Small Business Holiday Marketing Ideas: 5 Ways to Sell More Gift Cards

small business marketing ideas selling more gift cardsGift cards may well be the great equalizer this year when it comes to consumer holiday spending. Find out how much consumers are planning to spend on Gift Cards this year and position your business as their gift card retailer of choice.

Selling Gift Cards Could be the Key to a Merrier Small Business Holiday Marketing Season this Year

It is probably no surprise to local brick and mortar retailers and small business owners that online shopping is diverting the attention of holiday shoppers and even reducing in-store traffic during the holiday months.  But many local small businesses that don’t sell goods or services online may still be able to capture a portion of the online holiday shopper’s budget by promoting sales of gift cards; here’s why.

A new study from Accenture Research indicates that 57% of 2014 holiday shoppers plan to spend money on gift cards this year.  While many local small business owners do not have ecommerce capabilities, many do have the ability to sell gift cards and digital gift cards online. This ability could prove to be a great equalizer in helping them attract more online shoppers this year.

In the study, 54% of consumers said they planned to spend up to $50 on gift cards, 32% planned to spend more than $50 on gift cards and only 13% said they did not plan to purchase any gift cards at all. Of those planning to purchase gift cards as part of their holiday shopping budget in 2014, they intend to buy gift cards for:

  • 45% – Restaurants
  • 40% – Discount retailers
  • 35% – Prepaid cards
  • 33% – Online only retail sites
  • 27% – Department stores
  • 19% – Apparel retailers
  • 18% – Specialty retailers
  • 16% – Electronics retailers
  • 14% – Toy retailers
  • 4% – Luxury goods retailers
  • 3% – Other

Of note, restaurants seem to be especially well-positioned to make gains in sales of holiday gift cards this year.  The 45% of the holiday shoppers who will be buying gift cards planning to purchase restaurant gift cards is up from 34% in 2013 and just 25% in 2012.  The other categories coming in with significant increases over 2013 and 2012 levels are prepaid cards, online only retailers, department stores, apparel and toy retailers.

Small business owners looking to sell gift cards to holiday shoppers need to be ready to attract the attention of online shoppers as well as promote gift cards to their customers and contacts (email, social networks, etc.) 

Here are 5 Ways to Sell More Gift Cards to Holiday Shoppers this Year

  • Optimize, optimize, optimize!

When a local consumer types a phrase into a search engine with intent to buy gift cards from local businesses or looking for a local place to buy gift cards, web site optimization for search is crucial.

  • Capture traffic with new web content.

Search-optimized blog articles or web pages that contain search engine-indexed content will the pages that get served up to consumers when they search for gift cards to buy for the holidays online.  Adding new content throughout the holiday season can garner new attention from search engines and holiday shoppers alike.

  • Leverage social networks’ organic and paid post options.

Craft the right socially-sharable offer and your followers will become your defacto marketing force, sharing your offer with their family, friends, co-workers and others on social networks.  The low cost of boosting promoted posts on Facebook along with the ability to target these posts geographically could make it a high-yield marketing tactic to help you promote sales of gift cards with local consumers this year.

  • Incentivize. 

Since people shopping with gift cards tend to make more than one trip to exhaust the card’s value and are likely to spend more than the amount on the card, any discounts extended to promote sales of gift cards could be more than made up in resultant revenues. Consider incentivizing sales of gift cards with BOGO (buy one get one free, buy two get one free, buy three get one free, etc., or allowing customers to buy gift cards in bulk at a special price) or free gift-with-gift-card purchase offers.

  • Frame it as a feel-good.

Many businesses look for a give-back project during the holidays to help those less fortunate.  Why not make the people who purchase your gift cards during the holiday season feel good about their decision by donating a portion of proceeds to a favorite charity?

You might also like:  4 More Ways to Sell More Gift Cards During the Holidays

Or you can also download a free eBook with 12 Days of Holiday Marketing here. 

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Elizabeth Kraus is the marketing manager for business cash advance and receivables factoring company DB Squared Inc. and the author of From Beginning to End: 2014 Small Business Marketing Calendar, available on amazon.com.

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Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] of this year’s holiday shoppers expect to buy one or more gift cards for someone on their list. Top choices for holiday gift cards include restaurants, discount retailers, prepaid cards and online-only shopping […]

  2. […] of this year’s holiday shoppers expect to buy one or more gift cards for someone on their list. Top choices for holiday gift cards include restaurants, discount retailers, prepaid cards and online-only shopping […]

  3. […] Small businesses and local retailers might find that promoting gift cards provide them with the best opportunity to engage and convert holiday shoppers this year.  […]

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