Effective Gift Card Marketing Strategies

Story By Square

If your business doesn’t already have gift cards in its arsenal, it’s time to get on that beat.

Once you have your gift cards, you need to go full throttle on marketing them. Here are some effective ways to promote your gift cards this season:

Put them everywhere.

The easiest (and most obvious) way to market your gift cards is to make sure people don’t miss them when they’re at your business. That means they’re everywhere — the register, hostess stands (for restaurants), dressing room waiting areas (for retail), and any window displays. Also tout them on your signage: places like menu boards or sidewalk signs. You can even include a callout to your gift cards on your receipts (you can add and customize that sort of customer-facing message on your Square receipts in your Dashboard).

Encourage more spending.

One extremely effective sales strategy is to use gift cards as a carrot to upsell your customers. If you offer a free $20 gift card after people spend a certain amount, they’re more likely to grab a few extra items to meet that threshold. And if they end up giving the card to someone else, that’s a new customer for you.

Leverage them for brand awareness.

Businesses in your local community are always doing events and sweepstakes. Take advantage of the buzz they are creating by offering up your gift cards as a raffle prize. This helps raise awareness for your business — and also makes the winners new customers.

Send a marketing email.

A campaign letting your customers know you have gift cards is one way to stand out (again, people really want them). With the right email marketing tools, you can target people on the hunt for quick and easy gifts. Toward that end, make sure to send out a gift-card-focused email a day or two before any big holidays.

Make them eye-catching.

Large retailers’ gift card designs can be sort of ho-hum, so differentiate yours by making them eye-catching. Custom gift cards with clever copy are a way more fun and memorable stocking stuffer than something generic. Square gift cards make it easy to create and order custom gift cards for your business.

Offer gift cards for referrals.

A word-of-mouth endorsement is one of the best ways to get new clients. Encourage this type of behavior by offering people a small gift card when they refer new people.

Leverage social media.

Posts about your gift cards should be all over your social media channels. You also might consider running boosted ads to make sure these posts get more eyeballs.

People are hungry for gift cards — so all you need to do is market them. Utilize these strategies to get your gift cards on people’s shopping radars.

Read the original post at Square