Digital marketing can bring a lot of spice to your gift card advertising plans. In a lot of ways, advertising through the internet has superseded traditional means of advertising like print and TV. The potential benefits of gift cards to your business are quite considerable. However, these benefits will remain untapped until you use new gift card promotion ideas to get them in front of the right audience.
The question of gift cards isn’t if they increase sales. There is considerable research showing that gift cards positively affect sales of goods and services. As such, it comes as no surprise that the value of the gift card market has reached $337 billion in 2018, and is projected to surpass $500 billion by 2025, according to Marketwatch. However, the fun fact is that gift cards worth almost a billion dollars remain unused every year by their purchasers. Hence, it’s evident that a better approach to gift card advertising stands to make your retail or restaurant business a lot of money.
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Marketing Gift Cards
Irrespective of your business specialization, our list of gift card promotion ideas will help boost your sales and bring in more revenue. There is no better time to capitalize considering the oncoming holiday seasons and buyers looking for better deals and offers. Keep in mind that sales of gift cards peak during the months of November through late December.
Hence, you and your team can get ready for the best holiday seasons with the following gift card advertising tips that primarily use digital marketing.
Here are the outlines of the main points.
- Out of sight, out of mind – your gift cards must be visible
- Use multiple channels for advertising your gift cards
- Use them as incentives for buyers
- Promote special events and holidays
- Bonus tips
Smart Gift Card Advertising tips
#1 Out of sight, out of mind – Your Gift Cards Must Be Visible
A major aspect of the advertising battle is getting the card out into our current attention-deficit world. Most people are busy minding their own business. However, there are ways to help you grab and keep the attention of your target audience. This explains why your target must be spot-on. No product or service is meant to be for everyone.
Your target audience determines why you position your gift cards and the kind of gift card advertising approach you adopt. There are several places to feature a small display or rack. You could either position them close to the POS system or the checkout counter. In the case of retail businesses, you can locate your gift card on one of the heavily trafficked corners. Another smart place to place them is on the receipts and storefronts.
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Hence, these places guarantee higher visibility and action promotion at all times. Also, inform your cashier to present the gift cards during checkout. If not, they can at least tell as many customers as possible about their sales. Usually, you’ll find that the better part of retailers or restaurateurs that have a gift card program wait for interested customers to make inquiries about the cards.
This passive approach doesn’t work. A more proactive approach serves the purpose of pushing the gift cards for customers to notice and buy.
#2 Use multiple channels for advertising your gift cards
Digital marketing performs best when done along multiple pathways. As such, your business stands a better chance of realizing the full potential of your gift card advertising efforts if you use as many channels as are relevant to your card program and marketing campaign. Nevertheless, the three most appropriate channels for your gift card promotion ideas include:
Social Media
Get the conversation going about your gift cards on Twitter, Facebook, and on the Gram too. The more beautiful the card, the better the pictures will look on Instagram. The social media platforms are great for quickly getting the word out and creating a buzz about the gift cards. You can also use them for last-minute promotions during this festive season.
eCommerce
Visitors on your site should find your gift cards hard to ignore and impossible to pass. Hence, it is advisable to place a CTA in a strategic location in your website design. In addition, a link in the header or footer of your website that takes visitors to the purchase page of your gift card is a great idea. If you feel like going the extra mile, you can add popup banners during the holidays.
Email Marketing
Another essential marketing outlet is retail email marketing. It is easy and personal. You can use it to inform your customers about your gift card promotions and tie them to interesting stories that resonate with the members of your email list. However, you must remember not to overdo it. Email is very different from social media.
#3 Use them as Incentives for Buyers
Who doesn’t like bonuses? Retailers have since forever used incentives to drive sales. It is no different today. Many buyers receive small gift cards as bonuses for purchases made over a certain amount. Especially in the holiday seasons when eCommerce and retail business hits its peak.
Apart from direct purchases, you can also incentivize gift cards for your customers when they complete your app download, refer a friend, complete a survey, follow you on social media, etc. The possibilities are endless.
Therefore you should look far and wide to put your cards to good use. Only then will you have done sound gift card advertising. Because, like Tom Fishburne said, “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” Hence, you can imagine your customers and prospects interacting with your gift cards without feeling you are doing gift card advertising.
Finally, you might not know this simple fact, but often when a consumer redeems a gift card, they end up spending more at the retailer than the price of the gift card. Hence, it’s still a win for your business. No matter how much a gift card costs.
#4 Promote for Special Events and Holidays
Take particular advantage of holidays and special events to intensify the marketing of your gift cards. Marketing ideas come to a dime a dozen. However, gift card promotion ideas have quick returns and work anytime the season is right. This is because people buy gift cards usually as gifts. Hence, it’s natural for their sales to skyrocket during Christmas, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s day and other such ceremonial days.
Therefore, you stand to gain a lot of money if you can provide gift cards designed for such specific occasions. Not only does this boost their sales, but buyers can easily personalize the gift according to the event.
Bonus Gift Card Advertising tip
In addition to this, one bonus tip includes:
- Giving gift cards as refund options or vouchers for customer returns and employee rewards.
Bottom Line
Many business owners are yet to realize the full potential gift cards have to boost sales. These cards are what gift recipients request for the most. And among all the consumer purchases made for gift purposes, they are third on the list. These are reasons enough to take your gift card advertising more seriously and give it more thought. Mind you, most of these purchases were made during special events and holidays. Therefore your gift card promotion ideas should always be time-bound. These smart tips take into consideration all these facts, and they should be enough to help your business bring in more sales through gift cards.
