THE SMART
GIFT CARD
The trick is not the card, it's HOW you give it out. Marketing master Jim Ackerman talks about how to make gift cards work for you.
THE IDEA - Jim helped a jeweler go into fancy hair salons, car dealerships, golf stores, and other high end businesses and ASKED THEM TO INCLUDE THE JEWELER'S $100 GIFT CARD WITH THEIR CHRISTMAS CARD. The businesses were sending Christmas cards anyway so it cost them nothing, it saved he jeweler postage, it got their card to a WHOLE NEW LIST OF AFFLUENT PEOPLE and it made it look MUCH more like a gift than a promotion. BRILLIANT!
You don't need to wait till December. You can co-op with other affluent stores now and ask that they give your gift card to deserving customers.
Jewelers are often scared of giving away a strait gift card for say $50. They are afraid everyone will just buy $50 of items and they loose $25 at cost. But isn't it worth $25 to get NEW POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS in your store? Jewelers who have tried this say customers did spend more than $50 and it was profitable. You can't win if you don't play, and you can't win BIG if you don't play big.