Offer buy one, get one free
December 11th, 2008 • Posted by Bill Bice • Permalink
We've just added another great promotional capability: buy one, get one free (BOGO) for Instant Gift Certificates. For example, you can offer a free $20 gift certificate when purchasing a $100 gift certificate.
BOGO has a nice advantage over straight discounting because the free GC goes to the purchaser, encouraging another spa visit and more money spent.
To run your BOGO promotion:
- Go to Marketing, Events and select your Holidays event, or add a new one.
- If you currently have an event with "Featured services", I'd recommend keeping those, so you'll want to add a new event. You might also want to add a new event to run your special for a shorter time period.
- If you're adding a new event, you'll need to enter a headline like "Free Gift Certificates" and a narrative, for example, "Purchase any gift certificate for $100 or more, and receive a $20 gift certificate for you!".
- Enter the time period for which you want the promotion to apply with the "Start date" and "End date".
- For "Special", select "Buy one, get one".
- In "Offer", select the promotional GC you want the purchaser to receive. You can create a brand new offer if you want, but it's easier to select one and then change it.
- Enter in "Threshold" the purchase amount required to receive the free promotional GC.
- Modify the "Offer description" if you desire — this will appear at the top of your Instant Gift Certificate page.
- Hit the Update button. You'll now see a preview of the promotional GC. Scroll down click on the Change Offer button to change the value of the promotional GC, the expiration date, the GC design, etc.
See an example.
Notes:
- Promotional GCs can only be marked in SpaBoom as redeemed in full.
- The default offers all start wth 90 day expiration dates. You can make it whatever you desire, including a date range. For example, you could encourage spa visits in January.
- It's a good idea to include any restrictions you're placing on the promotional GC in the Narrative of the event and in the marketing of your promotion.
- The offers on promotional GCs aren't limited to just a dollar amount: you can make them for anything. For example, you could give a 20% discount on retail products from January 1st to March 31st.
- Current events are automatically included in email marketing campaigns by default — it's a great idea to time an email at the start of your promotion.
• Trackback • Posted in Creating Customers, Spa Gift Certificates, SpaBoom New Features
Does SpaBoom charge a fee for the "free" gift certificate?
Hi Robert,
There's no commission on the promotional GCs.
– Bill
While we were on the call today, I asked a question that didn't get answered quite correctly. I want to know if there is a way that if we offer a free $20 GC with a $100 purchase, can we entice the client to purchase a $200 GC with a free $50 GC, BUT but 2 separate $100 gift cards. My idea for this is that if a client goes online to purchase a gift card for one friend and decides to do the $100 promo… maybe they would then say, "Oh ya' know… I can also get my other friend one, and if I do, I get an extra $10 in GC?" I know we can do two separate offers, but that would still only allow you to have one GC for $200 to get the $50. It would not let you purchase two separate $100 GC's to get the $50. Any ideas or would it just not work?
Hi Johnnie,
That's a great idea, and we've already been discussing it. But as you've deduced, you can't do it right now. Unfortunately, we're not going to get any more changes in before Christmas.
– Bill
Since nearly all GC buyers on SpaBoom are from out of town, they have no need for the free GWP GC. Should I put a note in there that says to forward it if they wish?
JOHN
Hi John,
You certainly can — the message can be whatever you'd like, so you can put in something that suggests they use it as a bonus present.
– Bill
I'm so glad you added this option. Over the weekend I had added a gift with purchase to the main page on my website which was the $100 GC for a $20 free gift. I had listed it as in store only since I didn't know it could be done on the website. Well, tonight I changed it as you described. Hopefully, that will bring in some more business. Thanks so much.
Hi, we do buy 2 GCs and get a 3rd for free… is that in the works?
Love the new upgrades. SpaBoom is the best marketing tool I have ever used. We love the results… hence new clients and new sales!!!
I would like to give a free gift certificate if someone purchases a certain amount in a category of services (we offer massage therapy, acupuncture, and specialty services). Our current special is purchase $100 total of massage therapy and/or specialty service GC's and get a free $20 GC for any service we offer, but I can't make that translate into my SpaBoom acct.
Denise,
With services only, the best way to accomplish your goal is to advertise that each GC purchased for $100 of services will receive another $20 GC — through your Events on your website, or flyers, or anywhere.
Then, when a purchase has been made that meets the promotion, just go into SpaBoom and create a new GC on your GCs tab. Select type "retail" and you'll be able to choose your design and either print or email it to your client — no fees charged!
I hope that helps — have a good holiday!