As a smart hotelier you could never miss a chance to sell gift vouchers – possibly the most effective tool in your marketing arsenal.
NB: This is an article from Staah
Luckily, it’s super easy to set up your gift voucher system with the right technology, and even customise it to fit your branding. Once your “online gift shop” is set up, it’s time to go full throttle with promoting it.
Here are 9 tips on what you need to do to run successful gift voucher campaigns.
1) Put them everywhere.
An easy, even obvious, way to promote your gift vouchers is by making them available at all online and offline locations – registration desk, restaurants, outdoor areas, menu boards and of course online via your website. Don’t forget to use email marketing to push out your vouchers.
2) Get social.
An effective and efficient channel, social media can hardly be ignored when talking about a robust marketing strategy. Posts about your gift vouchers should be all over your social media channels. You also might consider running boosted ads to make sure these posts get more eyeballs. Gift vouchers make a great prize for social media competitions – ideal to create a buzz and get engagement.
3) Meet the need with the right product.
Be relevant to the audience you’re talking too – even for gift vouchers. Selling a luxury experience to a budget-conscious backpacker is not great marketing.
4) Leverage special days and events.
Having gift vouchers available for special days such as Mother’s Day or valentine’s Day creates an opportunity for guests to use as a gift. Gift cards are one of the easiest gifts to give, and you could be missing out on a huge customer base by not offering them around these days. Make sure you give sufficient time to the promotion of your vouchers before these special days.
5) Run multiple campaigns.
Make the most of your gift vouchers by running many campaigns simultaneously. This way you can be relevant to more people at the same time.
6) Think out of the box.
They may be a gift voucher but think of gift vouchers outside the direct sales realm. Gift vouchers are great to create brand awareness – offering them as raffle prize for one. Reward loyal customers and guests who give referrals with gift vouchers.
7) Get strategic with sales.
An effective strategy employed by many hoteliers is using gift vouchers to upsell. Set a minimum spend threshold and for guests who exceed this, reward them with a $20 (or similar lowish amount) gift voucher. They’ll be happy with the reward – possibly spending a bit extra to cover off their “prize”. If they gift it to someone else, you could have a new customer.
8) Get the right tools.
With the right technology you can easily set up an online shop for your guests to purchase gift vouchers. It’s a simple add-on that can be customised to suit your branding, is easy to use and mobile-friendly.
9) Keep an eye out on the ROI.
Learn from your mistakes and optimise based on statistics. Push forward with campaigns that work – investing further to give them the required lift and decommission those campaigns that are not working. STAAH’s Gift Voucher System provides meaningful insights to help you stay on top of your campaigns and ensure a good return on investment.
To sum up
Guests are hungry for gift vouchers. All you need to do is market them. Utilise the strategies suggested above to get your gift cards on people’s shopping radars.
