The holiday season presents a significant marketing opportunity for seasonal operators to explore additional revenue avenues through the sale of gift cards. This opportunity holds particular importance during the off-peak season or if your operations are currently on pause.
To further encourage gift card purchases, some operators may want to offer discounts to purchasers. However unlike activities, products and packages; online promo codes cannot be used to discount the cost of gift certificates*
What you can do instead is temporarily reduce the price of your products, to allow purchasers to give the gift of your experience for less than the retail price.
*Discounts can be applied to Gift Cards created and purchased in the back office.
Here's what to do:
- Decide which products will be offered as part of your promotional offer and decide the discount you will offer.
- Create a new, discounted price code for every product that is eligible for your promotion.
- Go to the activity(s) you will offer the gift card promotion for. Scroll down to the the pricing information section.
- First change the dates of the existing price code so that the end date becomes the day before your promotion will run.
- Next, click the 'add pricing' button and select the discounted price code you just created, setting the start and end dates for your promotion.
- Finally, click the 'add pricing' button again and select your normal price from the list, setting the start date at the day after the promotion ends.
- Don't forget to double check that there are no gaps or overlaps in the date ranges.
! Important Assumption: You are NOT currently operating. If you are operating, your guests will be able to book your products at the discounted rates for the days the promotional rate is in effect.
Fig 1: Promotional Pricing - collapsed view
Fig 2: Promotional Pricing - expanded view
Guest Purchase Online
- Ensure that Activity Gift Cards are enabled in the portal you will be using for your promotion.
- If you haven't already done so, set up Gift Card Notifications so purchasers will recieve confirmation and a copy of the gift card they purchased.
Suggestions for Promoting your Gift Card Sale
- Use your mailing list to offer previous customers the chance to purchase your experiences as a gift for their loved ones.
- Promote your sale on your social media channels
- Create a landing page on your website to promote the purchase of gift cards, with a grid indicating the discount that will be automatically applied to the booking during your promotional period.
Fig 3: Activity Gift Card Purchase: Prior to Promotional window
Fig 4: Activity Gift Card Purchase: During Promotional window