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 primarily due to the nature of gift certificates morphing to include unique and beautiful experiences packaged as a gift.
More and more services are including gift certificates in their business strategy- making a massive difference to their revenue streams! Generating millions of dollars in sales for hotels that 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 imagine connecting with.
You must use this to your advantage and play smart when promoting your gift certificates.
If you’ve never used social media to advertise your gift certificates before, then begin with a simple image post depicting how they'll be used. For example, if you’re selling gift certificates for a romantic dinner for two, 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. 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 search for it online first.
It’s no different from selling your gift certificates online.
Begin with writing blog posts about 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 hopefully get clicked on.
Over time, if you’re writing highly optimised content for your chosen keywords, your website will get more substantial 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 and 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 show 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.
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 excellent news, as people subscribing to your email marketing 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, 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.
Regarding specific dates such as Mother’s Day, Black Friday, or Christmas, ensure you create CTAs for your bestselling gift certificates within your promotional email campaigns.
Email marketing allows you to get personal with your customers.
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 concise 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 showing them sparingly can generate interest from some buyers who may have yet to consider purchasing them.
Then, once they experience the fantastic value of your gift certificate, they may feel more content with purchasing a gift certificate at total price another time.
Types of promotional deals can include:
This works great as most people purchase gift certificates for experiences, as the gift recipient can share the experience with the buyer. Or they may even give the 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 personalise 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.
To effectively market your gift cards, it's important to ensure that they are easily visible to customers when they visit your business.
One simple way to achieve this is by placing them in high-traffic areas such as the cash register, hostess stands (for restaurants), dressing room waiting areas (for retail), and window displays.
By doing so, you increase the likelihood of customers noticing the gift cards and considering them as a potential purchase.
We've put together a list of tips to help you leverage Facebook and Instagram for selling your gift cards and boosting your revenue:
1. Make sure your gift cards are prominently featured on your business profiles.
2. Schedule creative posts that showcase your gift cards in an engaging way.
3. Consider running paid ads to reach a wider audience.
4. Use videos to grab the attention of potential customers.
5. Reach out to your community to spread the word about your gift card offerings.
6. Run social media competitions to increase engagement and increase followers.
A great way to present a gift card is to order a luxury wrapping option. Work with your gift card management company and see what options they can present to you to upgrade the packaging and posting into something luxurious.
If you offer mail-sending options to your clients it's a great idea to accompany the gift card delivery option with beautifully branded extras, that will bulk out your gift certificate into a hamper.
There are 5 major things you can do to increase the number of gift cards you sell.
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.
