One of the fastest and most effective ways to increase your bookings and fill up your schedule is by selling and/or distributing gift certificates.  You can offer them at different dollar amounts, use them for a “Buy 1 Massage, Get 1 Free” promotion, and/or bestow them to your most loyal clients to share with their friends and family members.

Here’s a look at how and why gift certificates are perfect for your massage therapy practice:

They generate more revenue.

It’s easy to increase overall revenue by utilizing the benefits gained from. In fact, gift certificates are an efficient referral-generating tool, especially for massage therapy. This is because when a gift card is purchased, not only is that specific session already paid for but also it’s individually endorsing you and your practice. With all prices already being eliminated from the service that will be received, any client objectification is minimized. This is the opportunity for your skills to shine and be highlighted since it’s not common for many businesses to have existing customers pay their money to bring in more clients for you. Highlighting your skills and making them shine, while also promoting unique deals such as gift certificates, will create a lot of buzz for your business and also set the cycle of new clients in flux.

They generate a big return on a little investment.

There are a bevy of benefits, depending on your financial needs at the time, that will affect many variables of your business when utilizing gift cards. Acquiring new clientele via gift certificates will cost you absolutely nothing, especially if you’re offering eGift Cards. Additionally, utilizing gift certificates will never result in any type of acquisition fee, such as placing an ad out and attempting to draw in more clients. This means you will never have to worry about making that fee back. It is also possible to maximize your redemption rate by having high-quality gift cards which clearly indicate usage restrictions on them and even offering them at discounted prices, when financially appropriate.

They can be used for different promotions, at different dollar value amounts.

Choosing to discount gift certificates at a financially acceptable time for your business is, strategically, a smart decision. Doing this will set the buying cycle in flux to not only generate repeat customers but also ensure that you bring in many new clients. In addition to the temptation of a discounted price, chances are current clients will also recommend your place of business to any friends, family, or co-workers once they give them the gift card. The summer wedding season and holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, and even Father’s Day or Mother’s day are perfect times to start incorporating gift card discounts.

If you plan it efficiently, by starting their campaigns at least six weeks ahead of time, utilizing holidays for strategic discounts will enhance your current clientele.

Offering eGift Cards on your website and at the front desk of your practice are great places to have gift cards available. Since they are at the place of checkout, chances are they will easily be noticed, especially if the cards are high-quality and have descriptive terms of usage on them. Since gift cards can be bought at the very last minute, often times they are extremely appropriate gifts for people to buy – especially if they have just remembered a gift-worthy occasion at a short notice. Of course, if you are seeking only to increase your transaction value then more focus should be placed on selling them at their usual fee. Having a set goal of an amount to sell will help bring dreams of creating a larger client base to life for massage therapists.

Just because they can be an affordable and appropriate last-minute gift doesn’t mean that there should be no incentives to buy them. Even at discounted prices, everyone loves an incentive to buy and the more gift cards that people buy, the more clientele you bring in. Ideas such as treatment upgrades, or a free session available after a certain amount have been bought, are incentives to consider. Having an email newsletter that is sent out to your entire client base is an appropriate way to, not only efficiently make them aware of any incentives available to purchase gift cards, but also encourage them to take advantage of any special short-term deals available or how to apply for any discounts. All of this will generate positive reception, and having as many user-friendly ways as possible to strategically promote discounts, incentives, or special offers will generate more clientele.

While you can certainly have them available all year, the winter holiday season is a perfect time to promote your massage therapy practice’s distinct gift card program. Start promoting gift cards now and give yourself a year-end bonus!

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