We've all seen how businesses reached an all-time high during the Christmas and New Year's seasons. And because of this, small business owners find it hard to pick up their pace after these months. If you feel like your business has slowed down, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to rev up your engines for more sales! After all, Valentine’s Day is the first holiday of the year when consumers are out and ready to splurge.

Did you know that Valentine’s Day spending in the United States alone is expected to hit approximately 26 billion U.S. dollars in 2023? This is an increase of about two billion dollars from 2022. 

No matter your small business, you can take advantage of this romantic holiday by offering unique promotions and fun Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns that appeal to beloved customers. 

Read on for the best ideas every small business can use to improve business this Valentine’s Day!

1. Charm Them With Your Texts or Emails

Who doesn’t have a smartphone these days? It went from an everyday accessory to a full-on life necessity. You can bet that a person’s smartphone is never more than three feet from their reach at any time, so why not use this to your advantage by sending promotions via text or emails?

Of course, before this, you’ll need the help of a trusted POS Loyalty Program to keep a record of your most loyal customers’ contact information. For the love letters from your small business, you need to integrate romantic holiday themes in your campaigns by updating your subject lines, copy, and visuals to be more romance themed. If you’re a small business they love, a hint of personal touch will make them gush. Just make sure that it doesn’t sound like another sales pitch or ad.

Start with a short message expressing your love and appreciation to them for patronizing your business. Follow it up with nice Valentine's Day promotional sales. Perhaps a 2-for-1 deal? If you own a restaurant or cafe, you can offer two meals or desserts for the price of one. Small boutiques and retail shops can offer two (travel size) fragrances for the price of one.

Of course, you can always present a special discount, like 20% off baked goods or drinks.

Whatever the promotion, mention Valentine’s Day in the text and include “romantic wording.” 

Check out Loyverse POS Customer Loyalty Program for a free and easy-to-use Loyalty Program to ensure your loyal customers get some love this season. 

2. Share the Love on Social Media

There are so many ways to take advantage of the Valentine's Day spirit to boost your social media engagements. Aside from the Valentine's Day posts, quotes and jokes. You can improve engagements with your audience through the following.

Share The Love

Ask your audience to “Share the Love” on your small business' social media site. You can ask your customers to share sweet stories, poems, or pictures representing love, romance, or friendship. Of course, don't forget to have the participants include a specific hashtag and your business name on the post to keep the campaign ball rolling. 

Run a Valentine’s Day Contest

A Valentine’s Day giveaway contest on social media is a surefire way to create amazing engagement while growing your following. A tried-and-tested idea is to focus on a giveaway that will excite your followers and then ask them to like, share and tag two of their friends to enter the contest.

Of course, you can also take this idea and flip it around. Be more creative by asking your customers to submit their best (or worst) break-up story, or have them submit it using emojis only.

Pick the best break-up story and give them a shout-out on social media, and a prize for sharing their story.

If you want something even simpler but can gain crazy engagement, do the classic giveaway. Simply post a Valentine’s Day-related picture on social media, tell everyone what you’ll be giving away, and ask people to like, share, retweet the  post to join to win. The winners will be selected randomly.

Your prize doesn’t have to be grand, but it should align with your brand. For example, the winners may get 2 free items at your store (one for them, one for their loved one), or a coupon to avail something nice when they visit your shop.

Ask Your Followers to Share Their Love Stories

An easy way to build awareness around your business and an event — in this case: Valentine’s Day — is to curate content provided by your followers. Ask your followers to share their love stories and promote them on social media. On that note, please remember that Valentine’s Day is not only romantic, but it’s also a time to celebrate family and friends.

3. Show Your Love for a Charity

Your customers will feel more loved and appreciated if they know you support a charity they care about. There are many ways to celebrate love with a local charity—team up with a local charity you and your customers love and encourage them to offer their support.

You can also give your best customers a Valentine’s Day token from a charity or group close to their hearts.

Host A Charity Event

Try hosting a small Valentine's Day charity event. Your restaurant, eatery or cafe could offer a heart-healthy class to make delicious healthy meals for their loved ones, or a fitness boutique could offer a heart-pumping dance class. Consider charging a small fee for these classes and donating it to charity.

The key to these charity events is to promote the event and the cause like crazy. Hang fliers in your store, advertise on your social pages, create an event on Facebook so customers can RSVP, and have cashiers mention it at checkout.

Celebrating love with a charity will allow you to hit two birds with one stone: you’ll spread the love to customers while supporting a good cause.

4. Make a Quick Video with Gift Ideas

During Valentine’s Day season, we all would appreciate a gift guide or gift inspiration for our loved ones. Because nowadays, the same-old chocolates or flowers just won’t cut it. Consider creating a gift guide full of great Valentine’s Day gifts from your store. Add a cool twist by turning the guide into a video for more engagements.

You or your staff can stand in front of the camera and show customers three hot Valentine’s Day gifts or create a slideshow with nice background music full of product pictures. You don't need an entire production team for this. All you need is your smartphone, a good staging area, and a little help from DIY tools.

Find a picture-worthy spot with great lighting in the store to set up a table of gifts. Avoid the windows, and make sure the background isn’t a blank white wall. Pick a wall with a bit of detail, set up a table covered with a cloth, and start shooting the video with your phone. 

You can also showcase one gift per video clip, so you can share a new video each day leading up to Valentine’s Day.

Share your video on your social pages, email it to customers, and showcase it in your store via a countertop iPad or an in-store TV.

Celebrate Love

Whatever you do this Valentine’s Day, make it about making your customers and potential buyers feel special. As you seize the opportunity to capitalize on the next big holiday, make sure that you have the right tools to help your business succeed.

This season, turn your smartphone or tablet into a powerful POS. With a smart POS, you can manage sales, inventory and employees with ease; engage customers and increase your revenue. Whether you have single or multiple stores, the right POS tools can help you run your business efficiently and effectively.