help need holiday ideas

[Yhyamhmd]

I have been talking to my advertising agent and we want to get some gift cert out there any ideas? What are others doing for the holidays? I just want to be careful so I don't make it hard on other therapists around the same area, but I would also like to get my name out there. Help

 

[tanmanjones]

help need holiday ideas

I don't have any helpful suggestions because we just have people that buy them, we don't do any advertising for gcs, but I wanted to say, if/when you get ideas, go for it. Don't worry about making it hard on other MTs in the area. In this field, everyone has the same opportunity to do marketing, be creative, expand their client base. If they don't or won't seize the opportunities, it's not your problem.

Now I remember things we've done! - when people buy gcs before the holidays, we've offered a freebie of some sort. One year it was fancy little gauze bag of sea salts and herbs (lavendar, chamomile etc), for a foot soak or bath. One year it was a separate gc for a free 15 minute chair massage - the buyer could use it themselves or gift it to someone else as a 'stocking stuffer'. We've also had anyone who bought one enter their names in our 'fishbowl' and drew 3 names out, they could opt for a 30 minute massage or facial for themselves. We usually do these starting Black Friday. The other thing we've done is put a BIG sidewalk sign out 'Gift Cards - Great Gift!' which gets a lot of attention from people who are in that 'What do I buy the person who has everything?' mode.

 

[Robert G]

help need holiday ideas

Thanks for your reply tranquilspirit2006
Great GC ideas. My agent wants to do something free also. She wanted to do an eye catcher like buy a massage get one free and I was having a hard time with that idea. I like yor ideas better. I would be comfortable giving chair massage , facial, or even a hot wax trement for feet and hands for free.
I would like to hear more ideas from others about holiday gift ideas

 

[anonon]

help need holiday ideas

Thanks for your reply tranquilspirit2006
Great GC ideas. My agent wants to do something free also. She wanted to do an eye catcher like buy a massage get one free and I was having a hard time with that idea. I like yor ideas better. I would be comfortable giving chair massage , facial, or even a hot wax trement for feet and hands for free.
I would like to hear more ideas from others about holiday gift ideas

Does she know how valuable your massages are? Obviously not! :grin:

Better than her idea would be buy a full price gc get a coupon or gc for a "free" 30 min massage - with an option to upgrade to full hour for xx amount. The free chair massage is good too (I would still offer the opportunity to upgrade).
Last time I did the free 30 minute thing (many years ago) over half upgraded to full hour and several of those rebooked.
I have seen the offer of free paraffin treatments all over the place - they do not seem to be really effective enticements.

At one place I worked I made up these little coupons that I called "spa bucks" that could be used towards products or services. Usually they were in $10 increments. And we would do various promotions or referral programs where they could earn the spa bucks. So you could offer something like that.

Close to Christmas last year I saw a couple places offer a $20 GC for every $100 GC and one offer a 20% discount on GC's.

The spa that I work at part time now does not discount their gift certificates or offer any freebies...ever.

 

[Hoonaengalp]

help need holiday ideas

I just want to be careful so I don't make it hard on other therapists around the same area, but I would also like to get my name out there. Help

First things first. You will need to remove this line of thinking from your mind. You are going to have to do what is best for your business and they for theirs.

I am pretty sure the "other therapists in your area" aren't thinking about how to make your life easier. They may not even know you.

Nope. It's your responsibility to build a successful practice, if you plan to do this for a living.