The gift certificate market is changing. Where once gift certificates were only really considered for the holiday season, they are now becoming a preferred choice for gift giving for any occasion throughout the year.
Gift certificates are fast becoming a year-round option to treat loved ones. This is mostly due to the nature of gift certificates morphing to include unique and wonderful experiences packaged in the form as a gift.
More and more services are including the use of gift certificates in their business strategy- and it’s making a huge difference to their revenue streams! Generating millions of dollars in sales for hotels who can advertise their gift certificates effectively.
So how do they do it?
Take a look below at practical and easy-to-use gift certificate advertising ideas…
Your social media pages grant you access to a much larger audience than you could ever dream of connecting with.
You need to use this to your advantage and play smart when it comes to promoting your gift certificates.
If you’ve never used social media to advertise your gift certificates before then begin with a simple image post of your gift certificates depicting how they'll be used. For example, if you’re selling gift certificates for a romantic dinner for two, then let the image speak for itself. Add wording around the image to communicate the availability of your gift certificates, with a direct link to the purchase page.
This first step is just informing your audience that gift certificates are available to purchase. In time, you can use social media to advertise your gift certificate offers and promotions, as well as competitions- (which we will discuss later in this post.)
Be sure to research which hashtags are popular- especially around gift-giving seasons to ensure your posts get the furthest reach.
Digital marketing is exploding for businesses who use inbound marketing techniques- and it has incredible results too!
Instead of pushing your advertisements onto people, why not let them find you. -After all, most online shopping sales are driven by the consumer. If someone wants something they’ll typically go out and search for it online first.
It’s no different from selling your gift certificates online.
Begin with writing blog posts around the topic of gift certificates or gift-giving and ensure you fill your pages with highly searched, but low competitive keywords. This way when one of your customers types into Google something like, “Best gift certificate for Christmas” (or whichever keywords are relevant for you) your blog post will rank higher than your competition and will hopefully get clicked on.
Over time, if you’re writing highly optimized content for your chosen keywords, your website will get stronger authority and you’ll maintain one of the top slots on Search Engine Results Pages.
Some tips when writing blog posts for gift certificates:
SEO goes further than just writing blog posts. Your landing pages for your gift certificates should be filled with keywords as well as your homepage.
There are many ways to incorporate SEO techniques into your website. For more information on SEO check out our previous post here: How to start an eCommerce business in 2021
The digital gift certificate market is exploding. As well as being extremely convenient, more and more surveys are showing that people like the simplicity and ease of using an e-gift while avoiding shipping costs.
While an online store gives you access to thousands of more customers, you’re also competing with an ever-increasing amount of competition too.
The key to selling more gift certificates online is to place them in smart areas on your website.
These should include:
Email marketing when done properly is one of the most effective advertising strategies. This is because you are already in the good books with your audience. With GDPR rules and regulations coming in hard and fast, it’s resulted in companies only being allowed to contact people who want to be contacted.
This is actually great news, as people subscribing to your email marketing actually want to hear about your newest products, latest deals and exclusive offers. Your success rate with email campaigns will be relatively high when promoting gift certificates directly to your loyal customers.
To get it right though there are a few things to consider:
In your emails, you should use clickable links that make it easy for your customers to process a payment and purchase a gift certificate in as few steps as possible.
When it comes to certain dates in the year such as Mother’s Day, Black Friday, or even Christmas, ensure you create CTAs to your bestselling gift certificates within your promotional email campaigns.
Email marketing gives you the opportunity to get personal with your customer.
At every chance, you should use tools that auto-fill in their name and add personal touches. This makes the customer feel more valued and part of your brand. Making them much more likely to buy from you again.
Why not reward those who are loyal to you. Once every so often, send everyone in your email list an exclusive promotional gift certificate. This is a great way to show your gratitude for their support while solidifying their loyalty to you further.
A fantastic gift certificate advertisement strategy is to partake in a fun event giveaway competition with a gift certificate as a prize.
Not only do these types of competitions get incredible reach, but the engagement and interaction gain you hundreds of new followers in a very short space of time.
Remember, the bigger the gift the more buzz generated!
Ways to do this can include:
You should even talk about this competition on your website with links and rules on how to take part in the competition.
Last but certainly not least, use promotions and offers to generate interest in your gift certificates.
You may be reluctant to offer discounts and offers on your gift certificates, but offering them sparingly can generate interest with some buyers who may not have even considered purchasing them without.
Then once they experience the amazing value of your gift certificate, they may feel more content with purchasing a gift certificate at full price another time.
Types of promotional deals can include:
This works great as most people purchasing gift certificates for experiences as the recipient of the gift can share the experience with the buyer. Or they may even decide to give the free gift certificate to another person- which is also great for you as another person has been introduced to your brand.
You’re not even likely to lose money. Research has shown that people who receive gift certificates spend on average more than 35% of the value of the gift.
When sales are limited it almost creates a panic purchase in customers. They don’t want to feel as though they’ve missed out on the offer.
Another great way to promote your product is to boast about a level of Personalisation you can add to make the gist certificate unique and special to the receiver.
In our gift certificate system, we have a favoured feature by our clients called the product ‘add-on’.
Add-ons are an incredible way to personalize the gift certificate to match the exact desires and wants of the receiver. For example, if a husband purchased an overnight stay gift certificate they can create add-on products of champagne on ice for arrival or chocolate-dipped strawberries in the room.
Whatever you’re willing to offer as additional services you should consider including them in your promotions as an ‘add-on’ item.
We hope you enjoyed our post on gift certificate advertising ideas. For more information on setting up an online gift certificate store get in touch here.
