With a little bit of planning, a carefully thought-out strategy and armed with a powerful gift voucher management system, you can substantially increase your holiday sales. Let’s get started.
Get the Right Gear
If you want to play the pro circuit, you need to be equipped for it. So to make sure your guests can reach you easily, you need to be visible [online] and have an easily accessible shop. STAAH’s Gift Voucher Engine allows you to keep your shop open 24×7 – perfect for last minute shoppers and those who prefer buying gifts sitting behind a screen as opposed to battling crowds in a shopping mall.
It will also massively reduce the time your team spends on gift voucher admin so your staff can focus on delivering an excellent guest experience.
Market to Your Loyal Customers
Gift vouchers are a great way to engage your guests and encourage them to come back. Sold on your service, they are also ‘influencers’ who’d be happy to buy your gift vouchers for friends and family – the gifting season then becomes a trigger. We suggest beginning your voucher marketing efforts with your past clients through carefully crafted emails and remarketing campaigns.
Create Great Experiences
Many surveys show that consumers prefer buying ‘experiences’ or packages as opposed to a price-tag gift voucher. So craft great packages that include things like spa treatment, set-menu from restaurants, breakfast etc instead of the usual $100 or $250 voucher redeemable for any service at your hotel.
Remember you’re creating packages to gift; they need to last beyond the holiday season. Instead of a Diwali or Christmas Package, you could create an ‘Indulgence Continues Deal’ or similar. Since gift vouchers are an excellent way to tell guests about services they probably didn’t know about, make sure you create packages that include these services.
Sell on Social Media
Everyone is on a hunt for great gifts at this time of the year. Make sure you’re in their face by promoting your gift voucher packages through social media. In addition to creating posts and targeted ads that make an impact, have you considered creating a custom tab on your Facebook page – bringing your customers one step closer to purchase. If you have the budget, extend the marketing to other consumer platforms.
Promote Them On-Premise
Post signs throughout your property promoting your vouchers as gift ideas for holidays. It’s the cheapest way to advertise!
Gift vouchers are a fantastic tool to increase your brand awareness and give your business a cash boost. With a large proportion of gift vouchers never being redeemed, they are a great revenue earner with high profit margins. However, for many properties they remain a largely underutilised marketing tool owing to the cumbersome administration traditionally associated with it. Automation through the likes of Gift Voucher Engine has changed all this allowing you to go into the festive season all guns firing, making the most of every revenue opportunity out there.