This was revealed in a 2022 survey by YouGov.com for CreditCards.com 47% of American adults have a minimum of one unused gift card. Which means that retailers keep all the cash earned on the unique gift card purchases. No wonder gift cards are so popular with businesses large and small.
The trick to a successful gift card marketing program is getting people to purchase the cards. The next suggestions can provide help to increase your small business gift card purchases and make sure the success of your programs.
1. Promote your gift cards
Identical to you promote your services and products, you’ll want to promote your gift cards. This is particularly necessary before Christmas all year long. Include promotional messages in your emails, newsletters, social media posts, blog posts, ads, and wherever you possibly can. Be certain that your gift cards are featured in your website and remind others often that they should purchase gift cards from you.
2. Offer a BOGO
Suggest a “buy one get one free gift card” promotion or a “buy one get half off” promotion. Your customer can use one card and provides the opposite to a friend who can turn into a very recent customer of your organization! Just be certain you select a dollar increment in your free gift card that suits your budget and desired profit margins.
3. Make your gift cards easy to purchase
It have to be incredibly easy to purchase a present card from your enterprise, otherwise customers won’t wish to hassle. In the event that they should fill out different forms, pay only in money, or do extra steps that they would not should do when making some other purchase, they will not.
4. Make your gift cards easy to seek out
Don’t hide gift cards behind the counter in your brick-and-mortar stores. As an alternative, place them next to your money register and last-minute giveaways where impulse shoppers will see them. There is a reason why big box stores like Goal and Walmart provide gift cards at checkouts, on caps near gift items, and in lots of other places of their stores.
5. Remind customers about your gift cards
Prevent customers from completing a transaction in your store or website without asking again in the event that they wish to add a present card to their purchase. For instance, before an internet customer confirms items of their online shopping cart and submits payment to finish an internet transaction, suggest that they add a present card to their purchase. Train all staff to ask customers in the event that they would really like so as to add gift cards to their purchases at check-out.
6. Remind people of the advantages of gift cards
There are such a lot of ways to appeal to consumers’ emotions with gift cards. Be certain that your marketing messages explain advantages similar to:
- The gift card shouldn’t be subject to sales tax(*10*)
- Shopping time is shortened(*10*)
- They’re easy to wrap(*10*)
7. Use gift cards to construct brand awareness
Are there organizations in your area that need raffle prizes, gift basket donations, and so forth? Often, local charities run sweepstakes with prizes (including gift cards) which might result in brand exposure and marketing for your enterprise as these prizes are often heavily promoted to the general public to extend lottery ticket sales.
8. Offer gift cards for a free trial
Gift cards could be used to amass recent customers through free trials and referrals. For instance, when a current customer makes a purchase order, offer them a “gift card” in order that customer may give it to a friend. For those who run a hair salon, the gift card could be for a free haircut for “friends of our friends” (and only for brand new customers). For those who are a Software as a Service (SaaS) business owner, you possibly can offer gift cards for a 30-day free trial.
9. Organize a contest
If you’ve got a business blog, Facebook page, Twitter profile, or other social media accounts that will let you give gifts, organize a contest in your followers and offer a present card for online purchase as a reward. You may as well do that at your physical location by offering in-store gift cards as rewards.
10. Use gift cards as marketing tools
As an alternative of using gift cards to become profitable directly, why not use them to become profitable not directly? For instance, offer a present card (which you can afford) to anyone who follows you on Instagram or likes your Facebook page inside a certain time-frame. That is an important technique to increase your online followers, and the more online followers your enterprise has, the more individuals are prone to see your future updates and marketing promotions on Instagram or Facebook. Please note that should you are offering a present promotion, it’s essential to make sure that you comply with it the laws and rules of social media platforms!
Share your experiences
How you can use gift card marketing for small businesses to extend sales and loyalty? Leave a comment and share suggestions!
Originally published on 8/14/16. Updated 3/26/23.