Valentine’s Day is less than a month away and already consumers are eagerly in search of the perfect gift for their sweetheart. If you’ve been able to position your company as a supplier of their Valentine’s Day needs, you already know about the boost your company’s sales can receive from this holiday. Did you also know you can use this boost to increase sales year-round? Capitalizing on Valentine’s Day business isn’t hard, but you must start planning for it now to make it happen.
Capturing Valentine’s Day Business Information
When you experience a massive increase in Valentine’s Day business, it’s easy to let your company go into survival mode to simply get out all the orders in time. It’s okay if your business does this because fulfilling your holiday orders is a top priority if you want to avoid upset customers, complaints and refunds. On the other hand, you could reap the benefits for years to come if you can tweak your order fulfillment system in advance of the holiday.
Let’s say your company sells pajamas and you experience an increase in sales each Valentine’s Day as people order your cupid pajama sets. If you can capture just their name and email address, you have enough information to build a successful campaign. Obviously, having a customer database with the capability to analyze buying behaviors could yield best results, but just those two simple pieces of information is enough to build your campaign subscriber lists.
Creating Campaigns for Valentine’s Day Business
Once you have people’s contact information – and their permission to contact them in the future – you can start working on campaigns specifically created for your Valentine’s Day customers. For example, you might email special offers on other holidays or at the change of the seasons that go to these customers. Instead of using your typical newsletter verbiage, you might change it to somehow reference the Valentine’s Day purchase or getting a new gift for their sweetheart.
Cultivating Contacts from Valentine’s Day Business
After the Valentine’s Day madness dies down at your business, you can also use your customers’ contact information – again, along with their permission to contact – to deepen your relationship with these important holiday customers. One idea is to send out a message thanking them for their recent Valentine’s Day purchase and providing them with your customer service information should they have any questions or concerns to discuss. In some cases, it may also be appropriate to send out a message about a new product or service that complements their recent purchase in some way. No one minds getting a thank-you message as long as it doesn’t include a hard sell.
