It’s Valentine’s Day! Don’t leave your customers wondering how much you appreciate their business; show them with a Valentine’s promotion. Even if you’re not in the flower, card or candy business.

The cynics out there will say that Hallmark, advertisers and every profit-driven business in America have turned Valentine’s Day, and every other holiday, into a commercial monstrosity that’s all about money. While I don’t agree with this position, I can see where that idea comes from.

Holidays present the perfect opportunity (read: excuse) for a sale or giveaway. And that sale is justification of an advertising campaign. Not too many people really want to go to White Castle for Valentine’s Day, but the promotion gets people talking. Look, I even linked to it.

Saving customers money or not, sales and promotions are designed to make more money for the business. Get a customer in a store or on the site with the lure of a sale, and hope they shop around and buy more full-price items. Or buy enough stuff on sale to make up the difference. Either way, the sale is for the store’s benefit, not the customer.

But who wants to print a flyer or fire an email that says “Pretend to save some money but actually spend more because profits are down.” No one. A holiday gives people a reason to shop—for themselves, for holiday items or for gifts. It doesn’t matter what the holiday is, you’re bound to need something.

But if you’re not a Wal-Mart or department store offering something for every imaginable need, your products might not always mesh with the holiday being advertised. Then what? Get creative, that’s what.

It’s Valentine’s Day. You are not a florist, you’re an auto repair shop. Not romantic, but it is practical. Give the gift of safety. Or treat yourself. Or be daring and show your buddy how much you care—it’s a manly gift, so it balances out.

You get the idea. People love to shop. Give them a reason to and they will. Make them feel like it’s acceptable and expected, and you’ll get a customer for life.

Everywhere I look, people are dumping on email, and it’s really starting to get annoying. Maybe annoying isn’t the right word, but it’s definitely tiresome. Imagine always being one of the few kids to stand up for the poor little abused dork on the playground. Email is that dork, and I am its champion.

Twitter is the latest contender vying for the chance to shove email marketing out of favor and secure a coveted top spot as an advertising tool on the web. Laughable, really. Does anyone seriously anticipate Twitter replacing email enough to change email marketing significantly?

Twitter is to email what text messages are to phone calls. Twitter is fun and fast and great for quick little updates or random, off the cuff comments, but useless for serious discussion, conversation or messaging. Twittering is like texting; great for fluffy conversations with friends, but too frivolous and insincere for anything of great importance.

Real communication requires time, space and attention, none of which is afforded by Twitter. So there really is no hope of Tweets becoming the next generation of emails. Again, they are a different method of communication, with a different goal and end result than email. Twitter has strengths and weaknesses like any other channel of communication.

So does Twitter provide any value for marketing? Absolutely, but I don’t think people will be following brands and receiving mobile updates on promotions. Twitter has great potential for viral and word of mouth marketing, but its best hope for becoming part of the marketing mix is alongside email, not opposite it.