Jump on the experience gift bandwagon with Rezdy

35% – this number has been growing every year – of Rezdy customers sold gift cards last year. That’s because gift cards and gift vouchers are now the #1 requested gift over the holidays. In fact, a recent study done by Wharton found that people are happier receiving experiences rather than physical goods; they found that at the time of receiving the gifts, people are just as happy with experiences or physical goods but become happier when consuming the experience as compared to using a physical gift.

And with everything that has happened in the past year, customers are shopping online more than ever with a recent study finding that the market for gift cards is expected to grow 10% annually. Furthermore, 72% of consumers spend more than the total value of the gift card, so you’ll be sure to sell more tours.

So if this was all enough to convince you; how can you jump on the experience gift bandwagon and think of gift certificate ideas for your business?

Create your experience gift offers

For gift card promotion ideas, you could tweak your offering to reflect a specific package coinciding with special events & Hallmark holidays throughout the calendar year, such as:

• Mother’s Day
• Father’s Day
• Christmas
• New Years
• Valentine’s Day
• Easter

Of course, you can use these offers all year round for birthdays, giving your customers a chance to organize that birthday gift they’ve been meaning to get. Also, why not create a special birthday package? As an example, for a wine tour, you could offer a birthday package with a hamper on arrival including the gift card to be used towards their experience? Or as a city tour, you could hide a birthday gift card on the way for the man/woman of the hour as a surprise? The possibilities are endless when it comes to giving the gift of experience, your brand simply needs to make the extra effort to take advantage of this rising industry trend.

Remember that your (soon to be) customers need to feel like you’ve got exactly what they’re looking for. There’s a reason they are searching for a tour or activity like yours, so cater to it and provide custom gift certificates.

Is it to relax? Is it for romance? Is it to get an adrenaline rush? Or is it to have some light-hearted fun with friends?

For example, for Mother’s Day, create a package specifically for moms, pamper them by including a nice bottle of wine or some flowers. You could even include free family photos, they’ll be a great reminder of your tours & activities.

Distribute your offers

One of the major benefits of an online booking system is that there are two different avenues of online distribution for your newly created experience gift packages.

Online, on your site

Make it easy for your customers to buy your product as a gift.

Within Rezdy, this key feature of a good online reservation software is easy to set up.

There are two options to help with your gift certificate marketing ideas:

1. Customer purchases Gift Card, Recipient receives email digital gift card.
2. Customer purchases Gift Card, Purchaser receives email and gives to Recipient in person.

You can even make it so that there is no expiration date for your offer.

For full gift setup instructions, click here.

Online, through partnering with other sites

Partner with experience sites like Great American Days (in America) or RedBalloon (in Australia). They cater exclusively to people who are on the lookout for an experience gift – and they even separate their products into categories like gifts “for him” or “for her”.

Rezdy connects directly with these agents, giving them access to your live inventory. This eliminates the need for double data entry and the risk of overbooking your tours and activities.

Click here to see which online distribution agents you can build partnerships with.

Promote your offer

Finally, don’t forget to promote your new package. Get the word out. Could you imagine all those disappointed souls who received a sweater rather than your amazing experience package? Here’s a short list of ways you could do a gift voucher promotion for your experience package:

• Display it prominently on your home page as a banner.
• Run some online advertising on Google or Facebook.
• Partner with blog sites like Concrete Playground to create lists such as “Top gift ideas to pamper your mom this Mother’s Day”.
• Tell all your distribution partners about the code (they may have it in their terms and conditions that you do not undercut their price on your site).
• Email all your past customers telling them about your gift certificate ideas.
• Email all your new customers by including it in your reminder and follow-up emails.
• Schedule in social media updates promoting the offer (you can use Hootsuite, it’s free!).

If you enjoyed this article – Jump on the Experience Gift Bandwagon With Rezdy – then follow the Rezdy blog. There are a lot of marketing tools and resources designed with businesses like yours in mind.

Now is the best time to prepare for a busy season ahead and update your business with technology to streamline your bookings and grow your sales channels. Start your free trial with Rezdy today.