Gift Certificate Give Away - Advise Please

[Nickaroni]

Hi everybody,

I need to tap into the wealth of information and advise on this site and need a little guidence.

I am just starting my massage practice. I am going to be mobile and have a location at a sporting facility. I will be at the sporting facility on event days.

I have offered to give gift certificates to the winners of a year long event for a free 60 minute massage. This event takes alot of effort and dedication to win, not only from the participant but the whole family. Also, by giving the gift certificates to the winners, I do not have to pay for my location (rent) at the sporting facility.

However, here is my deliema. There are 90 winners all together for 1st through 3rd place (some of the winners won in more than one class, so they would receive more than one gift certificate). The majority under the age of 18. I am going to make the gift certificate good for one year, only redeemable while I am at the sporting facility and transferrable to family members of the winners. ie: parents, wives, girlfried, etc. And under 18 needs parent or guardian to be present.

Is this a good idea? Should I cut back and only give give certificates out to the 1st place winners?

Ideas? Suggestions?

 

[damnyankeega]

Just to clarify, are you saying that right now you're considering giving away 90 free gift certificates for one-hour massages? And having them transferrable so that anyone in their family can use it, including boyfriends/girlfriends? Are you serious? :shock:

No, I don't think that's a good idea. I think it's too many winners, too expensive a prize & too flexible in its use. I'd cut back to 1st place winners only, make it for a 30 minute massage (instead of one hour - that way you can try to sell them an upgrade when they make their appt.) I'd also make it non-transferrable (only the event winner can use it) and make the expiration date sooner (no longer than 6 months).

 

[blueegg90]

Ok, just so I'm clear on this......you're giving the gift certificates in exchange for not having to pay rent at the sporting facility.....right????

In that case, figure out how much one year's rent would be worth....then figure out how much these GCs are worth and do a comparison.

I don't know about making them transferrable to family members??? Perhaps it would be better to make then non-transferrable?

One advaeforum.xxxe of GCs is that not all of them will be used....well, usually not all of them are used.

Angie

 

[Yiati]

Just to clarify, are you saying that right now you're considering giving away 90 free gift certificates for one-hour massages? And having them transferrable so that anyone in their family can use it, including boyfriends/girlfriends? Are you serious? :shock:

No, I don't think that's a good idea. I think it's too many winners, too expensive a prize & too flexible in its use. I'd cut back to 1st place winners only, make it for a 30 minute massage (instead of one hour - that way you can try to sell them an upgrade when they make their appt.) I'd also make it non-transferrable (only the event winner can use it) and make the expiration date sooner (no longer than 6 months).

:iagree:

 

[mzjilly]

When we moved into a gym and Jewish community center back in 2003, business was terribly slow. In order to build up business and spread the word about how great we were, we gave every staff member a gift certificate for a free 30 minute session. We gave out at least 100 of these... and not everyone used them. I'd say approximately 60% were redeemed and of those 1/2 became regular clients. It worked out for us, because we had nothing else to do anyway.

Start-ups are always difficult, but 5 years into this I am booked 2 weeks out.

If it were me, I'd give out 30 minute sessions, non-transferable.

 

[the man 505]

Keep the suggestions coming

Thanks everybody for your input.

I am still rethinking the number of gift certificates to give out. Thinking of only going with the 1st place winners.

The reason that I was thinking about making them transferable is due to my location. It is at a motocross track. Alot of the winners are kids under 18. I wanted to give their parents the opportunity to use the gift certificate instead of the kids (racers). After all they are the ones working on the bikes, hauling the bikes around and chasing the kids around the track. (its alot of work, I did it for 6 years when my son raced).

Or the wives and girlfrieds that are sitting out in the elements (dirt, wind, heat) waiting for their husbands/boyfriends to race (I will have a nice clean, dry/cool toyhauler in which to take refuge) which can be hours at a time. The racers race two "motos". They race one "moto" then normally have about 2-3 hour wait before their second "moto".

So if the racers do not take advaneforum.xxxe of it maybe their family members will.

I am only making the gift certificates good while I am on location at the race track which is only going to be 1 or 2 weekends a month. Thats why I was considering making them good for a year.

I'm a new startup and do not have any clients at all. I was thinking that the more people I can get my hands on the better chance I have of obtaining regular clients that might want to use my mobile service.

Anymore thoughts? Ideas?

 

[Pompal 09.]

I wouldn't worry about them being transferable - you just want someone to come in and use the certificates, right? All my gc's/coups are transferable & I don't put up a stink when someone wants to use a coup, for a gift certificate, or a session for someone else.

I agree with the poster who said to figure out how much of your rent the gc's would cover & if it works out to your benefit - it could be nice having a chunk of the rent covered for work you may never have to do?

You may also want to think about 1st place getting 60 min session, 2nd place getting 30 minute, and third getting 15 min (or something along those lines...) Definately allow the winners to upgrade their cert to longer sessions too.

There are others out there who don't believe in 'giving it away' but I've always felt like it's more important to just get your hands on people - it's what worked for me... Get them in the door and give them an unbelievable experience...

 

[Kareena]

Don't forget to include "not redeemable for cash" somewhere on the certificate.

And why not include something like "can be upgraded to a home visit with payment of a travel fee"? I don't like having a "travel fee" added on to outcalls normally, unless they are a long drive away, I just price the outcalls inclusive of the travel fee, but for giveaways, you need a travel fee. That may give you more chance to get the outcalls kick started.

 

[Jerv M]

I am on the opposite end of the spectrum for advice.

Normally, I am not for giving away free services, however, you want to build your practice and you aren't paying rent. You aren't loosing anything but time in this scenario.

I'd say hand out as many g.c's as you like. In my experience (and I have been working on this as a research topic over the past year), the amount of free give-away g.c.'s that come back into your life are few and far between. Seriously. I can put an expiration on mine though. If you can't then you may wish to re-consider.

I'll hopefully put up an article in our Research Section this next year. As part of my study, I have given our over 3000 gift certs in the past two years (it's probably more like 5000+) - just to get some raw numbers on returns in my city -- and I think as it is right now, the return is maybe 1%.

Like I said, it sounds crazy, but this is what I have found. Part of the research I am doing has to do with target and non-target markets as well.

But, even with target markets, I think the normal return expected is 10%.

I'd say get your name out there if you've got time to kill. Maybe they will all show up - but I really don't think you'll have to worry about all of them coming back in. I would expire them for 6 months though. You can always have your own mental built in grace period for redemtion.

 

[SammyD]

But puepi, if no one paid for the gift certificates, I would assume you can put an expiration date on them. Better yet, dont make it a gift certificate, make it a coupon.

 

[LindaLoo]

Thanks for all the great ideas and suggestions. I have put on expiration date on the certificates and a "no cash value" on them as well.

 

[ExeneC]

But puepi, if no one paid for the gift certificates, I would assume you can put an expiration date on them. Better yet, dont make it a gift certificate, make it a coupon.

Probably so. Dunno. Guess it depends on the state.