How To Create And Use
Holiday Gift Certificates
By Eric Ruth
What you want to do is sit down at your computer and create a REALLY nice looking gift certificate.
You have to decide what you want to give away. Let me just say that the more VALUE you can build into this gift certificate, the better it will work.
Something like a Fitness Jump Start package of two free training sessions plus a complete fitness assessment plus a free sample of a great new product you offer (more on this in a moment).
You decide what you want to give away, and package it any way you want, but just keep in mind that it should be IRRESISTABLE.
The gift certificate should have a catchy name, and a value ($67, $99, $137, or whatever) printed clearly on it.
The cert should be just the right size to fit into a holiday card without folding, and it should be copied onto a nice heavy paper (with a parchment look to it). People ascribe value to something that looks valuable – make you gift certificate look valuable – no cheesy clip art, please.
It should include all your contact info, a deadline for redemption, a full description of what the recipient gets for redeeming the cert, some motivating words about taking advantage of this offer to “create a new you” (or something like that) and a “To:” and a “From:” section.
If you have a web site, include the address.
You should hand write holiday cards to all your past and present clients and sphere of influence contacts thanking them for their business/support/friendship/whatever.
You should include another insert the same size as the certificate which includes directions for the use of the certificate and instructions on how to get more if the person wants to give out a bunch of them as gifts.
The insert would say something like this (obviously you would have to adjust this based on to whom you are sending it):
For a client:
Dear Friend and Client, (since you’re personalizing the handwritten card itself, no need to personalize this insert)
As my way of thanking you for your business this year, I’ve enclosed a special Christmas/Hanukah gift certificate that you can give to someone you care about. I know how hard it is to shop for some people, so I want to make your holiday shopping easier. The special gift certificate I’ve enclosed has a real cash value of $___. Since you know the quality of service I provide, you can be confident that this gift will be welcomed and appreciated by the recipient (and I certainly appreciate the opportunity to serve someone you care about). Keep in mind that there is no obligation to purchase anything – this truly is a FREE gift! All you do is complete the “To:” and “From:” sections, put it in a nice card, and voila – you have a nice gift worth $___ to give to someone you care about. As you know, there really is no greater gift than good health and the good feelings that come from being fit. The gift certificate has a deadline date for redemption, so please hurry! If you have others on your gift list you would like to give these certificates to, just call me at _________ and I will rush you up to five more of these certificates.
Again, thank you very much for your business this past year and Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukah.
Sincerely,
Your name
P.S. I’ve also enclosed another special gift certificate for you to use personally! I have a new service called ________ that I think you will really enjoy, so I’ve included a certificate enabling you to try it out for half price.
END
Now, the P.S. is very important for a couple reasons.
It gives you an opportunity to introduce your clients to a new or repackaged service you provide at half price as a “gift.”
It gives you an opportunity to include a certificate from a massage therapist, chiropractor, nutritionist, etc. in a joint venture deal whereby the nutritionist (or whomever) gives out your gift certificates to his/her clients and you give out theirs to yours. (If you choose to go this route, you want to scale back the value of the certificate because it’s not prudent to give away too much in this case. Maybe the certificate is for one free session only or a package of three sessions at half price, or whatever. I can’t tell you how to package your stuff because I don’t know your numbers, but just remember not to be too cheap about this. The goal is to get the certificates redeemed!
For a non-client:
The certificates that you mail to non-clients should not be as generous as the ones you mail to clients, but should still be valuable.
Maybe just one free session or a half price package, etc.
The key here is how you BUILD VALUE with your copy by describing the free/reduced price service. Make it sound really compelling!
I touched on this earlier regarding the joint venture idea, but I want you to really think about this now: you have an opportunity to really go gang-busters with this idea if you contact all the health and fitness related business owners in your area and offer them the opportunity to mail your certificates to their customers as a special gift. You DO NOT have to reciprocate this by mailing their certificates to your clients (because you probably don’t have enough clients to make it a fair exchange). All you have to do is position the offer to these other businesses as a special gift.
You tell the business owner that you will give them the art (a nicely printed original) of your gift certificate that they can reproduce and mail to all their customers as a gift from them.
As long as your gift certificate has real value (i.e. one or two free training sessions, a steeply reduced rate for a package of sessions, buy one session – get two free, etc.), the business owner has a nice gift he or she can give to his/her customers for FREE.
This builds goodwill for the business owner AND exposes you, FREE OF CHARGE, to all his/her customers.
Just remember that you want to offer MULTIPLE reasons and ways to respond.
What I mean by that is that the certificate should offer the free/reduced price service, but it should also offer your free report, or a free sample of a great new product you offer.
The point is that not everyone who receives these gift certificates will necessarily be ready or willing to start a fitness program, so you want to offer them another reason (or multiple other reasons) to contact you for additional information or to sample a product.
Also, be sure to include ALL your contact info on the cert: phone, fax, email, website, 24-hour recorded msg – because different people want to get their information in different ways.
That’s what I mean when I say offering MULTIPLE REASONS to contact you and MULTIPLE WAYS to contact you.
Remember, the goal here is to get as many people as possible to “raise their hand” indicating an interest in something you have to offer.
Also, don’t neglect contacting other professionals like realtors, your dentist, your doctor, your accountant, etc. and offering them the opportunity to mail out your certificates to their customers/patients in their Christmas/Hanukah cards.
You can gain MASSIVE exposure this way.
This is the lowest cost marketing you will ever do, and you can get huge exposure very rapidly. Plus, you are building goodwill between you and the professionals to whom you offer the opportunity to give away your services for free because you are giving them a FREE gift they can give away to their customers, thereby building goodwill for them.
IT’S WIN-WIN! The absolute best-case scenario.
Yes! You will end up giving away a lot of stuff for free. But if you look at that as a bad thing, you are being myopic. The whole point, as I already mentioned, is to build your database of prospects – QUICKLY.
And frankly, there is no better way for you to sell your services than to allow someone to sample your services. Experiential selling is much more powerful than anything else. (It’s like the classic “puppy dog” close used so successfully by many salespeople, whereby they give you the product to try out for one week free of charge. Once they have the “puppy dog” in their home and learn to love it, it’s much more difficult to return.)
Also, you MUST keep in mind the lifetime value of a client. It’s silly to think of this as “giving away” your services. What you are doing is “investing” in new clients by providing a sample of what you do. Once you are actually training them during their free session(s), you have the opportunity to tangibly demonstrate your expertise and sell them additional services. I really, really hope you understand this.
However, with all that said, your gift does NOT have to be free services. You can simply offer a special reduced priced service or product or a free book or free report or half price book or whatever. Brainstorm ideas for what you can GIFT. Don’t get hung up on the gift itself (although it does need to be compelling), instead, focus on the STRATEGY – because it works!
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