If you know businesses that create digital gift cards for their customers, you must have noticed that it works as an effective marketing strategy for them. You can either create gift cards to keep in touch with your customers, or even start selling gift cards.
Businesses that sell gift cards are also on the rise. They create digital gift cards in different shapes and forms, and make their customers happy by emailing them.
What is a Digital Gift Card?
A digital gift card is a gift code from a business, a retailer, or an online store, which is delivered to the recipient via email. Just like regular gift cards, digital gift cards are for wishing or greeting a person, and offering them a discount, a prize, or any other form of a gift by giving them a code. If the gift card is digital, the code is sent via email. This code can either be used online or at the retailer’s store. If it’s used online, the code is keyed in on the checkout page. If it’s used at a retail outlet, the code is revealed to the cashier to be keyed into the system.
In other words, to create digital gift cards means making virtual cards that are given to customers as a present for giving them an added incentive to make purchases from your store. These are sometimes called e-gift cards or electronic gift cards. They always come with a code that needs to be revealed or keyed in for using the card for purchases. There are certain terms and conditions associated with the validity and usability of the code. A virtual card that can be used for making purchases in your store. Those who create digital gift cards also refer to them as e-gift cards or electronic gift cards containing a gift code assigned by the brand and are sent via email.
These cards are very effective in helping a hesitant buyer in your store decide. Many brands have an option of digital gift cards of various amounts. For the validity and usability of the card, sellers decide on a range of conditions.
How to Make Gift Cards?
Since many businesses offer a gift card to their customers, it is not very difficult for you to do the same. If you learn how to make gift cards, you can offer them as part of your promotion and advertising strategies.
Many businesses use ready-made tools or software to create digital gift cards. These tools allow you to upload your logo, key in your business or brand name, and enter the amount to offer a gift card worth. You can then customize the colors and fonts, upload any relevant pictures and icons, and download the design. This is how simple it is to create gift cards these days.
Once you know how to make gift cards, you can upscale your business by increasing engagement with your customers on every occasion and gift-giving season. You can even start selling gift cards if you see your customers really like and appreciate the design.
One way to know if your customers are fond of your digital gift cards is to observe if they are sharing them on social media sites. When you create digital gift cards that are appealing to your customers, they would like to show them off to their friends and peers on social media. This is not only good for your brand image, but can actually bring in more sales for your business.
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Let’s discuss the benefits of using and learning how to create digital gift cards for your business.
Benefits of Digital Gift Cards for Your Business
Digital gift cards have gained popularity because they give benefits to businesses on many levels. Here are some of them.
1. Increase in Brand Loyalty
When you create digital gift cards for your customers to pass to them as presents and discount opportunities on special occasions, it keeps your customers reminded of your brand and is thus a good brand management strategy. People always like to be greeted on occasions, and of course, who doesn’t like to get gifts? When your customers receive special offers when you offer a gift card, they feel happy thinking about your brand. They begin to associate positive feelings with your brand and your products. This enhances their brand loyalty towards you.
The more you keep your customers engaged, the more loyal they will be to your brand. Another way to maintain communication with your customers is to encourage them to send in their inquiries to you.
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2. Increase in Sales and Revenue
An increased brand loyalty ultimately leads to an increase in sales. When customers like your brand and prefer it over others, every time they need a product from the category you are selling, they would prefer to buy it from you. They will always remember what you are selling and make a purchase as soon as they need something like that.
On top of that, when you create digital gift cards for them, they need to use the code by making a purchase from you in order to use the discount offer. This works as an additional incentive for your customers to buy more from you. You might create digital gift cards that offer a discount beyond a sale worth a certain minimum amount. In that case, the customers will have to make sure their purchase is at least worth that minimum amount so that they can enjoy the discount on it. Your cross-merchandising offers might particularly be useful here. Either way, when you offer a gift card, it causes a rise in your overall sales.
3. A Secure Promotional Offer
Digital gift cards are very convenient to make and secure to offer to customers. They differ from the physical gift cards that require a lot of time and effort to prepare and print. As mentioned above, it is easy to learn how to make gift cards, as there are many open-source or cloud-based platforms available for this purpose.
Using the code system on digital gift cards is very secure for both you and your customers. A customer can shop for anything they like and use the gift card to get a discount on it. This means you don’t have to go on guessing what kind of product your customer would want to buy on a particular day. You can create digital gift cards that can be redeemed on a certain minimum sales amount, regardless of whatever product your customer buys from your physical or online store.
4. Enhance Your Customer Base
When you create digital gift cards and send them to your customers, they are likely to want to show them off to their friends. This makes them naturally promote your brand to their friends. In their excitement, your customers would show the gift cards to their peers and colleagues, who might also feel tempted to receive and redeem them. As a result, the friends and colleagues of your customers might also start buying from your store, hoping to receive a gift card from you in the future.
5. A Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy
It doesn’t cost you much to create digital gift cards. In fact, the cost to offer a gift card to your customers in the digital form is almost negligible. If you make and print physical gift cards, like in the olden days, you would have to spend on the card design and printing. But now you can create digital gift cards that are as appealing as the physical ones, but save all the cost consumed in designing them in 3D and getting them printed. That’s why if you sell gift cards with your other products, you’ll be using a quite cost-effective marketing strategy.
6. Have a Competitive Edge
Your competitors might come up with all kinds of pricing schemes and advertising tactics. But if you sell gift cards, you might be able to overrun them. Customers love to receive gifts, and might prefer your brand over others merely because they regularly receive digital gift cards from you. After all, your goal for your business is to make your customers happy so that they keep buying from you.
How to Sell Gift Cards on a Website Built on Strikingly
If you are using Strikingly as your website builder, you can easily create digital gift cards for your customers on it. Strikingly offers gift cards as coupons and discount codes.
Image taken from Strikingly
A common way to create digital gift cards or coupons codes is for those who have already purchased at least once from your store. This increases the chances that your existing customers will make repeat purchases from you.
Using Strikingly Pro Plan, you can launch a campaign on your store offering coupons to the customers you have on your list to keep driving them back to your store. These are your members and you can distribute the coupons to them via the secure members-only page. You can create digital gift cards (or coupon codes) seasonally or permanently.
Image taken from Strikingly
You can create a coupon code on your Strikingly website by going to your Simple Store manager, and clicking on the button that says ‘Create Coupon’. This will open your coupon editor. Here you can enter a code that your customers can apply to get a discount at their checkout.
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If you are looking to build a website with an online store, sign up for your account in Strikingly today. You can get familiar with all our basic tools using our free plan. Once you are ready to launch your store and start making sales and want to create digital gift cards, you may choose to upgrade to our Pro Plan as well. In case of any queries, you can contact our support team any time through our 24/7 live chat support.
