Trends, tips, and best practices

Make Them Swoon: How to Connect With Your Audience on Valentine’s Day

As content marketers, what does Valentine's Day mean to us? Is it merely another example of holiday ambush marketing, or are there deeper strategies involved?

We all want to attract and engage our audience, but it takes more than a virtual valentine or a set of digital roses. It's about emotions and how we play to the audiences’ desires and wishes, without appearing manufactured of course.

Want to make your audience swoon this Valentine's Day? Here are a few tips to help you genuinely connect through content.

1. Use those warm fuzzies

Emotion is a big part of the day, but some underestimate how emotive a business can be via its messaging, on this day and every other day. Love, passion, warmth – these can be important emotions when it comes to the content you create. However, many companies shy away from this for fear that their efforts will fall flat.

To do love (and do it well), consider this example of a subtle, yet powerful romantic gesture:

GoogleGoogle utilized their iconic doodle space for a heartwarming animated video, featuring a boy attempting to woo a girl. Google’s search engine product itself was featured in the spot, though only as a means to the joyful end.

The ultimate goal is to connect with your audience, so have content serve as a creative means to making a deep connection.

2. Make it visual

OreoCookieIf you've been relying on text-heavy content, now's the time to demonstrate your imaging skills. Consider changing social profile pictures to feature Valentine’s Day themes, creating a blog post with several graphic elements, and even making a video expressing appreciation for your audience. Even a short video of company executives thanking their customers can help spread the love around.

Arming your audience with visuals to help them spread the love is also a great way to connect.  One example of this that I personally love is the Oreo Cupid campaign, which leveraged user submissions to create simple, shareable images that instantly spread across social networks.

3. Learn their love languages

If your audience won’t respond well to overly-romantic or emotional content, tweak your Valentine’s Day campaigns to fit their preferences.

For example, some companies play up Singles Appreciation Day – the humorous alternative that celebrates singles instead of relationships. Others invite singles to mingle with fun dating tips, like those found in the form of articles, videos and even embedded SlideShares on professional dating service It's Just Lunch's Company Page.

ItsJustLunch

Look at the personas that you’ve built when planning your content strategy – are they more likely to swoon from a playful, romantic piece of content, or would it fall on deaf ears? Understand your audience and proceed accordingly.

4. Share the love

Valentine’s Day is one for giving and receiving, so let your audience share in the campaign. Crowdsourcing helps put a personal stamp on your content, allowing your audience to play a part. In turn, they are more likely to appreciate the content, which leads to more likes and shares.

Then, go a step further and feature these customers on company blogs and social pages to increase the emotional connection.

Scribbler, a UK-based greeting card service, asked their customers a simple question: What is their definition of love? Through a form on the Scribber blog, customers were able to answer three short questions and subsequently enter a contest. Answers were compiled in a special eBook shortly afterward (see below).

Your customers want to feel special, and Valentine’s Day is an ideal time to spread the love. Even a simple thank you shows that you appreciate their business – and that there are emotional beings living behind those branded walls. It is possible to love a business as much as the people who work for it, and knowing your audience helps build that connection throughout the year.

How is your business spreading the love this Valentine’s Day? Tweet us @LinkedInMktg.