How to Sell More Gift Cards in Your Grooming Salon This Holiday Season

We can already hear the sound of jingling bells in the distance, and the shelves are stocked full of pumpkin spice-flavored everything. That means the holidays are on their way, and more and more people will be coming into your groomers to make sure their pets are looking and smelling their best! As a pet groomer, you will want to make the most of the increase of clients by selling them gift cards – use these tips to sell gift cards faster than you’ve ever sold them before.

Follow These Steps To Sell More Gift Cards:

Offer Special Incentives

The best way to convince anyone to do anything is to bribe them. That includes your soon-to-be gift-card-buying customers.

Start a special promotion for gift cards. For example, offer clients a $5 credit toward their next service for every $50 in gift cards they purchase.

Of course, you’ll want to run the numbers on the promo you choose to make sure it’s something you can afford.

Make Gift Cards a Priority

Take a moment to put yourself in your clients’ shoes during the holiday season. Their minds are constant whirlwinds thinking about all the preparations for the holiday. They’re thinking about travel plans and buying gifts, and maybe not thinking in advance about getting their pets groomed.

That’s why you should focus your marketing budget on advertising your gift card this year instead of your grooming services. We’re not saying to stop marketing your services entirely. Putting 70% of your budget into advertising gift cards and 30% into advertising services may be a healthy split.

Step Up Your Internal Marketing

Most people think of marketing as a way to bring in new customers, and it can be. It can also be a way to get more sales from the clients you already have. That’s called internal marketing.

Your current clients may love the idea of buying your gift cards for their loved one’s pets. They may even buy gift cards for their own pets to use so they can take advantage of the discount.

One choice for internal marketing is to send out e-blasts to your mailing list of current clients, highlighting your gift cards. You should also put up signage inside the salon.

On top of this, tell your staff to mention your gift cards when clients check out after their visit.

Take Advantage of Your Foot Traffic

If you’ve scored a great location for your salon, why not milk it for all it’s worth?

Put up an eye-catching sign in your windows advertising that you sell gift cards. Make them prominent enough that people will see them while walking down the sidewalk or driving down the street.

Many people wouldn’t think of a pet groomers as a place to get a gift card, but when they see your sign they’ll say, “Oh I know someone who would love that for their pet!”

Start a Competition to Sell Gift Cards

Unless you’re at your groomers 24/7, a lot of the responsibility for selling gift cards will fall on your staff. Why not give them a reason to get excited about it?

Since your reception staff will play a large role, create competition for them. The reception employee who sells the highest total value in gift cards before a certain date will earn a prize.

You can create extra awards too. Have one for the employee who sells the gift card with the highest value. Give another prize to the employee who sells the largest number of gift cards.

This encourages your employees to mention your gift cards every time a client checks out at the end of their grooming visit. Make sure your team doesn’t get pushy, though.

Run a Full Social Media Blitz

When you’re trying to reach a large number of people in a short period of time, you can’t do better than social media.

Now is the time to invest in a bombshell of a social media advertising campaign. You can even do multiple campaigns for different groups of people.

For instance, have one campaign that’s geared toward your current followers. Run a different campaign you can steer toward other people in the area. Don’t forget to use targeting options so your ads are reaching the people most likely to turn into buyers.

One clever idea is to create an eye-catching graphic that says something like, “Hint hint: I’d love a gift card for my dog from [grooming name] this year!” Your post caption can be, “Share this if you want a gift card for your messy pup this year.”

Clients will see it and share it. Their families will buy them gift cards.

Make Your Gift Cards Easy to Buy

It’s time for a wake-up call: we live in the technological era. Last year around 55% of all holiday shopping happened online.

If you want to sell more gift cards, you need to make it easy for people to do that by selling your gift cards online. You can set up a way to do it on your website or use an existing platform like Etsy or other online marketplaces.

This makes your gift cards easy and convenient gifts for people to buy. It also allows the family members or friends of your clients to buy them. You’re opening the door to a whole new customer base.

Making Gift Cards Your Golden Goose

It’s easy for groomers to feel the lull of the holiday season as clients are spending their money on gifts instead of thinking about their dogs. You can still be there to meet their needs in the form of gift cards.

The tips above can help you sell gift cards like a pro this year, but make sure you’re prepared by ensuring you have ordered your gifts card early. Visit this page to get started!