The holiday season is right around the corner and with one of the biggest shopping days of the year within arm’s reach, yes I’m talking about black Friday already, it is important to highlight one of the biggest sellers all business owners should have: gift certificates!
Follow these simple guidelines to boost your gift certificate sales this season:
One for you, one for me – figure out a promotion that will work best for your business. A good incentive is allowing the gift giver to not only buy something for a friend/family member, but will get something for themselves in return (i.e. a $20 gift card for free!).
To promote sales after the holidays, make the gift certificate for the purchaser valid starting January 1st.
Online Gift Certificates – Purchasing gift certificates online and printing them right from your computer is a great way to boost sales – especially during last-minute rushing!
Email Blasts – include a link to the gift certificate page on your website with every email blast you send out between now and the New Year. The key to sales is repetition, repetition, repetition…
Market All OVER the place – especially at reception desks, product shelves, bathroom doors, all exits to your business, on your staff, on your website, in your emails…everywhere!
Partner with local businesses – print postcard stuffers for other businesses to include with purchases, go to your local chamber of commerce or welcome wagon, cross-promote with other businesses to increase your potential clientele base.
Keep your gift certificate open-ended or an All-You-Need kind of package – too many options confuse the buyer and will decrease sales.
Make sure staff is well versed on what to say and how to say it – make sure your voice hold recording on your phone is filled with gift certificate information as well! Make sure everyone and everything in your business is on the same page so there is no confusion.
Reward Staff – offer gift certificates or cash incentives for employees to BOOST SALES (this is another way to cross-promote with other businesses).
Reception – most important sellers (offer % of sales or lump sum cash amount to the earners to keep the cash register ringing!)
Make sure you put together a 12-month promotional marketing calendar before the New Year starts. This will help you with future sales goals and will take care of the excess inventory (hopefully you will have minimal/none left after successful holiday sales…but just in case).
Remember, you know what your customers want and how they shop. Customize your gift certificate sales to what you know will be a sure seller. You can’t go wrong when there’s something in it for everyone.
Happy shopping!
