MINDBODY White Paper | How to Be the Gift They Give on Valentine’s Day | Copyright © 2015 MINDBODY 1

MINDBODY WHITE PAPER

How to Be the Gift They Give on Valentine’s Day

MINDBODY White Paper | How to Be the Gift They Give on Valentine’s Day | Copyright © 2015 MINDBODY 2

You already offer the perfect Valentine’s Day gift. With the right marketing

plan, you can get your services in front of potential clients—just in time for

them to make that purchase for their special someone. Here are a few

ideas on how to promote your services for Valentine’s Day.

Create a special Valentine’s Day package.

Grouping products and services into a package helps you move more retail and give potential clients

a sense that they’re getting a deal.

If you don’t already bundle products and services, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to test it out as a

marketing strategy. Because of the occasion, think about how to combine your products and services

into something that will pamper the client. Consider your clients’ past buying behaviors when deciding

what to combine: if there are two services (or a product and service combo) that people often buy at

the same time, for example, you probably have a successful package in the making.

Optimize your website.

Gift-givers look for the perfect Valentine’s Day gift the same way they look for any purchase: by

searching online. Once you have a package or two in mind, it’s time to work on promoting them

on your website. Feature the package deal prominently on your home page, with multiple links

to purchase. Make sure you write a blog post about the deal, and find other ways to weave it into

different pages throughout your website.

MINDBODY White Paper | How to Be the Gift They Give on Valentine’s Day | Copyright © 2015 MINDBODY 3

Try cross-promoting.

Plenty of businesses in your community already get a nice bump in revenue on Valentine’s Day—like

your nearby romantic restaurants or bed and breakfast hotels, for example. Partnering with businesses

like these could help you add some foot traffic for Valentine’s Day.

Set up a meeting with some fellow business owners and see if you can arrive at a mutually beneficial

arrangement. For example, you could throw in a gift card toward a candlelight dinner when clients purchase

your Valentine’s Day package—and in exchange, the restaurant could include a gift card toward your

business for every diner who spends over a certain amount. It could be simpler, too: maybe you just

offer to place their marketing materials at your front desk if they promise to do the same with yours.2

Offer online gift cards for the last-minute shopper.

Even procrastinators need a way to give something to the people they love. By selling gift cards online,

your business can be the hero for Valentine’s Day shoppers, even on February 13.

And there are plenty of procrastinators out there, too: last year, 21% of all the gift cards MINDBODY

clients sold in February were either purchased on Valentine’s Day or the day before.3

Once you’ve got them, try to get them to come back.

Of course, the bigger purpose behind running a promotion like this is to bring new clients in who will

become loyal regulars. Making a solid first impression with their Valentine’s Day experience is a good

start, but there are also a few things you can do to make them even more likely to return.

1. FIRST AND FOREMOST: ASK!

Find the right time during your conversation with the client, ask them how they’ve enjoyed their

experience with you, and then ask whether they’d be interested in booking another appointment.

Just discussing what the client really liked about the appointment can be enough of a push to

convince the client to book another.

S O M E T H I N G F O R H I M ?

If any of your services already cater to a male clientele, you may be at an advantage. In recent years, the

search volume for terms like “Valentine’s Day gifts for him” was nearly seven times the search volume for

“Valentine’s Day gifts for her”.1 So if you happen to offer the perfect gift for men, advertise it!

MINDBODY White Paper | How to Be the Gift They Give on Valentine’s Day | Copyright © 2015 MINDBODY 4

2. START A LOYALTY PROGRAM

At the close of the client’s appointment, take a moment to enter them into a loyalty program. This

gives the client a tangible benefit to returning. The key here is to spell out the incentive when walking

the client through it, and to make it something the client could attain in a reasonable amount of time:

maybe the fifth appointment is 50% off, for example. Or maybe the client gets a $20 retail voucher

after spending a certain amount of money at your business.

3. CREATE A TIME-LIMITED OFFER

You could also take the opportunity to pitch an introductory offer that only lasts through the end of

February. It could be a set number of appointments offered at a discount, or even unlimited visits for

a flat price. Either way, the goal is to get the client to commit to multiple future visits.

E M A I L M A R K E T I N G I S Y O U R F R I E N D

If the client isn’t ready to book their next appointment while they’re still with you, then you can lean on

email marketing to help. Send a follow-up email to solicit their feedback, and include a very clear “Book

your next appointment” call to action.

If you don’t get a response from it, send an email a few weeks later with a subject line like “We miss you!”

and consider offering a (small) discount.

1 Foster, Kerrin (February 14, 2013). “A Revealing Look at Top Valentine’s Day Searches—From Gifts to ‘Die Hard’.” Search Engine Watch.

2 Anderson, Kare (2014). “19 Ways to Attract More Customers Through Cross-Promotion.” FrugalMarketing.com.

3 Real results from MINDBODY software clients who were active throughout January and February 2014.

Need a way to implement marketing tactics like these?All of these strategies (and a whole lot more) are automated with the help of

MINDBODY software. To see how the software could transform your business,

schedule a demo today.