Vagaro

Nine 5-Minute Marketing Tips for Valentine’s Day with Vagaro

Written byVagaro
Nine 5-Minute Marketing Tips for Valentine’s Day with Vagaro

How much more money could you make with just 5 minutes of marketing?

Extra income and new clients for just 5 minutes of work? Yes, please! Many service-based small business owners think the only way to earn extra income for Valentine’s Day is if your business sells candy, flowers, or jewelry. But with a new decade comes a new attitude towards Valentine’s Day, and self-care is the phrase you’ll hear more and more this year. Make the most of the new Valentine's trend and poise your business to bring in more new customers! Whether you’re a hair salon, med spa, yoga studio, or wellness center, put your Vagaro marketing tools – like Daily Deals and gift certificate promo codes – to work for Valentine’s Day. Each of the nine marketing tips listed below only take about 5 minutes for business owners to complete.

1. Use the Vagaro Shopping Cart to Make More Online Sales

When you enable the Vagaro Online Cart, you’ll have access to a suite of powerful marketing tools that’ll help your small business maintain a competitive edge. For many Valentine’s Day shoppers, browsing is the precursor to buying. Vagaro’s Online Cart allows shoppers to browse products in your online store, services through your online booking system, and seasonal specials with Vagaro Daily Deals.

Pro Tip: You don’t have to stock your online storefront with every product you carry. Start with stocking your shop’s Top 10 or Top 20 best sellers. Make sure to include descriptions, high-quality photos, and other information that can help browsers turn into buyers!

2. Curate a Valentine’s Day Gift Guide in Your Digital Store

Curated Gift Guides take the guesswork out of Valentine’s Day shopping and help browsers make decisions quicker. For your Valentine’s Day Gift Guide, organize the top products your business sells that make ideal Valentine’s Day gifts. For example, hair or nail products that’ll help customers achieve the perfect Valentine’s Day hairstyle or Valentine’s Day manicure. Include items like massage oils, perfumes, yoga attire, men’s grooming kits, or other products that make great gifts. Don’t forget to include discounted electronic gift certificates in your online store, for sweethearts who are tough to shop for!

Pro Tip: Maximize any seasonal holiday – such as the winter holidays, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, bridal season, or graduations – with a curated Gift Guide.

3. Place an Order for Gift Cards

Gift cards are a favorite for gift-givers, whether it’s a birthday, milestone, or seasonal holiday. After all, what other gift is one-size-fits-all and perfect for giving the receiver exactly what they want? For Valentine’s Day, offer customer a gift card special, such as a $10 gift card for free with purchase of a $50 gift card, or two $50 gift cards for $75.

Pro Tip: When placing your gift card order, it’s a good rule of thumb to choose a graphic or logo that you can use from season to season, like your business logo or another graphic that isn’t tied to a specific holiday.

*Please Note – Vagaro gift cards require in-store purchase to load card value. For online gift purchases, use electronic gift certificates purchased via Daily Deals or your online store.

4. Create a Valentine’s Day Promo Codes for Digital Gift Certificates

Like discounted gift certificates sold through Vagaro Daily Deals, promo code discounts are helpful when using SMS text message marketing to promote Valentine’s Day sales. Promo codes provide a clean, text-friendly way to market discounted digital gift certificates. By using a straightforward promo code, like VDAY20, you make purchasing easier for customers, which translates to more sales.

Pro Tip: Unlike plastic gift cards, electronic gift certificates can be purchased online and delivered directly to the receiver’s email inbox. This makes gift-giving a little easier, as well as the added benefit of an eco-friendly delivery system!

5. Plan and Post a Daily Deal

Daily Deals are popular gifts for Valentine’s Day because they give your business the opportunity to offer a little something extra. And who doesn’t love a good bonus, or a great deal? Best of all, once you’ve decided what you’ll be offering as your Valentine’s Day specials, creating and posting your Daily Deal is a snap.

Pro Tip: For Valentine’s Day, you can make more money and make all your clients feel included. Create one Daily Deal for couples or besties…and another for singles. That way, no one feels left out, sweethearts or friends and family can treat each other, and singles can treat themselves!

6. Create Discounted Digital Gift Certificates

Use Daily Deals to create a digital gift certificate discount special for Valentine’s Day and see how much more business you can bring in! Discounting digital gift certificates is the electronic version of offering a gift card special. Essentially, what you offer customers is the convenience of being able to take advantage of in-store savings when they purchase online. Gift certificates can be discounted by either a percentage or a set dollar amount. For example, offer a $50 gift certificate at a 20% discount for $40, or offer a $5 discount on any gift certificate over $25.

Pro Tip: Discount your gift certificates two ways to bring in more business! Discounted gift certificates sold as Vagaro Daily Deals have the added benefit of discovery by new clients browsing for gift ideas. Discounted digital gift certificates sold in your online store with a promo code are fantastic for your established customers, who already know to shop your store for Valentine’s Day.

7. Get Featured on Vagaro

Get featured for Valentine’s Day and put your business in the spotlight! When you get featured on the Vagaro.com Marketplace and App, your Valentine’s Day Daily Deals, discounted digital gift certificates, and promotions will get priority listing in your local area searches, putting more eyes (and Valentine’s Day hearts!) on your business, products, services, and specials.

Pro Tip: Getting featured on Vagaro is a simple process that’s even easier when you follow our Best Practices guide. Make your business stand out as one-of-a-kind, and make your Valentine’s Day promotions even more attractive to browsers!

8. Draft a Valentine’s Day Email

Get the word out early with email marketing! As you know, there’s a certain art to writing an email marketing message. However, holidays and seasonal specials make it easier to get the ball rolling—and make subscribers more likely to open the messages.

Pro Tip: Use a Valentine’s Day teaser as your subject line, to entice email subscribers to open your message and click through. For example, if you’re offering a discounted gift certificate special for Valentine’s Day, a catchy subject line would be, “? is… 25% Off at Acme Studios.”

9. Text Customers Your Valentine’s Day Deals

Use the immediacy of SMS text marketing to remind subscribers of the holiday—and help last-minute Valentine’s Day shoppers come up big! Text marketing is an easy, low-stress way to share Valentine’s Day promotions with customers and see more instant sales.

Pro Tip: Use a promo code, such as "VDAY20" for a text-friendly, clean message offering discounted gift certificates for Valentine's Day. Better yet—double up with an email marketing message, and you’ll get twice the traction from your promotion!

Vagaro Launches New Promo Code Gift Certificate Discount Feature

Stay competitive with national chain stores on Valentine’s Day! Shoppers considering gift cards and gift certificates for Valentine’s Day will be looking for a great deal, and Vagaro’s discounted digital gift certificates (whether purchased as a Daily Deal or with a promo code) are an effective way to bring in more bucks for the holiday and even attract new clients.


It only takes 5 minutes to start marketing for Valentine’s Day, and the amount of extra income you earn with your promotions might surprise you! Will you use your 5 minutes to design a Daily Deal, discount your digital gift certificates, create promo codes for gift certificates, or order gift cards? Or will you draft Valentine’s Day email and text message campaigns, organize a Valentine’s Day Gift Guide for your online store, or get featured on the Vagaro Marketplace? There’s no need to choose—with the right marketing plan and an hour to spare, you'll be sure to woo new clients with your promotions and earn some extra Valentine’s Day cash!


Header Image: Giorgio Trovato via Vagaro

Icons and Animations: Mia Montemayor via Vagaro

Vagaro MySite Banner