How To Promote Gift Cards For Your Restaurant

There are several reasons why every restaurant should offer their dining experience as a gift card. One of them is that it takes so little effort: put it on your website, and the rest will happen automatically. Do you want to get a little more out of it?

These tips will help you to sell more and smarter.
 
1. Use both plastic gift cards and digital gift cards

Today, the transformation of consumption means that there is no longer a barrier between the digital and the physical. With new technologies and customer behaviour, consumers now use both physical and digital channels in their shopping journeys. All this without distinction. For that reason, they expect to see the gift card as a set and do not distinguish between the plastic and the digital version.

Plastic gift cards are great to offer in the restaurant, while the digital gift cards can be offered 24/7 all year round, also suitable for the later buyer.
 
2. Offer gift cards of various amounts (also above the average spend)

You probably don’t know how much your client spend on gift cards every year. The statistics show that on average, shoppers expect to spend approximately $213.49 on gift cards. There are always guests who want the most expensive. By including more expensive gift cards, you ensure more income upfront. With an expensive all-in package in the shop, the other gift cards suddenly seem a lot cheaper.
 
3. Promote your gift cards in a way that suits you

A little bit of promotion doesn't hurt. Consider adding a subtle note to your menu. Provide a ticket with the bill. And, especially around the holidays, use your social media channels and newsletter to promote gift cards in addition to your special menus.

One thing you should always do to promote gift cards is to create a landing page on your website. Not only can guests find the page immediately, Google also indexes your gift card page.

Also, mobile-friendly web page is an important element in today's online marketing. Your gift card landing page and ordering page must be compatible with your customer's different devices: Desktop, mobile, tablet, etc. and offer an equal experience.
 
4. Contact your regular guests

Opening a gift card service on your website is not enough. Like a new line of products, you must think about the implementation of a communication campaign. Don't pray your customer discovery your gift cards themselves somedays. They need to be informed. Never underestimate the power of a personal recommendation. Consider setting up an automated email about your gift cards to guests who have booked a few times. This way, you turn regular guests into ambassadors for your restaurant.
 
5. Thinking more about the end-user of your gift cards

The guests who buy your gift cards probably are not using it by themselves, most likely giving it to their friend or love one who might never be to your restaurant. Therefore, it's important to put the basic information about your restaurant on the back of the card, like address, phone number, email, etc.

For the front of the card, you could have a high quality photo of your feature food, just like the big close-up shot of a burger in Burger King's gift cards. That's a great way to grab your customer's attention. To highlight your logo, you could consider using Hot Foil Stamping or Spot UV, you could know more about this from your plastic gift card suppliers.
 
Bottom Line

As mentioned above, gift card is not only a product but also a marketing tool. More and more businesses and restaurants are using this tool to build their brand awareness and attract new customers. Vigor Printing is a plastic card manufacturer with more than ten years of experience in the field. If you have any question about plastic card, gift cards or membership cards, please send us an Email here. Looking forward to hearing from you.