If you don’t embrace the sale of gift certificates and gift cards—especially during the holiday season—you are letting money walk right out your door. Consumers are looking for solutions to their gift-giving problems, and you can provide that!

Create a Campaign

For massage therapists and bodyworkers, this is the perfect time of year to start a marketing campaign centered around the gifting experience. Clients need those gifting answers, so start talking to them now. Whether you choose gift cards or gift certificates, and whether you choose to only offer them within your business’s brick and mortar or via online purchasing options, or both, the bottom line is: let your clients know!
Put gift certificate reminders in the treatment room, bathroom, payment counter, or wherever you can to prompt clients to share with their family and friends the amazing post-treatment feeling they’re having right now. Remind clients that this is a thoughtful, personal gift that says, “I care about you.”
Gift card purchases not only boost your holiday retail sales, they also invigorate your business and bring in new clients. But they also are an aspect of business that many don’t think of as a marketing tool that can be used year-round. Campaigns can center around the wedding season (“Need a Bridal Party Gift?”), Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, or Back to School (“Get Your Grad Some Self-Care Before Heading Off to College”). There are untold numbers of ways you can devise campaigns that speak to your clients and their year-round gift-giving needs.
Whether your gift certificates are pretty and fanciful or modern and sleek, research tells us that customers want to be able to personalize their gift. Give them an opportunity to write a little note to include with the gift certificate or gift card, let them pick the ribbon you might use to finish the presentation or the gift card design, or maybe they can upload a photo or video to go with the purchase. These options help the gift buyer feel like they are still making a personalized gift choice. And remind them giving the gift of health couldn’t be more personal!

Pro Tips

• Number your gift cards for record-keeping purposes.
• Log in to your ABMP account and look under “Discounts” for gift card and gift certificate opportunities with our partners, or download your ABMP gift certificates here: www.abmp.com/members/marketing-center/bizfit-resources/gift-certificates.

Note

1. Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), “2019 National Massage Consumer Survey” (survey conducted by Harstad Strategic Research, Boulder, CO, 2019).