This Valentine’s Day, acres of flowers and a dairy farm of chocolate will be gifted to sweethearts across the nation as tokens of affection. The flowers’ heady scent and sweet chocolaty goodness are sure to please, but if you don’t own a flower shop or confectionary you may ask:
“What can Cupid offer my business this year?”
In fact, the little cherub has lots of goodness to deliver to businesses willing to use creative ways to reach and delight customers. Here are two:
Frequent Shopper Rewards– Foursquare
These days, 31{a1e4dbad5b5db674abcd08880e44cddfd507140ecbeb8646296ad08a1acb49a4} of American adults over age 25 own smartphones. Let their thirst for technology and mobile interaction work for your business when you set up a merchant account on Foursquare.
Entice existing customers to shop more frequently when you provide mobile coupon or discount based on Foursquare check-ins. The check-ins and coupon award are visible to friends within their network from the mobile interface. You can be sure at least some of them may want some of the special deals themselves and decide to follow suit.
Consider offering a prize or perk for first-time customers, too. Use clever calls-to-action in your offer to tie in with the holiday such as “Enroll for one month at a sweetheart of a rate!”
You’ll be sent a Foursquare merchant sticker once you enroll, so be sure to place that in a prominent location where foot traffic or visitors to your lobby can see it.
Valentine Poem Contest –Twitter
A lot can be said 140 characters at a time. You may already use Twitter to share links to good articles, research findings or blog posts, but have you considered using it to generate a little word of mouth interest?
If your company has a few hundred followers on Twitter (or more), you might think about holding a contest. Use your blog to announce the contest and its parameters. You may want followers to tweet a poem which includes a certain word (your product or company name?) along with a hashtag (like “#cupid”) on Valentine’s Day between certain hours. The hashtag can be used as a historical record of tweet activity, and it can help you choose a winner for the contest.
Be sure to “talk up” the contest (include the hashtag) on Twitter or your Facebook brand page in the days leading up to the event.
What creative ways can you think of to reach out to customers and prospects this Valentine’s Day?