Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/149404
Use signage to raise awareness An excellent place to post signs promoting your gift certificates is just inside the treatment room door. It's the last spot people see as they leave your treatment room and come to the reception desk with their credit card or checkbook in hand. Give an incentive for buying For greater sales, make sure there is something in it for the purchaser. There are all kinds of possibilities here. You could offer a 15-minute upgrade that can be used by the purchaser, or a free session for buying a minimum quantity of gift certificates. You could provide a premium, like a paraffin treatment, hot towels, a body scrub, or whatever value-added service you have. Emphasize shorter time frames Instead of selling one-hour certificates, just sell half-hour certificates. The unit price is lower so it seems less expensive. As a result, people are more likely to buy more, which will bump your overall sales. Track your results Record the number of gift certificates you sell and note how many were redeemed and upgraded. I'd also suggest tracking how many redeemers booked a second appointment, and the ongoing sales totals for those clients. This will allow you to refine your promotions and make them even more profitable the next time around. Maximize Your Redemption Rate To benefit most from your gift certificate sales, you'll want to maximize your redemption rate. The redemption rate for massage therapy gift certificates at my clinics has ranged from 10–90 percent. As a result, I have identified some of the factors that make a new client more likely to use his gift certificate—and become a regular client. Generally speaking, the higher quality gift certificate used, the higher the redemption rate. I once used an oversized, color gift certificate on beautiful, textured paper that came in a decorative holder. We got close to a 90 percent redemption rate on those. When we sold our existing customers gift certificates with just black ink on colored stock paper, we found our redemption rate dropped significantly, to about 50 percent. I've also had black and white gift certificates with a redemption rate of only 10 percent. I would suggest you always indicate an expiration date on the certificate, otherwise customers will hang on to them for a long time and still want you to honor them. If it is not legal in your state to place expiration dates on your certificates, simply suggest a time frame, for example, "Please enjoy before June 1, 2014." During another gift certificate promotion, I said to clients, "January and February are my slowest months of the year, so I'd love to provide you with a great holiday or Christmas gift for your colleagues, family, and friends—and it helps me out at the same time." I told my clients the truth of my situation; being honest with people is the best way to market your practice. Here was my proposal: "I'm going to discount my gift certificates significantly. However, there are two conditions. First, these are for people who haven't been into the clinic before. Second, the certificates will have a two-month expiration date, instead of my normal one-year expiration date." The first time I ran this promotion I sold literally hundreds of half-hour gift certificates because it was a fabulous deal for my existing customers. They wanted to introduce people to the benefits of massage, and this was a really cheap way for them to do it. Plus, these were all redeemed in January and February, a time when I traditionally had a significant amount of downtime. Instead, I was busy seeing new customers I could convert into regulars. What this means for you is that you can control certain variables and use gift certificates for a whole range of purposes, depending on what your needs are at the time. www.abmp.com. See what benefits await you. 95