Xiaohongshu Valentine's Day Marketing Guide

After the Spring Festival holiday, the advantages of Valentine's Day are further magnified. In order to gain greater exposure, attract consumers' attention, seize their minds, and promote efficient conversion, major brands have become the key to winning Valentine's Day marketing. The author of the following article summarizes the various Valentine's Day marketing methods of Xiaohongshu. Friends who don't know how to do Valentine's Day marketing, please take a look.

As a pocket encyclopedia guide for girls, Xiaohongshu provides a variety of holiday strategies and guides users to enjoy a better life. With the upcoming Valentine's Day on 214, how should merchants complete the first round of marketing in 2023 on Xiaohongshu?

1. The main consumer force of Generation Z vs. the main consumer force of Xiaohongshu

1. Analysis of the main consumer groups

The "single economy" of 220 million people is on the rise, and the new generation born after 1995 has become the main force of Valentine's Day consumption, and buying gifts is the largest expenditure on Valentine's Day. Only 4.48% did not spend money on the holiday, and their spending of more than 1,000 yuan also ranked among the top.

Many of those born after 1995 have not yet entered the society. Nearly 38.1% of student couples rely mainly on their parents for their holiday expenses. More than one in ten of those born after 1995 rely on consumer loans such as Huabei, Jiebei, and credit cards to "borrow money" to get through their love affairs.

Consumption is not only reflected in material culture, but also in cultural meaning. Consumption reflects personal identity, and what is consumed is their symbolic meaning. ——"Consumerism" [French] Baudrillard

Of course, in addition to the love economy, in recent years, both men and women have advocated "self-pleasure consumption" - having both good-looking appearance and interesting soul.

"Good-looking appearance" includes domestic consumption of clothing, skin care products, cosmetics, etc. that enhance appearance, and external consumption of all appearance-based items with a strong sense of design, a strong sense of atmosphere, and a high appearance value. Of course, it is better if it is also practical, even if the price is higher.

At the same time, the rise of niche sports such as skateboarding, skiing, and frisbee due to the epidemic has enabled more young people to step out of their homes, actively engage in socializing, and actively engage in consumption.

2. Analysis of Xiaohongshu Platform

From a macro perspective, the latest data from Xiaohongshu shows that it currently has over 200 million monthly active users, 72% of whom are born after 1990, 50% are located in first- and second-tier cities, and there are more than 43 million sharers in total.

(Image source: Xiaohongshu official data)

The supply relationship in economics can explain why people's consumption has gradually shifted from material needs to both material and spiritual needs in the third consumer era with strong consumer demand and fierce competition. Consumers spend a lot of time browsing content communities such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin. And it is best to buy directly.

Based on the data analysis of the main consumer force of Generation Z and the main consumer force of the Xiaohongshu platform, it can be seen that the overlap between the "post-90s" data is very high.

As a "consumption decision-making" platform in the minds of many young users, Xiaohongshu's penetration ability and commercial value are obvious to all. Especially driven by the national consumption upgrade, "her economy" and healthy living environment, many brands need to use social platforms such as Xiaohongshu to expand the market and reach precise users.

On a micro level, Xiaohongshu’s holiday marketing has extremely strong stickiness, with more and more users searching for [gift giving] and using gifts as a medium to convey emotional value.

(Image source: Xiaohongshu official data)

2. Refer to the official activities of Xiaohongshu in previous years

The popularity of Valentine's Day in 2022 did not surpass that of the Winter Olympics, so let's take a look at the 21st year. The 21st year's Valentine's Day happened to be the third day of the Chinese New Year, and it seemed that it could not beat the Spring Festival marketing. So what did Xiaohongshu do? - It held a party called "214 Exclusive Love Night".

The theme embodies the core value of the evening party, "I don't live for anyone, I don't love for the sake of love, I am myself first, and running towards each other is us", highlighting the positive love concept and positive happiness concept of independence, self-confidence, equality, mutual love and exclusivity.

Compared with the traditional "two-way rush" of lovers, how effective is this differentiated marketing that conveys community values? The popularity of the Xiaohongshu 214 Duai Night Gala on the platform reached over 7.2 million, with a total exposure of over 120 million for #小红书214独爱之夜 and related topics, over 16.48 million views, 3,937 people participating in the posting of notes, and a total of 4,262 notes related to the gala.

Searching the content of last year's #小红书独爱之夜 notes, we can find that the theme of note creation is still around love. One is love for oneself, and the other is love for lovers/family. How to love yourself better, how to love others better, and what is true happiness. It just proves the rise of "self-pleasing" consumption of Generation Z.

(Image source: Xiaohongshu page)

3. How should Xiaohongshu brands conduct Valentine’s Day marketing?

However, compared with the Valentine's Day marketing on 214, although it is also exciting, it is far less valuable for learning than the marketing of major brands on Xiaohongshu on Chinese Valentine's Day. Although both are promoting "love", there are still differences in the degree of response and marketing effect.

Therefore, the application cases will be interspersed with the brands participating in this year's 214 and last year's Chinese Valentine's Day.

1. On the layout of Valentine's Day keywords on Xiaohongshu

(Image source: Xiaohongshu official data)

(Shown on Xiaohongshu search page)

(Displayed by Xinhong Data under Xinbang)

By referring to the relevant data of Xiaohongshu above, we can find that the keywords such as " Valentine's Day gifts, Valentine's Day gifts for boyfriend, Valentine's Day gifts for girlfriend, Valentine's Day outfits and Valentine's Day gifts " are relatively popular among the hot search terms.

Among the topics shown by Xinhong data, the topic of "Valentine's Day Outfits" had 51,500 new interactions and 16,877,400 total page views in 30 days. The topic of "Valentine's Day Makeup" had 11,000 new interactions and 33,177,400 total page views in 30 days. These are applicable to brands in the categories of clothing, accessories and beauty products .

In other categories, brands can implant the keywords "Valentine's Day gifts and Valentine's Day gifts for boyfriends/girlfriends". This can also be done when placing influencers and in the content of notes.

(Image source: Xiaohongshu official data)

(Image source: Xiaohongshu page)

Little Red Book Valentine's Day Gift

Crowd: Send to sisters, boyfriends, husbands, girlfriends

Node scenarios: wedding, dating, anniversary

Preferences: handmade, creative, niche, DIY, atmosphere

Gifts: bags, jewelry, watches, accessories, clothes, bags, flowers, cakes, perfumes, accessories, makeup, skin care products

(Image source: Xiaohongshu official data)

2. Personalized holiday products

The launch of customized and limited gift boxes based on node marketing is a tacit operation among major brands.

Taking the beauty brand Colaqi as an example of "her economy", during the Chinese Valentine's Day, the official account @COLORKEY released a Chinese Valentine's Day limited gift box + limited-time lottery event, mainly in the form of a graphic poster as the cover, the inside pages show the product details, and the copy briefly describes the event in short sentences.

The designed gift box perfectly integrates the sense of ritual of the festival. On the one hand, it drives the product to become popular with its high appearance and celebrity-like style. On the other hand, it enhances users' enthusiasm for participation through interactive forms, rapidly increasing the popularity of the topic and brand attention.

As of August 15, the content has accumulated over 30,000 interactions and over 3,000 comments, helping the official account to create considerable popularity and build a node trend for its own brand.

(Image source: Xiaohongshu page)

Marketing highlights: high appearance + interactive lottery

Take Feike, which entered Xiaohongshu in July 2022, as an example of “his economy”.

The brand began to release Qixi-related promotional notes at the end of July. In the past seven days, the number of related notes has increased from 20 in the previous cycle to 185 in the current cycle. The number of related notes has increased by 825%. The number of likes and collections has also increased to varying degrees.

With related tips such as "Giving gifts on the Chinese Valentine's Day, Feike will help you win your boyfriend's heart", taking advantage of the opportunity of lovers giving gifts to each other on the Chinese Valentine's Day, the sales market for men's products was quickly opened up on Xiaohongshu, which is mainly for women.

Marketing highlights: "Curve-saving" approach, approaching from various aspects of the "her" economy.

Another small but beautiful type of marketing is personalized customization, which mainly appears in clothing and jewelry accessories categories, and is mainly exposed and promoted by bloggers who wear couples' outfits.

(Image source: Xiaohongshu page)

3. Content selection strategy

Work starts during the Spring Festival, and there is still about half a month before Valentine's Day. Is it still in time to do it now? The answer is yes, it is in time, to catch the last train of Valentine's Day. In addition to the 214 marketing, it also started the festival marketing of March 8th Women's Day.

In 214 marketing, the content selection needs to be more specific and in-depth. Combining the topic search of Xinhong Data and the hot search terms of Valentine's Day, [Gifts] is an important content selection topic that cannot be separated. Other categories such as [Clothing Accessories] and [Travel] can account for about 30%.

(Displayed by Xinhong Data under Xinbang)

(Image source: Xiaohongshu official data)

After the 2022 214 Valentine's Day marketing war came to an end, the amount of content and interaction related to Goddess Day on the Xiaohongshu platform showed a clear growth trend. In the week from February 21 to 27, 2022, the incremental interaction of notes related to the #三八# hot word increased by about 130.52%, and the amount of notes related to the #女神热词 increased by about 60.75%.

As the festival closest to International Women's Day, the focus of marketing has gradually shifted from lovers to the female population.

4. Follow the footsteps of Xiaohongshu official account

It would be a bit unreasonable if you haven't paid attention to the official potato package. Instead of reading 100 marketing articles, it is better to read the official one first. As a participant on the platform, you must keep abreast of the platform's trends and policies and respond positively.

(Image source: Xiaohongshu page)

5. Marketing Theme

Combining the 214 marketing trends of Xinhong Data, we can see that as a highly interactive festival, the most popular topic among users is #Where to go on Valentine's Day, which shows that even if the epidemic is looming, it can't stop the romantic mentality of going out. Since you need to go out, you must dress up well, and related content such as clothing accessories, makeup tutorials, and gifts are naturally indispensable.

(Displayed by Xinhong Data under Xinbang)

It is mainly reflected in two ideas:

• "I buy things to love myself." - Consumers consume for themselves.
• “I buy things to love others.” – Consumers consume for others.

Find benchmark competing products, analyze and refine their marketing themes, and classify the themes into "urgently needed themes" and "hot topics."

The marketing theme should be established at least one month before the official launch. If brands want to join the Women’s Day race, the time is now.

6. How does the official account promote the event?

① Based on the content that the enterprise account already has, the brand can intermittently publish notes and previews of activities, and the same topic can be published in different forms and contents.

The first article can be a picture and text announcement, the second article can be a video product display and simultaneous promotion, the third article can be a summary of good reviews, etc.

② When placing bloggers, you can negotiate to add components and @official in the comment area

③Official accounts can also actively interact with cooperating bloggers in their notes

How can official accounts enhance fan user stickiness?

①Publish lottery benefit notes

② Start from the user’s pain points and publish some comments that resonate with the user

③ Lower your profile and publish notes to solicit user opinions and attitudes

7. Delivery strategy

• Official account traffic
• Expert placement: volume, field, note format, release plan

The business content notes on the Xiaohongshu platform are mainly in the form of picture and text notes and video notes.

The price of picture and text notes is low, while the price of video notes with high interaction volume is high, especially for some mid-level bloggers. When the marketing budget is insufficient, the main choice is still the tail KOL and KOC who produce picture and text notes.

Because the tail influencers of Xiaohongshu show the potential for high-explosive nodes, brands can appropriately choose small-circle KOLs to leverage their influence and cost-effectively influence fans to promote subsequent conversions.

Taking the newly entered Feike's 214 placement as an example, there are 127 influencers in the past month, most of which are primary influencers, passers-by, and amateurs;

(Displayed by Xinhong Data under Xinbang)

8. Xiaohongshu’s advertising rhythm

(Displayed by Xinhong Data under Xinbang)

Looking at this year's Valentine's Day marketing, there were 22,400 new notes in January. Notes have been released one after another since the beginning of January, showing an upward trend. There was a decline during the Spring Festival. After all, both bloggers and users were busy relaxing during the New Year, and the number and popularity of creations would decline.

By the time work started after the Spring Festival, the popularity and number of notes had risen again. This shows that in order to control the marketing rhythm, in addition to extending the cycle, we must also pay attention to the impact of major festivals.

The marketing rhythm of Valentine's Day in February: start testing and accumulating brand content in January, and continue to produce content in February and March, with a total duration of about 3 months. (For reference only)

IV. Conclusion

From the perspective of businesses, Valentine's Day is an opportunity to leverage marketing momentum, but also a challenge to brand marketing. What changes are the elements of marketing, and its core is: attracting user attention and providing user value.

After the Spring Festival holiday, the advantages of Valentine's Day are further magnified. In order to gain greater exposure, attract consumers' attention, seize their minds, and promote efficient conversion, major brands have become the key to winning Valentine's Day marketing.

Author: Zhuang Jun

Source: WeChat public account "Zhuang Jun (ID: zhuangjunweixin)"