It may come as no surprise to learn that the majority of your gift sales around holidays happen within 24 hours of the event. This fact means you need to get in front of your gift buyers and stay there as they’re making their purchases. Fun fact – this behavior is why SpaBoom came into being, actually. Turns out one of our own procrastinated a bit before buying a special gift for a loved one. Faced with an inability to purchase, online, a very special gift of spa, he knew there was a real business opportunity to be had. He knew that he couldn’t be the only one who’d ever been caught up in life and then found himself faced with a big event requiring a special gift, and he was right.
Yes, some people plan. We know them, and appreciate their foresightedness when it comes to sharing. Those people will need to hear from you and see you well before a gift giving event. Weeks before. They’re the ones you create packages for and promote all over your website and on social media and with in house promotional imagery like POP.
Most people, however, wait until the last minute and then find themselves in a panic. For your procrasinators, you need to promote as well, but waiting a little longer to get that BOGO offering up a $20 gift certificate with a $100 purchase will catch their eye and generate significant last-minutes sales.
Promoting these great offers is pretty straightforward. Last-minute promos mean you need to use venues we like for transactional reach – emails, social media, and in house imagery (POP). Try sending an email a week before, then one just 48 or 24 hours before Valentine’s Day and see what happens. And know that social media is your friend when it comes to last-minute promotions. The visual piece – the POP – will help you not only capture the interest of clients already visiting, they’ll help you trigger and reinforce the promotional messages you’ve already sent.
As Valentine’s Day barrels down, be sure to come up with one or two fun promos that will help your gift buyers make the right purchase, then enjoy capturing the sales opportunity. It’s about meeting your gift buyers, where, and when, they’re making their decisions.