaign: are you aiming to sell your products to your customers on Valentine’s Day or are you going to have special offers throughout the month of love? That’s all up to you, but having your ideas laid out will help you answer this question.

Tip #2 Don’t wait until February 14

Don’t wait until February 14! You’re not the only one gunning for your customers to purchase their products, so we would advise you to start your Valentine's Day email marketing well in advance to get the most out of it.

The ideal time to launch your campaign is at least two weeks beforehand. You should start to change the tone and messaging in your emails as Valentine's Day draws near.

Generally speaking, the first few emails you send out should be casual and lighthearted, enticing customers to take advantage of your promotion and finish up their gift-buying with plenty of time to spare. As the clock is ticking down, you should switch to instilling a sense of urgency. You can do this by emphasising how close Valentine's Day is, especially when shipping is taken into account. Another strategy is to use language like "last hours" and "last chance."

While many individuals wait until the last minute to buy gifts, many others will plan their purchases in advance to make sure they give their special someone an unforgettable Valentine's Day.

Campaign ideas that you can use

1. Valentine’s Day gift guide

Creating a Valentine’s Day gift guide is a great way to usher your customers into the festivities of the month of love. You can offer your gift guide through your newsletter campaigns. Gift guides not only increase anticipation but also encourage your customers to consider what the best gifts they could purchase might be.

You could even make their shopping experience easier by categorising your products into genders, relationship statuses, personality traits, price points and themes.

You can consider these categories as inspiration:

• Couple deals: You can have couple-themed discounts and promotions on some of your products.
• Singles: You don’t have to leave the singles out. You can also throw in a special sale for singles to show that they are also appreciated and that they can show themselves some love too.

2. Use testimonials to spread the love

This is the best time to encourage your subscribers to share their love stories and include these testimonials in your newsletter campaign. For example, they can share a short story on how your product made Valentine’s Day special for themselves or their loved one(s) last year. To show your appreciation to your customers, offer special discounts or free gifts to those who shared the best stories. This will encourage most people to participate.

3. Regain your previous customers

Rekindle the love that your ex-customers might have lost for your brand. Win-back email marketing strategies are great to use during the Valentine’s Day hype. Customers who made Valentine's Day purchases last year could appreciate a timely reminder to buy. To increase the sense of urgency, you could even add a countdown timer.

4. Share useful Valentine’s Day resources

It’s always great to position your company as the go-to brand for useful resources. Now’s the best time to do that.

If your company has a successful blog, you can write a few articles on the best gifts to buy this Valentine’s Day, romantic getaway destinations and the best spots to have dinner on Valentine’s Day. Not everyone is that great at coming up with awesome ideas so your subscribers will appreciate you for this.

You can also share DIY videos with some of your creative subscribers. Depending on your type of business, you can link them to your store to purchase some necessary items to make the DIY gifts.

5. Promote your e-gift cards

During this season, many customers worry about making mistakes. You can put them at ease by promoting your e-gift cards. You can even make it special by writing an effective message that your customers can send with it.

What’s next?

It's time to start writing the emails for your Valentine's Day email campaign now that you have a general concept of how it should be created.

You'll need some email templates and subject lines for your emails once you have drafted your email copy. We've compiled a collection of Valentine's Day templates and subject lines so you can get ideas or just copy and paste the ones you like. Be on the lookout for these two articles later this week.