Are Gift Cards For You? 3 Reasons To Add Them to Your Business
All companies — whether you are new or well-established — are looking to grow. Grow customers, grow sales, grow profits. It’s a common goal with a ton of methods, services and solutions at your fingertips. How do you know which of these services is right for you? How do you traverse these murky waters successfully? Success is often built one step at a time.
One of those strategies you will need to make a choice on is gift cards. Are they for you? Can they really help your business? It may not appear to be an easy choice to make from the outside, but achieving “more” in your competitive market often requires you to explore effective ways to build your profits and increase customer loyalty.
For many types of businesses, gift cards have become a no-brainer. Most dining establishments, salons and day spas have all traded in their once-popular gift certificates for the plastic. They know the benefits of pre-selling themselves to their customer base and expanding to new clients. Today, more and more of the non-typical merchants are using gift card programs. From supermarkets to car dealerships to even pet-grooming services, the gift card has found itself as a successful business tool. Let’s take a look at whether gift cards fit your business. Consider these three simple reasons why gift cards might actually work for you.
Your Clients Demand Gift Cards
It’s often said that gift cards aren’t a creative gift. The demand for them, however, tells a different story. Plastic gift cards were among the top of the most-asked-for gift items (clothes and media/electronics are the other items in the top three). Whether it’s because of a gift card’s ease of use and delivery; or because the gift-givers want to introduce their friends to a service they like; or because there are more and more creative choices that will be appreciated by the recipients … gift cards continue to rise in popularity. More and more consumers expect business establishments to offer gift cards. If they don’t, they often find a competitor that does.
It’s All About Image
There are a variety of advertising products out there to help get your word out. But few can match the appeal of a shiny new gift card with your identity presented on the card. Many of today’s larger gift card companies can offer you considerable options related to your card’s appearance. From inexpensive, quick-ship “standard” card designs that are personalized with your business name to full-color designs based on your artwork, logo or photography, the options are many. Regardless of how your card is designed, it will become a small billboard in your customer’s wallet — a durable reminder that your brand is their preference. Add some matching, customized merchandising materials — such as posters, custom card hangers and carriers, or attention-getting card displays — and you have an integrated marketing plan to drive attention to what may be your most profitable product — your gift card program.
Increase Your Revenue and Profits
You’re probably like most of us in that you wouldn’t mind building your customer base, driving more sales and more traffic. The great thing about a gift card program is that it positively impacts all of those areas of business growth. One gift card purchase will represent at least a couple visits to your establishment — one trip to buy a card, and at least another to redeem it. And, often, those coming to redeem the card may be new to your business. And a share of them will like your business so much that not only will they, too, become loyal customers, but they also will start telling their friends about it. Gift cards have now helped increase your customer base and traffic. And all these consumers are coming to purchase something using their card, often something a little more expensive than they might have without the card.
Regardless of the type of program you offer, one key benefit applies to any gift card program. The day you begin to sell gift cards is the day you begin to gain additional revenues. Gift cards allow a customer to “pre-pay” you for products or services to be delivered later. That card may come back later today. It may come back next week or next month. Some will likely never come back. But you can count on that gift card purchase revenue sitting in your bank account. That’s revenue you can use to help run your business now while you wait for a new customer later. That’s a situation any business would envy, and a well-designed gift card program is a great way to get there.
Tags: Marketing