Is Your Business Ready for Valentine's Day?

Thursday, February 7, 2008 by Mistlee

Chris Crum
Is Your Business Ready for Valentine's Day?
Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

Valentine's Day is in 7 days. If you have not already done so, it is time to really start thinking about whether or not this holiday can have an impact on your business.

Now is the time to target couples. What are you selling that would appeal to them? It's time to start promoting whatever that may be. Some businesses will have to try a little harder to figure that out than others, but if you look hard enough, you might be surprised how you can use the holiday to gain business.

Valentine's gifts don't have to be limited to jewelry and chocolate. Use the holiday as an excuse to have a sale.

Marketing based on events captures attention.

Like the Super Bowl, Valentine's Day is just another event you can take advantage of with your marketing direction.


If you sell jewelry or chocolates or run a restaurant, then you should have no problem coming up with promotional ideas, but if you sell cars, hardware, plumbing services, or other things not commonly associated with the romantic holiday, it doesn't mean you can't use the day as an excuse to offer a special or run ads based on the event.

It may seem ridiculous to have a Valentine's Day special on plumbing, but why not? I can see the ad now. "Get her the gift she's really been wanting...get that toilet fixed." Send Valentine's Day coupons. Chances are, they're going to need a discount after shelling out hundreds or thousands on jewelry.

A few things to keep in mind when marketing for Valentine's day or any other holiday:
  • plan ahead of time (it's getting a little close now, but if you hurry you can still get something together)
  • appeal to as broad a demographic as possible within the holiday
  • make your offer worth checking out
Do you have any other ideas to help get some extra business out of a holiday? If so, please share in the comments.


Starting Up For Less
Doug Caverly By Doug Caverly

A business owner who's well into his (or her) tenth year of profits probably doesn't worry about it as much, but cutting costs is important to everyone. And a few tips have been specially targeted at the needs of new startups.

As David E. Gumpert points out, things could be worse - the modern business can reach thousands of people with the sort of equipment most college students already own. A credit card number may also be involved in that process, however, which brings us back to the issue of saving money.

Gumpert writes, "One entrepreneur I know tells the story of how he neglected to cap his expenses and wound up with $4,500 of ad costs in a 36-hour period from click-throughs on his Google ads - costs that failed to generate any revenues." That's not ideal.

» Continue reading this article.


0 comments: