Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and it is a great opportunity to show love and appreciation to the customers who support your business. Personalization is the secret sauce in today’s online shopping experience. And it’s time for businesses in the eCommerce world to gear up and start building meaningful connections through killer conversational marketing strategies.
Read on to uncover our top three tips for a successful conversational marketing campaign, and 10 examples of messages that will make an impact this Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s day shopping trends
In 2024, Valentine’s Day spending took a slight dip, and this could be for a few reasons including a spike in inflation last year, customer shopping priorities shifting, and more careful budgeting for gifts.
But 2025 Spending on Valentine’s Day is expected to hit an all-time high in the USA:
27.5 billion USD projected spending in 2025
This is an increase of about 1.3 billion compared to two years ago. Customers are still looking for deals and sales, but are open to spending on gifts, outings, dinners, and more for Valentine’s Day.
What’s the most sought-after gift for the most romantic day of the year? Jewelry. It’s expected that US shoppers will spend about 6.5 billion USD on jewelry in 2025. From engagement rings to diamond earrings, this Valentine’s Day is expected to be especially sparkly.
But besides the expensive gifts, customers spend their Valentine’s Day budget on:
- Candy
- Greeting cards
- Dinner and entertainment
- Flowers
And it’s not just for romantic partners. More and more customers are buying gifts for children, parents, friends, pets, and even themselves on Valentine’s Day. This opens the door for eCommerce brands and retailers to strategically market and target customers with the right Valentine’s Day marketing messages.
Why conversational marketing matters on Valentine’s Day
Conversational marketing is an effective strategy that focuses on connecting with customers through conversations on different messaging channels – aka creating meaningful conversations between businesses and their customers throughout the buyer’s journey.
Valentine’s Day is evolving, and so should your marketing strategy. The strength of the conversational approach is that it can eliminate friction from the buying process by identifying blockers and effectively removing them – especially for last-minute shoppers who might be in trouble for forgetting about the day of love.
Picture this example:
A frantic husband sees a targeted ad on his social media for last minute Valentine’s Day gifts and realizes that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and hasn’t bought his beloved wife of 15 years a gift. He rushes to click on the “chat” button on the ad and it takes him to a chatbot conversation on WhatsApp with his local florist.
The chatbot is designed to take orders, suggest products, take content for greeting cards, and help with completing an order.
The chatbot asks what colors and flowers his wife likes, what message he would like on the card, and comes up with some bouquet options that can be delivered the next day. Our forgetful husband is relieved and lives to see another Valentine’s Day.
By leveraging conversational marketing, the florist can engage with customers in real-time, provide a more personalized shopping experience over their preferred channels, and ultimately increase sales.
10 use cases for Valentine’s Day marketing messages
So, you want to take a conversational approach to marketing messages on Valentine’s Day. Here are our favorite love-filled ideas for marketing messages to use this Valentine’s Day.
1. Special Valentine’s Day offers
Most shoppers are always looking for a deal. Make sure your brand is top-of-mind for Valentine’s Day gifts. Use targeted messaging to notify customers about special Valentine sales and deals to encourage them to purchase gifts on time.
Best practice: Use push notifications from your app to notify shoppers about products on their favorites list that are included in the sale
2. Use a discount code
Promote specific products with discount codes sent on your customers favorite channels. Use straight forward language and a simple code to promote your sale.
Best practice: Use RCS carousels to showcase products that they can save on and answer any questions right in the chat
3. Last minute deals
Target last-minute shoppers with special deals. Customers who purchased Valentine’s gifts the previous year but haven’t gotten around to it this year. Encourage the purchase with a last-minute offer reminding them of the holiday.
Best practice: Schedule your messages to go out at the perfect moment and use behavorial data to target the shoppers who haven’t made a Valentine’s Day purchase.
4. Galentine’s Day bundle deals
Valentine’s Day isn’t just for romantic partners. Galentine’s Day has gained popularity over the years, so target shoppers who would be interested in buying gifts for their friends on Valentine’s Day.
Best practice: Try offering bundle deals like buy two get one free for prospective customers who would be buying for friend groups this Valentine’s Day.
5. Self-care on Valentine’s Day
Not everyone celebrates Valentine’s Day, but the opportunity to connect with singles on Valentine’s Day can still make an impact. Connect with customers by encouraging self-care purchases or to show themselves some love on this holiday.
Best practice: Use playful language that still matches your brand personality so generate a connection with customers who might not be celebrating this day of love.
6. Offer flexible delivery and pick-up
This is a great offer for customers that order on time and ones that wait until the last minute. Offer flexible pick-up of orders and easy change of delivery address or time to keep customers satisfied.
Best practice: Offer this solution within one conversation. Start by reminding them of their order and if there are any changes they would like to make – which they can do directly in the chat.
7. Ask loyal customers to be your Valentine
Your loyal customers deserve a little treat on Valentine’s Day. Use a promotional message to let them know when they make a purchase, they will get a special gift just for them from your brand.
Best practice: Use a digital channel like RCS or WhatsApp to get access to product messages and buttons where customers can easily choose their gift in chat.
8. Make booking a table simple
If you are a restaurant, make it simple to book a table, even at the last minute with an in-chat booking process that can lead to more conversions and a full dining room.
Best practice: If you find you have room for more reservations on Valentine’s Day, target customers who haven’t booked a table and allow them to make a reservation through a conversation, without switching screens or making a call.
9. Promote experiences over products
This is a great tactic for brands that specialize in services, like travel, hotels, spas, or even niche brands like pottery classes, vineyards, or child-care services. Promote bonding activities and experiences over products and offer special deals for couples on Valentine’s Day.
Best practice: Target couples with children and encourage them to enjoy a one-on-one experience with their partner that will create long lasting memories of their favorite Valentine’s Day.
10. Gift giving guide
A great way to spark customer engagement with marketing messages is creating a flow for a gift giving guide. Ask simple questions that can help narrow down what gift the shopper might be interested in buying for their loved one. It can boost engagement and offer customers a fun and low effort way to shop for gifts.
Best practice: Use WhatsApp Flows to design a “quiz” that customers can fill out easily in the chat, followed by product messages of the items that best suit their results.
Examples of conversational solutions for Valentine’s Day
Floward: Improving customer service during peak season
Floward is a one-stop-shop for easy to purchase flowers and gifts in MENA and the UK. The eCommerce store is wildly popular and needed to find a way to streamline customer service on busy days like Valentine’s Day.
With a conversational solution on WhatsApp to speed up customer service for FAQs and delivery inquiries and offload simple tasks from busy agents.
On Valentine’s Day, the chatbot handled 54,000 conversations compared to an average day that saw about 4,000-5,000 interactions. The brand experienced a cost reduction of 14% and customers felt valued, understood, and more loyal.
GAME HOURS: Engaging campaigns for female gamers
GAME HOURS is a Taiwan based mobile gaming company that launched a game called Night and Light targeted to female users. They needed an innovative marketing campaign to promote the game with global reach.
They built a campaign that resonated with their female audience using SMS, email and voice channels. Users could talk to a male character from the game over a voice call and it would encourage them to try to play. This strategy led to increased player interaction and satisfaction, demonstrating the effectiveness of tailored messaging in the gaming industry.
99% of gamers that listened to the phone call went on to play the game.
6.8% increase in views on Facebook after Valentine’s Day campaign
Tips for effective conversational marketing
1. Omnichannel customer engagement
Valentine’s Day is all about meaningful conversations, but reality isn’t always perfect. A bouquet and chocolates make a great gift—until a delivery issue arises. Are you ready to assist customers anytime, anywhere?
An omnichannel customer engagement approach ensures seamless support by unifying multiple digital channels. Instead of just selling, create an experience that blends convenience with personalization. Conversational marketing helps customers find the perfect gift through product analytics, personalized marketing, and digital channels.
With an omnichannel strategy, brands can engage customers across SMS, Email, RCS, WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram, and more—ensuring seamless support throughout their journey.
2. Introduce automation for 24/7 support
Transforming your company’s communication and support is key to a holistic customer engagement strategy. An omnichannel platform streamlines CX, digitalizes workflows, and enhances efficiency.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes—what if their flowers won’t arrive on time? They expect:
- Instant responses
- Quick resolutions & convenience
- Knowledgeable support
A cloud contact center with AI chatbots automates FAQs, reduces friction, and improves key metrics. By enabling self-service, brands ensure faster responses, shorter resolution times, and a seamless customer experience.
3. Utilize data to segment your audience
Today’s customers expect personalized experiences tailored to their needs. While product quality matters, they seek deeper connections with brands. They may know they have a need but not how your products can help. By understanding them better, you can offer more accurate recommendations.
A customer engagement solution enables personalized journeys through targeted campaigns based on behavior and preferences. When integrated with a customer data platform, it automatically builds detailed customer profiles, providing real-time insights into product usage and channel preferences.
The result? Stronger segmentation, hyper-personalization, and deeper customer relationships.
Conversational marketing: The love potion every brand needs
Valentine’s day is one of the busiest shopping holidays of the year. To capitalize on this high-spending surge, businesses must develop a winning conversational marketing strategy to improve their customers’ digital experience and drive brand loyalty through meaningful connections.
If you can effectively incorporate the tips mentioned above and test some of the example messages in a broader conversational marketing campaign, you should gain new admirers. They might not send you chocolates or flowers, but they’ll give you something much more valuable—loyalty and repeat purchase.
Make the most of Valentine’s Day with conversational marketing
Deep dive into conversational marketing and start driving business growth with the right strategies
