You’re new to gift certificate templates and you don’t know where to start? This little guide will help you to get up to speed.
Making Custom Gift Certificates
Maybe you want first to know why you should bother about gift certificate templates in the first place. In that case, make sure to read 6 Top Reasons To Use Gift Certificate Templates. You can review our guide titled Custom Gift Certificates in 3 Steps. You might also be interested in reading How To Make Your Own Printable Gift Certificate. If you don’t know which templates we offer, have a look at our 8 Sample Gift Certificates article. If you’re looking for alternative templates, check out 3 ways to find gift certificate templates. And finally, if you are looking for words on your templates, our popular guide to gift certificate wording might be of interest to you.
Gift Certificates For Small Businesses
If you’re a small business owner, you should make sure to read 6 Reasons Your Small Business Should Sell Gift Certificates and How To Sell More Gift Certificates. Marketing your gift certificates in an efficient and lucrative manner should be one of your primary focus, so read also Marketing Gift Certificates For a Small Business. It’s important to know that fraud exists and how you can fight it by Tracking Gift Certificates For Your Small Business.
Keep Learning: Two Options
- You can subscribe to the newsletter to receive periodic news about new templates or highlighted blog posts.
- You can subscribe to our RSS feed to receive automatically all the latest blog posts in your RSS reader.
Both options are available in the top right corner of this blog.
Gift Certificate Factory provides instant gift certificate templates that you can print and sell to your customers. Check out our gift certificate template gallery.
Gift certificates are on the rise. More and more small businesses realize the opportunity lying in front of them and decide to offer gift certificates. They are a great way to make more sales and increase customer loyalty for your business. To maximize their value, it is worth considering how to successfully execute gift certificate marketing.
Gift certificate marketing objectives
Your gift certificate marketing strategy should target the following objectives:
- Communicating the fact that gift certificates are available and are a popular and desirable gift
- Conveying the relevance, variety and quality of the gift certificate- offer upsells such as metal tins, boxes and die-cut envelopes
- Reinforcing the “convenience” benefit of purchasing gift certificates
- Building awareness of your gift certificate program through inclusion of certificates in print, direct mail, e-mail, online, and other advertising opportunities
Gift certificate marketing ideas
-
Trigger impulse purchases
You should place all gift certificate designs on a highly visible, easily accessible, well-organized page on your website, as well as on your confirmations and receipts, which will appeal to impulse purchasers. Big stores all have their gift cards at that location, that’s because it works.
-
Use Personalized gift certificates
Gift certificates are usually given for special occasions: birthday, christmas, graduation etc. Make sure that you have a wide array of gift certificates so that you can accommodate all gifting desires. Having unique designs and personalization options like a space to write a personal message helps. You can also have designs that fit with corporate customers, so that you don’t miss potential sales.
-
Network with similar small businesses
A very effective way to market your gift certificates is to partner with another local business. The way it works is that you offer gift certificates for the other business, and they would do the same. It works better if your businesses are somehow related, or could attract the same category of customers.
-
Use a psychological weapon: reciprocal agreement
Reciprocal agreement is a widely used sales technique meaning that you first give an item to somebody. The sense of reciprocation, deeply rooted in human social behavior, makes the customer want to give something back. You could offer a gift certificate of small value to a person visiting your shop for the first time. Reciprocal agreement kicks in and you have turned a visitor into a customer, likely along with a juicy purchase.
-
Use another psychological weapon: liking
Liking means that we are more sensitive to people we like, like our friends, and so we value more advice or opinion coming from them than coming from a stranger. This is also a widely used sales technique. For example, at checkout time, you could offer a gift certificate to a customer and to his best friend (if that still makes economic sense to you). That will act as a referral and you’ve secured a new customer, your customer’s best friend.
