There are two big benefits for massage therapists to sell more gift certificates – new clients and additional dollars received. So why aren’t you selling more gift certificates?
It’s difficult to find a downside for selling more massage gift certificates. Consider some of the statistics around gift certificate sales:
- 41% of customers trying a business for the first time do so because they received a gift certificate, that breaks down to 4 out of every 10 new customers!
- More than half of them, roughly 55%, come back more than once
- 7 out of every 10 gift certificate redeemers spent more,
What it boils down to is this: Massage therapists who sell more gift certificates should also have (a) more new clients, (b) more first-time clients who become returning clients, and (c) clients who spend more over the course of their time with you.
Ingredient #1 in the Secret for Selling More Gift Certificates
Set goals.
As they say, “What gets measured, gets done.” Goals must be specific and measurable, whether your metrics of choice are in numbers, percentages or dollars. See the list below for some ideas about what kinds of goals you should set.
If this is your first foray into gift certificate sales goal-setting and tracking, keep it simple and focus on a few key numbers, such as staff participation, new clients acquired and overall revenue generated from gift certificate sales.
Ingredient #2 in the Secret for Selling More Gift Certificates
Track the results of your practices’s gift certificate marketing investments.
If you can’t tie results to specific marketing efforts, you won’t know what’s working. Here are some ways you can measure your massage gift certificate marketing results:
- Overall and monthly, quarterly, etc. revenue attributed to sales of gift certificates
- Number of gift certificates sold
- Average amount of gift certificates
- Percentage of staff (if you have any) who sell one or more gift certificates
- Sales of gift certificates by staff
- Percentage of customers buying gift certificates
- Number of new clients acquired from gift certificates
- Number of first time clients (attributed to gift certificate redemption) who return one or more times
- Percentage of first time clients who become repeat clients
- Number of gift certificate redeemers who purchase services, retail products and/or both
Ingredient #3 in the Secret for Selling More Gift Certificates
Stop telling your clients that you have gift certificates.
Most massage practices promote gift certificates as though they believe customers don’t know they’re available. So they continually remind customers that they sell them and put displays by the cash register, graphics on their websites and mention it in email newsletters.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Consumers expect everyone they do business with to sell gift certificates.
Your clients know you have gift certificates. Therefore, if they aren’t buying your gift certificates, it’s not because they don’t know you have them!
To sell more gift certificates, you don’t need to alert your clients to their existence; rather, you need to persuade them to buy them. They need to be convinced that your massage gift certificates are thoughtful and appropriate present for the person they’re buying for.
They need to know who to give them to.
They need to know that you’re grateful for their referrals – whether those new clients come strictly via word of mouth or because they received a gift certificate. They need to feel as good about giving your gift certificates to their co-workers, friends and loved ones as they feel when they go out and spend hours shopping for a perfect gift.
Ingredient #4 in the Secret for Selling More Gift Certificates
Be occasion-specific.
The four life events and occasions that generate the most gift certificate sales overall include Christmas, birthdays, Mother’s Day and graduation. Create marketing campaigns to promote sales of massage gift certificates that speak to these gift-certificate-sales-generating occasions and invest more in gift certificate marketing efforts during these key seasons.
Don’t worry that you are cannibalizing sales by selling gift certificates to your own clients, even if you are extending a special offer. Remember that when redeeming gift certificates, people usually spend more than the gift certificate’s value and may actually spend more than they would normally, because the money is not all coming out of their wallet or bank account at the same time!
Ingredient #5 in the Secret for Selling More Gift Certificates
Get better at leapfrog.
Besides selling gift certificates to your clients to give away to others, think about how you can leapfrog over your ideal client type and promote massage gift certificates to the husbands, boyfriends, moms, dads, sons, daughters, co-workers, friends and others who are buying gifts for the people represented in your target markets.
In other words, if you want to sell more massage gift certificates (and you know you do!) you can’t merely promote gift certificates to your own clients. You need to find ways to interact with gift-givers on social networks, email, partner marketing, advertising and other marketing avenues in order to sell massage gift certificates to the people who buy presents for the clients you want most!
Selling gift certificates to your patients can not only be a source of immediate income, but it will attract qualified new patients into your practice.
It’s always a good time to start thinking about how you’re going to promote your practice using gift certificates.
Here are 4 Great Ideas To Get The Most Out Of Using Gift Certificates
- Begin where you know best – Start with your family and friends. When they are getting ready to prepare their gift lists, ask them to think about who might enjoy a gift certificate for your services. Let them know that if the recipients don’t schedule within the year, buyers can use the gift certificates themselves. Don’t forget to offer them package deals if they buy a quantity.
- Promote packages to both your active and inactive patients. Offer them a free treatment for themselves if they buy more than two or three.
- Think about who may need your services and offer them a gift certificate. Think about your old friends, co-workers, neighbors, and your cousin’s, sister’s best friend? Offer them a free mini-stress reduction gift certificate with the option to upgrade for a full treatment, at a fee you can live with.
- Trade with neighboring businesses. Walk around, or drive around your community and take note of all the businesses within a 5-mile radius. Exchange gift certificates with them – hair salons for gift certificates, oil changes for gift certificates. You get the idea. Give them gift certificates that offer a free mini stress reduction treatments in exchange to something they are willing to offer. In this way, you can share other great gifts with your patients, spread the word of other local businesess and network while you are at it!