Salon Gift certificates are the perfect items for all customers, all types, and ages. What better way to offer a more personalized salon experience to someone by using a salon spa gift certificate? These allow customers to pick and choose their own treatments and own times and days. But, though there is significant business potential for such certificates, they aren’t always employed to their fullest by all salons. Some salons advertising campaigns and in-store displays of these ingenious creations leave a lot to be desired!

Do Your Salon Gift Certificates Have Prominence?

With just a few simple but creative salon gift certificate selling techniques you could instantly increase your gift voucher sales. This also means boosting your sales figures simultaneously.

Where and how do you display your gift cards? Presentation is crucial if you are to make your customers aware that your salon offers this service. Gift Certificates should be shown at the front of your salon, with pride of place. The most preferred location is at the reception desk. Let your customers pick them up, touch them and see for themselves what they are about. Don’t keep them locked away at the back of the area.

You could always put a selection of sample cards out and refer to the real ones when they are purchased. Let the customers see your gift certificates for themselves. Promote them on your shop front, around the salon, on all promotional material and, of course, on social media. Make it so that as soon as customers read about your business, they also learn about your gift card services. Reading and hearing about your special offers is excellent publicity. Yet, nothing can beat the power of a customer being able to see those deals right in front of them.

Do Your Salon Gift Certificates Cover All Occasions?

With a unique occasion happening every month, what better way to promote your cards than linking them to each one? Have fun here and use certain days to your advantage. Christmas is the most prominent event for salons to go to town with Christmas Salon Gift Certificates. Then there is Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter and so on; the possibilities are endless!

However, don’t just stick to the usual occasions – be creative, utilise the various national holidays. How about Teachers Day, Grandparents Day, Graduations and Sweet Sixteen? What about advertising salon spa gift certificates for baby showers or new mum present ideas?

The more inventive and outside the box, the more chance your gift cards appeal to a broader section of customers. Alternatively, don’t wait for the customer to think about a possible cause for celebration. Offer them the idea first or even think about creating your own unique individual events. This way you can tailor your salon gift certificate ideas to suit your businesses special offers.

Have You Considered Your Salon Gift Card Design?

You could have all the promotions and special occasions in the world; but, if your gift cards are not up to scratch visually, you will not get anybody buying them! Don’t let your hard work down here and utilise all the skills you can, preferably using someone with design experience. Sometimes some salons will use an employee to produce their gift cards to cut costs at this initial process. However, this will mean the result is poorly constructed and consequently yield cheap cards which are dreadful to look at.

Offer an array of designs on all your cards. You need to promote your business brand on these cards, but there’s no need for tacky designs. Try various design types that cater to younger and older customers, male and female. Why not consider different certificate designs based on different services? Make sure your salon gift certificate wording is appropriate for each one. Utilise marketing keywords to make the certificates appeal and draw attention to your business.

Do a little research on local stores which you feel offer the best selection and most tastefully designed gift certificates. Use this knowledge and work from there with your own designs. What is it about the others that attract you, because this will be precisely what your customers are looking for.

These certificates are a purchase that each customer chooses to make. Would they expect to pay a lot for a basic strip of cardboard? Many of these vouchers will be given to family, friends, and colleagues as gifts. Add an envelope or place the certificate in a simple cellophane bag elegantly decorated but pleasing to the eye. Make this first impression, the best one, after all, this is your way of attracting more clients to your business!

Have The Occasional Sale Using Salon Gift Card Promotions

If all the high streets and department stores can run regular sales, then why can’t your salon do the same? Offer the odd deal on gift cards and work on promoting the sale to reach as many customers as possible. Christmas is once again a great time for sales and perhaps one of the busiest times for all businesses. Why not use this opportunity to run a big end of year sale with various promotions for the coming year? This ensures your customers flock to your salon to start the new year off on the right note!

Alternatively, why not think of an incentive that will help you sell further certificates, getting more people into your salon:

• Could you offer complimentary gift certificates to customers who purchase an expensive package?
• Would a competition or sweepstake work best for you both in store and on your social media accounts?
• Does your salon run promotional events? If so, could a gift certificate be added to your goody bags at the end of these sessions?
• Can you give a gift certificate to charity for inclusion in a raffle?
• Do you have a loyalty scheme in place for those more regular of customers?
• Could you issue a small amount on a gift certificate to your loyal club members on their birthdays as a special treat? This could mean they use the voucher towards a further paid treatment?
• Could you offer a recommend a friend referral scheme, gifting each new person introduced to the salon?

Use Salon Gift Certificate Specials to Generate Future Interest

Ultimately, gift certificates are your most significant marketing tools. Place as much emphasis as possible on their creation and getting your sales technique right beforehand. This way, you will reap the rewards back through the sale and through the introduction of new customers. Take the time firstly to ensure that any terms and conditions you need to add to these cards are clear and concise. Yet, ultimately don’t overpower the entire concept of the gift certificate experience with complicated rules and wording. Try not to confuse your customers with the small print.

You may want to highlight your gift certificates to get more people into the salon for special weeks. This is great for the quieter trading periods. You can look at imposing a time restriction on some of the cards for this purpose if necessary. But, for those more substantial amounts purchased, try not to stipulate when the customer must use the card by. Of course, there is the practical side of this to consider but don’t come across as preachy. Could you look at selling specific voucher types for each treatment to combat this?

There is no end to what you can do and achieve with a salon gift marketing campaign. So many people are accessing salon gift certificates as alternative ways of gifting. This makes it one of those essential marketing techniques that your business really can’t afford to lose out on.

The post Salon Gift Certificates | Your Complete Guide appeared first on Belliata.