Chamber marketing ideas for Valentine’s Day may not the first thing you think of when coming out of the last year we’ve all had. It might not even be your personal favorite holiday. But what better time to remind your chamber members how much they mean to you. It’s festive and can be a bright moment in what’s been a difficult time.
In this article we’ve compiled a list of wonderful marketing ideas and pick-me-ups that your members will love including social media post ideas and events.
50+ Chamber Marketing Ideas for Valentine’s Day Themed Social Media and Promotions
- Host a Galentine’s Day tea (or other event) for your Women in Business Group. This sit-com inspired holiday is traditionally celebrated on 2/13.
- Feature a Galentine’s Day gift-giving guide targeted toward women celebrating women and friendship.
- Create and deliver a candy gram with a clever play on words. Pinterest is full of ideas (and printable templates!) like the this one.
- Showcase business love stories on social media, your newsletter, and/or your website. You could solicit stories from your audience about their favorite businesses or ask people to share stories about businesses that have had a profound effect on their lives like the restaurant where their spouse proposed.
- Run a “Best of” contest for local businesses and ask people to nominate and vote on social media. Bonus for allowing the votes to be heart emoticons.
- Sell candy grams that people can send to one another.
- Invite people to share their funniest pick up lines with you on social media.
- Ask people to share a photo of their pet in their Valentine’s Day finery.
- Invite people to send a Valentine to their favorite business through the chamber.
- Invite businesses to nominate an employee for a Valentine’s Day surprise.
- Promote random acts of love (aka purchases) for your businesses.
- Create a Valentine’s Day passport to encourage shopping local.
- Post cheesy love poems to your members.
- Record a love song to your businesses using a parody of a popular love song.
- Ask people to share something they love about your town or area.
- Write a blog post or newsletter article about great places to buy Valentine’s Day gifts or Valentine’s Day gift ideas from local business people. Your audience will love the suggestions. You can also sort them by recipient such as “Valentine’s Day Gifts for New Moms,” “Valentine’s Day Gifts for Teachers, etc.”
- Encourage people to give the gift of love to themselves by promoting members who offer wellness services or other ways to take time out.
- Host a pet adoption party by partnering with the local shelter. It’s a great way to spread smiles and can be done virtually.
- Send a text to members telling them what they mean to you. People are more likely to read texts than emails.
- Invite people to share a picture from their photos that contains the color red.
- Create a heartwarming video showcasing a community hero.
- Share what you love about your area or town in single posts across multiple days.
- Encourage staff to share what they love or what they wish they could receive for Valentine’s Day. People will enjoy the ideas.
- Ask people to share the most romantic spot in your area.
- Invite local B&Bs, Inns, restaurants, and hotels to share their Valentine’s Day specials. This can also be done for florists, jewelers, and all other businesses. Post them individually or create a roll-up post with links.
- Urge customers to share the love with referrals of their favorite businesses.
- Create a “local love” basket/bag to sell or auction off. Offer businesses the opportunity to be included. This idea is similar to those monthly subscription boxes that contain products that people can try and possibly order. This is a Chamber marketing idea plus business promotion idea all in one. Your local basket can offer the opportunity for locals to try new things, plus it makes an excellent gift for people who are out-of-town and miss your area.
- Create a downloadable gift guide. Options include to sort by price, interest, or category.
- Send out a heart-shaped coupon good for entrance to a free chamber event or a “bring a friend for free” promotion.
- Work with member businesses to create a Valentine’s Day Experience of multiple items or services for a flat fee. This could include a massage, facial, and tea service or lunch, a personal shopper, and a foot massage. Think of creative ways to bundle different services together and sell/promote them. People love the ease of one-stop-shops and all-in-one gifts.
- Sell local currency or shopping cards to help show the love to area businesses such as this example from the Albia Chamber of Commerce in Iowa.
- Locate the couple in your area who have been together the longest and tell their story.
- Find your longest operating business or longest chamber member and share their story.
- Encourage people to give back and show the love for your community.
- Run a Valentine’s Day-themed poll on social media. You can design it to help your members learn more about your community such as how much the average person plans on spending on Valentine’s Day gifts, what their “go-to” gifts are, etc. Businesses can then customize their specials based on that knowledge.
- Encourage members to post polls that are related to their business. For instance, a bar may ask “Champagne or fruity concoction for Valentine’s Day?”
- Create and use a Valentine’s Day hashtag tailored to your area. That way people can find content quickly.
- Showcase any two-for-one deals in your community.
- Change social media cover pics to something Valentine’s- or love-related like “We love small business.”
- Invite people to share info on a cause that is near and dear to their hearts.
- Ask people what their favorite duos are and share them on social media. These could be people or things that go together (like peanut butter and chocolate).
- Highlight amazing last-minute gifts for the panicked shopper.
- Tell the stories of businesses in the traditional Valentine’s Day markets like local chocolatiers or florists. Knowing these stories may help people buy from them instead of a large online retailer.
- Highlight specials for single people too. Even though it’s traditionally a couple’s holiday, highlight awesome ways for single people to enjoy your area and celebrate a day focused around love. Love needn’t (just) be romantic.
- Run a Valentine’s Day sale (or BOGO offer) on something you charge for such as a webinar, upcoming event, etc.
- Update your chamber website with Valentine’s Day graphics or design elements. Check carefully to make sure the clip art is royalty-free and okay to use for commercial purposes such as this clip art via Creative Commons (Image is “Happy Valentine’s Day!” by DaPuglet and licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
- Throw in a chamber membership bonus item or offer for those who join by Valentine’s Day such as a free box of chocolates. You can make this a sponsorship.
- Send a social media love letter to a business or person who went above and beyond to help.
- Showcase “love day” experts and ask them questions.
- Host a virtual cocktail party mixer featuring a local bartender creating a special “love potion.”
Valentine’s Day is an ideal time to help your chamber members feel the love. It also provides a good opportunity to help the chamber become the reason someone smiles.
These chamber marketing ideas for Valentine’s Day (or any other day) doesn’t require much money and it can have a big impact in how you’re perceived and how your audience feels about you, building on that crucial know, like, and trust.
