Getting ready for Christmas with Toggle
Christmas is only a short time away and this year it’s more important than ever that brands are ready to make the most of this valuable revenue opportunity.
We’ve put together our top tips below, including linking out to further Toggle Academy articles, to help you make the most of the opportunity where 60% of yearly gift card sales take place.
One: Physical Cards
Physical cards sold in your locations will increase overall revenue. Make sure that you have them displayed prominently, as well as advertised on table talkers, in menus and on till receipts.
For customers purchasing online, having the option to buy a physical card will grow your sales further. Simply, some people won’t do the email option, either because they are unsure of the process OR because they want to gift something physical with substance.
To get going on physical cards – read our four step guide
To understand how fulfilment works – Here’s our FAQs
Two: What’s your gift range?
It’s good to have a range of gifts available (you know how people like to browse) so have a think about what you can sell alongside a standard gift card. Experiences are perfect as they allow you to be more creative with your marketing.
A dinner for two including a bottle of wine or a Masterclass sometimes goes down better than a gift card as it’s more tangible as an experience which can be shared. You also get a perception of increased value which can lift the average transaction value.
Read here how to Create an Experience.
Three: Think about your comms
Make sure you’ve included banners in your email templates and are doing dedicated broadcasts to help push sales. Don’t forget your social channels alongside your email (and SMS). Social advertising can be measured using Goggle Tag Manager, and we have tools within Toggle to enable you to do retargeting campaigns.
Get to grips with Google Tag Manager
Four: Go Hard Early.
Flash sales in early November (ahead of Black Friday) give you the opportunity to test discounts using promo codes for either value add or percentage discount ahead of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
How to create Promo Codes
Creating a Special Offer
Five: Black Friday
Isn’t just Black Friday, it’s all weekend and then Cyber Monday as well. Most people will be buying for themselves rather than as gifts. If you go heavy on the discount then perhaps shorten the life of the card. [Make sure you are clear in the terms and conditions!]
Read our blog on Black Friday from last year
Six: Train your teams
Your front of house teams are great sales people. Make sure that you incentivise them to push sales of gift cards; remember, they don’t have to be big ticket, so even having them
Seven: Look to the corporate market
Let’s face it, Christmas bookings are going to be a bit thin on the ground this year. Why not do an experience that 4 or 6 people could share, so that workplace teams can still celebrate together but in a social distanced way. Alternatively, you could create a promo code specifically for a business which gives them a discount on a batch of gift cards up to a certain value.
Eight: Market up to the wire
Our busiest day last year was the 23rd December (although we did a good revenue on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day morning). A well placed email and SMS on Christmas Eve will, without doubt, deliver revenue.
Nine: January Bounceback
You can use Toggle to create a batch of vouchers that are only valid in January and issue to your customers as a little treat.
If you want to go a bit further, you could offer up a January Sale with a promo campaign that delivers added value or a discount off an experience. Again, this could be date restricted to drive more immediate visits.
Ten: Give something back
It’s been a tough year for everyone. Pay it Forward and Bundles gives you the flexibility to generate revenue for a charity or local cause as part of the sale.
How to do a Pay it Forward Bundle
Finally...
If you don’t invest the time you won’t see the returns. There’s at least one certainty this year -that people will buy gifts for each other. Make sure your brand is under the tree!
