In today's Website Marketing Newsletter...
This Year, Buy (And Sell!)
Gift Certificates...
I usually stink at holiday shopping. But not this year. This
year I have a few tricks up my sleeve. In this edition of the
gazette, I'll give you some great gift ideas and why this is the
year to give gift certificates. (Oh, and if you have
a localized business, I'll share a way to boost your holiday sales
significantly.)
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Today's gazette has two parts. Part
one directly below will give you some really clever gift ideas.
Giving gifts like these will not only make you a hero in the
eyes of the recipient, it will prop up your local economy. Part
two explains how you can sharply boost profits of a local business this
holiday season.
Part One: Local Gift Ideas -- Why &
How
Take a quick mental inventory of the
gifts you gave last holiday season. How many of them were made
in China or some country other than the one you reside in? My
guess is that at least 80% of them fall into that category.
Chances are, you did this for one of
two reasons. Low prices, or if you're like me, you're in the
habit of generally not noticing where gifts are made.
This year I'm doing things
differently. Here's why...
Most countries, including mine, are in
tough shape financially. And most local economies are suffering
as well. With a small adjustment in your gift giving habits, you
can make a real difference.
Here's the simple adjustment to your
giving giving that will not only prop up your local economy, but
will make you a hero in the process...
Think of all the things the people
on your shopping list either a.) enjoy doing or b.) have to pay
for even though they don't want to. Then buy them as gifts. Here
are some examples:
Things people like to do in their
local area:
-
Do they go to the spa, salon,
hairdresser or barber? Then
buy them a gift certificate to their favorite one.
-
Do they go to the movies? Buy them a
gift certificate to their favorite theater.
-
Do they golf? Many golf courses and
driving ranges sell gift
certificates too!
-
Do they heat their home or water
with oil or gas? Pre-pay for a boiler cleaning service. Not
sexy, but it will be appreciated!
-
Everyone uses car mechanics from
time to time, especially for oil changes, and many of them sell gift cards.
Even car wash gift certificates are nice for the person who's
fanatic about keeping their car clean.
-
Get them a gift card to their
favorite local restaurant. If they don't like to eat out, get
them a gift card to their favorite market or grocery store.
-
Local sporting event tickets or gift
certificates make a
great gift. (Minor league games are a lot of fun and cost a
fraction of major league tickets.)
-
Fishing and hunting licenses make
great holiday gifts!
-
Have kids on your list? Instead of a
toy they'll break in a week, get them a gift card to a local go-cart track, bowling
alley or an arcade if you can still find one!
Use your imagination! Just the act
of buying something that caters to the likes of each individual
will show that you put some effort in and they'll appreciate
that. Even if it's a $10 gift card to their favorite local coffee
shop.
All those gifts above support local
businesses.
Heck, even if you don't live in the
same geographic area as your gift recipient, you can still use
this strategy. Just search in google for their town and the gift
certificate you want to give.. What's better -- propping up the local economy
where the gift recipient resides? Or buying yet another gift
from China.
Make this the year to keep the money
in local economies!
In part two below, I'll show small
business owners how to cater to all these localized gift givers...
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Part Two: How To Profit From Local Gift Giving...
If you have a local business you need to make sure you offer
gift certificates for your products and services. But just
selling gift certificates at your shop is not enough. Take this
a step further and you can really boost your income this holiday
season...
Sell instant gift certificates at your website!
I set up a local beauty salon to sell instant gift
certificates a few
months ago and it took me all of 15 minutes using a $10 a month
solution. The salon was pleasantly
surprised when they sold more than $5,500 worth of gift
certificates in three months, before the holiday season
got underway. At the current pace they'll likely do another $10k
in December alone.
What you'll need to sell instant gift certificates online:
- A website that's search engine optimized for local
search.
- An easy way to take orders and let customers print gift
certificates immediately upon ordering.
Optimizing a website for local search is pretty
simple. For starters, you need to make sure the service you
offer and the geographic area your business resides, is in the title tag of your site.
In other words if you operate a hair salon in Danville, Illinois, your
site should have a title tag that contains Danville, Illinois
and hair salon. Your title tag would look something like this:
<title>Danville Illinois Hair Salon by Sally</title>
Then get a few links from state and local business directory
websites. If the links look like this --
Danville Illinois Hair
Salon -- your site will shoot to the top of the
search engines for that phrase in a week or so, especially if
the competition is not web savvy like you!
Next, find a way to sell gift instant certificates. A fast and
simple solution for spas and salons is
SnapCerts.com which is the one I chose for my local client.
Snapcerts lets customers print their gift certificates
instantly, and I quickly found out that offering instant gift
certificate printing generates a lot more gift certificate
sales. Many people are busy these days and wait until the last
minute. The need an instant gift and you can provide it!
You'll need a merchant account or a paypal account to use the
SnapCerts gift certificate selling solution. Though it is geared to
spas and salons, their
demo shows a few non-salon templates you could probably use
for other types of service related businesses as well. Plugging
it into your site takes literally minutes.
There are many other solutions on the web for selling gift
certificates at your site, though some of them are a bit pricey.
Just be sure the one you choose lets buyers print instantly.
That's the real secret behind getting more sales.
In closing...
By combining this basic "local seo strategy" with instant
gift certificates you too may experience a sharp increase in
business. You'll likely find that not only local people buy gift
certificates, people all over the country will buy your gift
certificates for their friends and relatives who live in your
local area.
This year, shop locally. You'll help local businesses and get
some great gifts in the process.
Have a safe and profitable holiday!
See ya in a few
weeks...
Jim Daniels
Jim at bizweb2000.com
make-a-living-online.com - Free
web based guide, no opt-in required.
P.S. Need some personal guidance with making money online? I
have a few slots open in my coaching site. I've helped countless
people make money online in all kinds of niches. Maybe I can
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