With the Festive Season a few weeks away, there is little time to make sure your gift card program is correctly handled. You need to ensure that customer engagement and loyalty is your top priority by utilizing Gift Cards to their maximum potential.
To be sure of a successful campaign, planning ahead is above anything in terms of importance. Just to name a few, things like budgeting, promotional ideas, and gift card creation are some of the things you need to consider prior to the month’s end.
Regardless of circumstance, people will always choose convenience, flexibility, and variety over anything, proven time and again (Gift Cards are the most requested Holiday Gift for the 15th year in a row1); that’s why gift cards are the perfect way to satisfy customers’ needs as they’re easy, fast and secure, making for the perfect gift for anyone and everyone.
So how do you provide the perfect Gift Cards for your customers during the season? Read on.
Define Your Goals
As mentioned above, it begins with a plan. Figure out what you want to do. Are you planning a specific product promotion? Creating new gift cards? Guerilla marketing? Signage? It all comes down to what strategy fits you best, and whatever you choose, careful planning will do wonders. Additionally, like most marketing plans, a budget will be needed, possibly the biggest one of the year, since the holiday seasons tend to be an ample revenue stream.
Gift Card Promotions
- Brand Partnerships
- Loyalty Points
- Limited-time gift cards
- Give One, Get One
Partner Up
You may not have enough resources to successfully distribute your very own gift cards, but there are ways to circumvent this obstacle. Teaming up with online distributors like us will give you the perfect stepping stone where you have access to a massive database of users, visibility, and all our digital marketing channels, giving you the reach you need to sell your products. With this, a mutually beneficial relationship evolves, where our users can flock to your brand and vice versa.
Modify Existing Gift Cards
A few tweaks can ensure more revenue and higher profit margins. Take advantage of the fact that everyone wants something during the holidays, so what can you do to deliver that? One way is by increasing existing gift card values. Customers will still wish to buy a gift card, but more value means higher sales, even if the same number of cards are sold vs. the previous months. Approximately half of all gift card sales are for self-use2; this means that not only will customers gift themselves something, but they will probably think it’s a good idea to gift their loved ones as well. Take advantage of self-use gift cards through marketing to up the holiday sales.
Sell Gift Cards In-Store
If you have a lot of footfall in your stores during the holiday season, make sure to display physical gift cards in-store to maximize visibility. Many consumers are in-store already, so you may as well expose them to physical gift cards, whether for self-use or someone else.
Go Digital
With COVID (since 2019), eGift Card sales increased by 50%3; with this in mind, you can’t deny that digital gifting is just as, if not more important, than physical gift cards. From newsletters, push notifications, social media, Google Ads, and everything in between, digital gifting is cost-effective and efficient, especially when it comes to the holiday season. Utilizing factors of the digital channels can maximize your return; things like Newsletters or Last-minute mailers to create a sense of urgency can do wonders for boosting sales. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc.), depending on your target audience, is also a viable channel to successfully reach your customers.
So if you want to ensure this holiday season is successful, feel free to connect with us. Our platform is the perfect place to help you through the stress-filled season and can be a great stepping stone to empower your organization through the holidays.
Sources:
1 – https://www.giftcards.com/gift-card-statistics
