Marketing Ideas You'll Love for Valentine's Day Customer Appreciation
While corporate holiday cards send a message of holiday cheer to your customers, it’s often tough to break through the noise of such a busy season. Cue Valentine's Day. February 14 is another great option for celebrating and strengthening your business relationships.
How Valentine’s Day Client Appreciation Is Good for Business
Valentine’s Day and client appreciation go hand in hand for several important reasons. By recognizing your customers and sending them words of appreciation during this often-overlooked holiday, you can create a happier, more loyal customer base, and you’ll stand out as a company that truly places its customers front of mind—every day throughout the year.
Saying “Happy Valentine’s Day” to customers by sending a professional Hallmark greeting card is a unique, highly recognizable way of delivering your well wishes at a time of year when many businesses don’t think of reaching out to clients or professional contacts. But when you send business valentines for customers to show your appreciation, you'll gain several bonuses from this unique marketing strategy, including:
Outshining your competitors. The quieter timeframe allows you to stand out from other businesses.
Being the company who cares. Every customer appreciates a little extra love, especially when it comes in the form of a Hallmark greeting. And when you need to send a more personalized message, don’t forget our Mail to One option that lets you create a message specifically for your recipient. We’ll even mail your greeting card for you!
Being front of mind with your clients. When you send a Hallmark card, it always stands out in the mail—and it always gets opened.
Meaningful Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day
Check out these four fun ways to share the love and connect with consumers:
Show your customers some love. Valentines for customers are an ideal way to let them know how much they mean to you. A quick message (“We love customers like you!”) along with a cheerful Valentine’s Day wish is an excellent way to build an authentic relationship with existing consumers and potential buyers alike.
Encourage self-care. Romance is no longer required for celebrating this holiday. Valentine’s Day’s focus has been widely reframed from a time to show love for a partner to a time to love ourselves, friends, family members and business partners. Reach out to customers and encourage them to indulge in something special that brings them joy—they deserve it!
Celebrate Galentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day’s popularity might be declining for romantic card sending, but its sister holiday, Galentine’s Day, is celebrated more and more each year. That’s been the case ever since Leslie Knope from “Parks and Recreation” revealed her annual tradition of getting together with her friends to celebrate strong, independent women. Now, years later, Galentine’s Day garners nearly the same volume of mentions on social media as Valentine’s Day. So, get in on the action by marketing Galentine’s Day instead of Valentine’s Day. It might help you stand out in a crowded market or even connect more with younger consumers.
Recognize the diversity of love. If your marketing honors the Valentine’s Day message of love and connection, recognize that there are many ways to love. Steer away from more traditional romantic marketing and embrace unique love—no matter what it looks like. If that doesn’t already include LGBTQ+ love, remedy that issue right away. But also look beyond romantic relationships to include love for family, or even jobs and hobbies. Some people’s purest and truest love is for an animal (as reflected in the explosive market for pet valentines), and that should be celebrated, too.
Get marketing in on the fun by sharing ideas for celebrating the holiday. Your marketing team can play a huge role in encouraging employees to reach out with warm words throughout the month of February. Whether it’s by boosting morale and employee engagement by encouraging teams to share positive thoughts with each other or if it’s by sharing ways to reach out to customers with affirming words of appreciation, there’s a way for every business to benefit from this often-skipped holiday. Many workplaces encourage employees to celebrate by wearing festive clothing, bringing treats, or even creating interactive bulletin boards filled with ideas and uplifting thoughts. Employees enjoy filling shared spaces with things like:
Not only does this shine a bright light on your company, but it gets employees chatting and interacting with each other, too.
Leave a cup of pens and a stack of notecards or sticky notes nearby, add a few notes of your own to get the ball rolling…and let employees take it from there! By the end of February, you’ll see an entire board filled with love and encouragement from all around the company.
What ideas can you think of for sharing a February that’s full of appreciation and love for your clients and employees?
This Valentine’s Day try sending a simple message of Valentine’s Day customer appreciation to consumers. Whether it’s in the form of a greeting card, a thank-you email or a cute text message the morning of Valentine’s Day, hearing from you could make a difference to someone who might not hear “Happy Valentine’s Day” from anyone else.
By disrupting traditional Valentine’s Day marketing to honor the consumer-brand relationship, consumers will feel more connected to your message—and therefore more inclined to listen to you and stick with you over the long term. Need some ideas of what to include in your Valentine’s Day Appreciation message? Hallmark has got you covered.
Valentine's Day Card Writing Tips
There's a fine line between a professional message of “happy Valentine's Day” to customers and one that's a little "too friendly." Follow our quick tips below to help craft the perfect Valentine's Day message for your clients:
Tie it back to customer appreciation: To make sense to the recipient, tie your Valentine’s Day card message to appreciation. It’s the most natural way to celebrate Valentine’s Day together.
Today is Valentine’s Day—a great reason for letting you know how much (COMPANY NAME) appreciates you. Enjoy the day!
Signing a professional Valentine’s Day Appreciation card: When signing your card, use a name for a more personal touch.
Just wanted to let you know how much we value you as a customer. Happy Valentine’s Day! Best, Jane Smith and your friends at XYZ Company
Include a special offer or discount: Consider including a special offer or reason to reconnect. It can remind customers how much you love their business.
You’re one special customer! That’s why we’ve included this special offer code to help you save when you shop with us this week. Happy Valentine’s Day! We look forward to seeing you soon.
Be genuine.
We love what we do because of customers like you. Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day.
Be authentic: The easiest way to do so is with a Hallmark card!
If you’re looking for the perfect professional Valentine’s Day Appreciation card and more inspiration for what to write, Hallmark has that too. Our selection of Valentine’s Day greeting cards and message starters will help you create an appropriate card to sweeten your customers’ February 14.
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