How to Use Vacation Certificates to Create Business Increases of Over 30%

How to Use Vacation Certificates to Create Business Increases of Over 30%

The purpose of this article is to teach business owners the different ways to promote Vacation Certificates as a marketing incentive in order to gain the best results for each business. While each business owner knows their own business better than an

yone else and we realize the use of Vacation Certificates is a creative process, the need for a general guide from which a business owner unaccustomed to the use of Vacation Certificates may springboard ideas from has become apparent. It is vitally important for each business owner to have easy access to the ideas which will be the most productive and cause the greatest business increase. Since consultation fees are out of price range for most people, you must gain an understanding of how the process can work, so you can get your creative juices flowing and apply them to your business. Vacation Certificates really are good for at least a 30% business increase. The truth is that each and every business alive today can substantially increase their profits by offering free Vacation Certificates. Whether you have a brick and mortar business or make a living on the internet, you can approach attaining your business increase from only 2 different ways. You can opt for higher sales or more sal

es. Let?s take a look at a realistic case study to illustrate this point.

Case Study: Womens Clothing Store
Brick and Mortar Business
Average Weekly Sales Transactions: $4000
Average Single Transaction: $100
Average # Transactions/Week: 40

Let?s say, for example that you own this clothing store. You would like to increase the average single transaction amount.

You make up a sign, on the wall, behind the cash register, which says:

?ALL FINAL SALES OVER $___ EARN THE CUSTOMER A VACATION CERTIFICATE. See Clerk For Details.?

How do you fill in the blank? How do you pick the magical price that brings you in extra business to the tune of 30%?

Start by taking a glance at Average Weekly Sales Transactions multiplied by the percentage of increase desired.

$4000 X .30 =a $1200 business increase, or $5200 total we are attempting to achieve.

Well, in a perfect world we could have all $100 sales, in which case we could set our magical number at $130, and have all 40 transactions be responsive to our promotion and cooperate. Wouldn?t it be wonderful if it were that easy! But realistically, what this tells us is that a magical number of $130 could be a likely choice for this business. This is where your personal feel for your business and your own subjective judgement call comes in. One thing to keep in mind as you?re making your decision is that some of the sales are already higher than $130 to begin with. So your actions in this respect would just reward those customers for something they already do. Now, this may tempt you to place you magical price higher than $130, but another thing to keep in mind is that some of the transactions are for amounts well below $100. For a magical price set at $130, a customer that would normally spend less than $65 must now more than double their amount of purchase to qualify. Again, this is where the subjective expertise of the business owner comes in. You know more than anyone else what is a realistic expectation from your customers and what is not.

Now, be sure to remember that you can also apply Vacation Certificates to bring in more business, not just higher volume per sale. Some suggestions for our clothing store case study would be to offer the certificate to new customers. This is a great method for creating enough good will to give you a lot of momentum down the road toward a life-time loyalty customer. However, there is a caution for offering a Vacation Certificate promotion targeting only first time buyers.

A restaurant owner friend of mine once ran an add in a newspaper offering a promotion targeting only new customers. She literally had a retired couple, who were regular customers come in and complain that she did not appreciate them because she was offering the promotion to only new customers, but they, who had been supportive of her and her business for years, were not eligible! Well, of course she gave them the promotional offer, and bought their dinner that night as well. This situation is mentioned as food for thought and to point out that you may use Vacation Certificates in a combination of ways to include everyone simultaneously. It is a Win-Win situation when your customers are all happy and your cash register is swelling.

Another idea for our clothing store case study would be to offer the Vacation Certificate to anyone purchasing a Gift Certificate for someone else. While this could work to generate new sales and new customers at any time of year, it would be especially effective during the holiday gift giving season with the a sign put on the front window in addition to the sign over the cash register.

Something else that you as the owner of the case study clothing store could opt to do would be to add a special new product for sale. Ideally, this product would be universal, something anyone of any age or gender could use. Then give the Vacation Certificate as a bonus for purchasing that specific product. You could even opt to not use a sign and just offer the promotion verbally at the point of sale.

Let?s revisit our sign. I?ll show you how amazing the importance of one little word can be.

?ALL FINAL SALES OVER $___ EARN THE CUSTOMER A VACATION CERTIFICATE. See Clerk For Details.?

It?s your decision if you want to leave the word ?final? on the above sign or remove it. If you don?t have a problem with returns, and have a basic trust of your customers? integrity, then you can choose to take the word out and give the Vacation Certificate to the customer at the time of sale. This would be the most simple, straight forward way to run the promotion.

On the other hand, if returns are an issue that you do not wish to reward, or you?re opting for even more back end sales, leave the word ?final? on the sign. It?s also your decision as to what constitutes a ?final sale?, which would be dependent upon the length of time stated in your Returns Policy. It?s also at your discretion whether you will mail the certificate (maybe you?re building a customer mailing list to keep on hand for future sales promotions) or make the customer come back to the store to pick up the certificate once the return policy expires (in the hopes that the customer makes another purchase).

Any business that can be run offline can also be run online.
So, our sign would simply become an area of writing on the website, or a classified ad, or a safelist ad, etc.

For further illustration concerning online businesses, let?s observe the following newspaper ad samples. Imagine you are the potential customer reading the newspaper classified section because you want a side business you can work at home. Which ad would you be more likely to respond to?

Work From Home

This is a very practical biz. Don?t spend extra money, just switch stores. It makes simple sense. Keep the profits for yourself, not give them away! For more info call Jane Joe at 555-555-1212.

Or

Work From Home

We?re doing so well we?re offering a special sign on bonus.
This is a very practical biz. Don?t spend extra money, just switch stores. It makes simple sense. Keep the profits for yourself, not give them away! Join within 3 days of this printing and recieve 2 nights Free Deluxe Hotel Stay, On Us!
For more info call Jane Joe at 555-555-1212.

Maybe you can get some inspiration from the list below. Here are some types of businesses and how they have successfully rewarded positive behavior with Vacation Certificates:

Real Estate Agents ? come to open house, referral gift, housewarming gift

Mortgage Companies ? refinance gift, lead generator, referral gift for realtor or builder or financial planner, incentive for converting prospect to client, sending back questionnaire, calling for more info

Doctors, Dentists, Chiropractors ?referral gift, thank you gift

Photography/Artist ? for finished portrait, project

Retailers and Manufacturers ? visit our store, increase number of sales, increase individual transactions amounts , sales events, warranty sales incentive, employee gift

Insurance Agency ? new policy written gift, reward for being
home when agent arrived for appointment

Home Business Party ? as reward for hosting party, as reward for placing order, referral gift for bringing a friend to party

Trade Show Exhibitor ? visit our booth, make a purchase, sign up for drawing, fill out questionnaire

Alarm Companies/Door-to-Door Companies ? sales closing tool, purchase gift, referral gift

Auto Dealership ? test drive or test drive on the slowest day of
the week, new car purchase, used car purchase, vehicle lease, visit our showroom, generate repeat business by mailing offer to previous customers, upgrade warranty package incentive

Travel Agencies - referral gift, gift for booking cruise or flight,
special promotion giveaway

Direct Mail Offer ? new or established customer order

Clubs, Associations, Membership Sites ? subscribe to membership, referral gift, yearly renewal bonus, member benefit package item

MLM ? upgrade sign up level, sign up for autoship, become a
distributor, incentive for downline to produce recruits, sign up for autoresponder/mailing list

Construction Companies ? testimonial gift, lead generator, referral gift, incentive to fill out questionnaire, incentive to call for more info, thank you gift

Newsletters/Ezines ? subscribe to newsletter, purchase ad

Telemarketers - gift with purchase/sales closing tool, contest prizes, special promotion giveaways, gift for attending presentation, appointment setting

Banks ? new depositor gift, new loan gift, employee gift, customer loyalty gift

Media Companies - (newspapers, radio stations, cable companies, magazines, and internet service providers) ? gift to ad purchaser, new subscriber gift, attract listeners

Ebay Sellers ? gift to auction winner, gift to winner of multiple auctions, gift to Buy It Now users

Elementary Schools, Colleges and Churches, Non-Profits ? fundraisers, enrollment reward, faculty/staff reward, donation gift

You see, this really is not rocket science. You don?t need to change anything that you are already doing. Just use the certificate offer in addition to your usual business, as an incentive for increase. The truth is that each and every business alive today can substantially increase their profits by offering free Vacation Certificates. Now that you know how to properly use Vacation Certificates as a marketing incentive for your business, it is time for you to do so. Happy Promoting!
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

(Anyone is authorized to reprint this article provided the article is unaltered, in it?s entirety, with original resource box intact.)

Michelle Watts is the owner of Royal Palm Promotions:
www.RoyalPalm.WS

Permalink: http://expert-talk.com/tips/855/how-to-use-vacation-certificates-to-create-business-increases-of-over-30-2855.htm

Comments

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the article, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Related Tips and Advices

Related Tags