Americans can’t resist buying gifts for their loved ones on Valentine’s Day, spending about $27.4 billion in 2020 alone. When you consider that 78% of consumers say a company’s social media posts make an impact on their purchases, creating content especially for the day of love seems like a no-brainer. But, unless you sell chocolates or wine, how do you know what kind of content you should create?
Luckily, a Valentine’s Day social media campaign doesn’t need to be romance-heavy or overly complicated to be successful. The most effective content should play to your strengths and be consistent with your overall brand messaging. Some ideas to consider include:
- Announcing a new product
- Sharing user-generated content
- Promoting a giveaway
- Highlighting your best-selling products
- Partnering with an influencer or other company
Or, perhaps most importantly, create content that promotes brand awareness so your products and services stay front-of-mind with your audience.
Announce a new product
The average American spends $142 on Valentine’s Day gifts. Use the month of February to announce a new product, or even create a specialty one-off product for eager customers who are actively looking for a special gift. These brands announced new products and made their followers fall in love.
1. Girlfriend collective
Girlfriend Collective came into the market in 2017 and became popular with Gen Z for its sustainably-minded, ethically made athletic wear.
@girlfriend Coming in hot. Scarlet, the new Compressive RIB color is here. #GirlfriendCollective #fyp #activewear ♬ original sound - girlfriend
Why it works: Girlfriend Collective’s video was posted on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Highly visual content is geared for these platforms. The video showcases people who look like the brand’s ideal customers: people of all body types. It also doesn’t hurt that the athletic wear the brand is promoting is the color “Scarlett.”
As a general rule, you should post content on the platform that’s the most relevant for your audience. If you’re an e-commerce or direct-to-consumer brand, you’ll most likely benefit from a visual-heavy platform like TikTok or Instagram that lets you show off the quality of your products.
2. Dylan’s Candy Bar
Dylan’s Candy Bar is a chain of boutique candy shops that supplies the largest selection of candy in the world.
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Why it works: Dylan’s Candy Bar is a natural fit for Valentine's Day: candy and chocolate are the go-to gift ideas for millions of people. Dylan's leaned into tradition by offering a gift basket for customers filled with their best-selling Valentine's Day candies. In the caption, they include a strong call-to-action that prompts followers to tap the link in their bio to buy. Plus, because it's a static image, the content works well on Instagram, a visual-forward platform.
3. Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a long-running publishing house in the U.S., co-founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and his brothers Richard and John. Today, it’s one of the largest English-language publishers in the world and is a subsidiary of Random House.
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Why it works: Penguin Books leaned into the sexy side of the holiday, choosing to highlight a book available for pre-order that talks about the complexity of love, sex, and power. The company used reviews and a brief synopsis of the book in the caption in order to drive demand for the soon-to-be-released book. With space for up to 2,200 characters, Instagram works well for posts that have long captions. In fact, studies show that long-form captions on Instagram tend to see higher engagement.
Share User-Generated Content
The trend toward user-generated content (UGC) has a tremendous impact on a brand’s bottom line. As many as 84% of millennials say UGC has at least some influence on what they decide to buy. To get the most out of UGC, look at posts you’re tagged in, seek out TikTok reviews, or save tweets that highlight positive customer experiences. These are pieces of content gold because they help to cultivate brand trust among your followers. These companies shared UGC from their not-so-secret admirers and, in turn, built more awareness of their brand.
4. Asos
Asos is a British online clothing and beauty brand founded in 2000. They are known for affordable, trendy fashion geared toward millennials and Gen Z customers.
@asos #duet with @asos Best friend picks my ASOS outfit @evie @oliviagraceherring #SayitwithASOS #valentines #ASOSTikTakeover ♬ original sound - asos
Why it works: Because TikTok features in-app tools like duets and stitches, the social media platform is the perfect place for brands to take advantage of user-generated content. In this video, Asos has shared two customers’ reactions to their purchases. This lets Asos’ followers immediately see what it’s like to get a package from the company. The women featured in the video are best friends and call each other their Valentines as they unbox heart-shaped jewelry, pink sweaters, and other Valentine’s Day-focused products.
5. Le Creuset
High-end cookware company Le Creuset is known for its coveted ceramic-coated cast-iron French ovens, pots, and tagines. The company recently saw a surge in younger customers, thanks to their TikTok account featuring bakers and cooks using colorful cookware.
@lecreuset Lots of love for this sweet loaf. #lecreuset #valentinesday #breadbaking #breadtok #sourdoughbread #foodtok #valentinesdayrecipe
: @cottageloaves ♬ Dandelions - The Young Ebenezers
Why it works: User-generated content has become wildly popular on TikTok since the app is user-friendly enough for anyone to be a content creator. Le Creuset uses UGC to its advantage by sharing TikToks other users have posted while using their products. The heart-shaped loaf of bread baked in this video is not only a beautiful recipe, but it also demonstrates the value of a Le Creuset French oven — making it an effective marketing idea for Valentine’s Day.
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6. Bob’s Red Mill
Thanks to its high-quality foods and an array of alternative flours, Bob's Red Mill has become popular among people with restrictive dietary needs. Bob's Red Mill is employee-owned and was founded in the U.S. in 1978.
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Why it works: A major benefit of Bob’s Red Mill is its mindfully created products that are safe for gluten-free and other dietary restrictions. By understanding it’s not always easy to find recipes that cater to dietary needs, Bob’s Red Mill chose to share a video because it shows a home baker using gluten-free flour to bake a Valentine’s Day treat. Viewers see the recipe is successful and that Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour is a good product to purchase.
Promote a Giveaway
Giveaways are particularly desirable because they introduce new customers to your brand. You can ask people who “like” your post to tag a friend, share to their Stories, or interact in any way you prefer. This puts your content in front of more eyes, gives people an incentive to engage with your account, and takes minimal lift for your marketing team — all they need to do is monitor the incoming comments and send a gift to the winner.
7. Winc
Winc is a subscription wine company that delivers to your door. Its branding and marketing are designed to appeal to young consumers just beginning to explore wine. Today, the company is the fastest-growing at-scale winery in the United States.
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Why it works: Winc partnered with a variety of companies to give away an ultimate Valentine’s Day package complete with cookies, flowers, a selection of love stories, and a Winc gift card to use toward wine. Entering the giveaway required users to tag a friend, which generated high demand by making the giveaway competitive and boosted Winc’s profile to a new audience.
8. Cleo
Fintech app Cleo helps young consumers manage their budgets. The company has a massive following among Gen Z, largely thanks to its marketing strategy, which is focused on funny, meme-able, and highly relevant social media content.
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Why it works: Cleo took a non-traditional approach to an Instagram giveaway. Cleo used Instagram Stories to link out to their own website to host the giveaway, bypassing Instagram’s list of contest rules. They saved the Stories to their Highlights until the contest ended.
Highlight your best-selling products
Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to remind your followers about your products or services. That’s because 53% of customers do online research before they decide to purchase a product, and 79% of U.S. consumers have reportedly purchased an item after seeing it on social media. This brand hit the sweet spot with its focus on Valentine’s Day favorites.
9. Milk Bar
Award-winning Milk Bar bakery is the brainchild of Christina Tosi that has become famous for off-the-wall baked goods like Compost Cookies, Cereal Milk soft serve, and Milk Bar pie.
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Why it works: Milk Bar takes Valentine’s Day seriously, offering a slate of specialty goods available in-store or online. This year, Milk Bar used the holiday to bring back crowd-favorites, like red velvet cheesecake and red velvet truffles. The company knows there’s a massive demand for these products, so they used the caption to spark interest and give instructions on how to shop.
Partner with influencers or other companies
Influencer marketing has seen steady growth over the past five years, rising from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $13.8 billion in 2021. Even more, for every $1 marketers spend on influencers, they see $6.50. This makes a strong case to form strategic partnerships with influencers, celebrities, and other companies who can help you widen your audience and reach new customers.
10. Fenty
Fenty Beauty is a cosmetics brand launched by singer and businesswoman Rihanna in 2017. The goal of the company was to create a makeup line so that “women everywhere would be included.” The brand quickly became popular for its inclusivity in advertising campaigns as well as products with its Pro Filt'R foundation featuring 50 shades.
@fentybeauty Keepin it in the fam with our FIRST EVER #SavageXFentyBeauty collab!! Get the iconic #GLOSSBOMBHEAT in a NEW, XCLUSIVE shade: #LAVENDERSAVAGE
@savagexfenty #XXSavageX #vdaymakeup ♬ original sound - Fenty Beauty
Why it works: Fenty Beauty used Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to not only launch a new product, a pink lip gloss, but to also share a product created in collaboration with sister company, Savage X Fenty. Both Fenty Beauty and Savage X Fenty rely heavily on influencer marketing and UGC in order to sell their products. For this reason, TikTok is an obvious choice, as influencer marketing tends to see higher ROI on average compared to traditional marketing. The post immediately created a demand for this new lip gloss by showing real people enjoying their experience using the product.
Add your referral program to social campaigns to boost your brand’s visibility
The goal with social media content is visibility: you want your content to stretch as far as possible, catching the eye of as many potential customers as possible.
Expand your content's reach by adding a referral program to your social media strategy. You can easily share your brand with your follower’s social networks and track important metrics like conversions.