3 Tips: Valentine's Day Marketing for the LGBT Community

Valentine's Day is a great time to market to the LGBT community. After all, love is universal, and marketing to this group can be both sensitive and effective. As with any other group, it's important to ensure that your messaging is genuine and thoughtful.

Marketing to the LGBT community isn’t as simple as adding a rainbow flag to your ad campaigns – there are certain demographics, values and interests shared by many members of this community. These tips will help you create an effective Valentine’s Day marketing campaign that resonates with the LGBT community.

Why is Valentine’s Day important to the LGBT community?

Any chance to celebrate love is important and should not be overlooked. For the LGBT community, this is a love that we’ve fought to have, that we may have lost relationships over, that we had to hide for parts of our lives, that maybe was ridiculed. That is why celebrating our same-sex relationships is important to the community on Valentine’s Day.

Negative experiences of our love leave a mark. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve checked into a hotel and referred to my partner as “my friend” or in a restaurant avoided any affection or “couple” behaviour to deter any strange looks from staff or other diners.?

Showing proudly that these relationships are welcomed in your business lowers that sense of discomfort that a couple may feel on Valentine’s day.

What can we do to promote all types of love?

• Language - using inclusive language that resonates with the community is a must. Avoid any overly gendered language, a simple example of this is changing “his and hers” to “couples”. This will ensure that no part of your communication will alienate diverse audiences. Finally, ban any words that allude to anything “traditional”, the LGBT community has been told all their lives that they don’t live “traditionally”. Lean into the untraditional.?
• Creative - the most obvious is including same-sex couples in any marketing activity, this is simple and hugely impactful. I recently booked an experience simply because a same-sex couple was pictured on their website.
• Channels - if you’ve never actively engaged with the LGBT community, your brand will unlikely have a loyal LGBT following. Thinking creatively about placement will ensure that your campaign will reach new audiences. There are thousands of diverse creators with engaged following (that we at Monumental work with every day). They pose the perfect opportunity for your brand to engage new and diverse audiences.

The LGBT community is a thriving demographic to attract to your business. And what better way to show your commitment to inclusivity than by marketing to this group around Valentine's Day? By creating content that celebrates love in all its forms, you can let the LGBT community know that your business is a safe and welcoming space for them.?

So, whether you're promoting a special Valentine's Day deal or simply showing your support for the community, make sure your marketing campaign reflects your values around diversity authentically.