What’s Your Plan to Sell Holiday Gift Baskets?
What’s in your promotions bag as you prepare to market your gift baskets to corporate clients?
Companies that sell pens and planner books send me samples by mail along with a form to place my order.
You may not be able to do the same because of a gift basket’s size, but you can send a form listing the various ways to place orders (mail, fax, Email, Web site, phone).
What about in-person presentations? Do your promotions include sampling, courtesy of free items from wholesalers? If you cannot leave something tasty behind, what’s the next best option?
Designers I’m working with began the month with a very-intriguing method to get orders that we developed after reviewing how other product-based businesses gained sales.
You’ve had almost 30 days to start the holiday order process. What’s been your best method?
How to Turn a Dentist Visit into Gift Basket Sales
My dentist called me a few years back to say that a patient, an executive at a New York music station, needed 250 gift baskets for a CD launch.
The dentist recommended me to the executive and gave me his telephone number for follow-up.
Why was I recommended? When I started my gift basket business, I told the dentist about my plans.
He and the hygienist ask me about business whenever I visit because I make sure that directly after each cleaning, the conversation changes to promote what I do.
I truly believe in selling to those who provide me with services or at least reminding them about my business to encourage sales and referrals. That’s why I suggest you do the same in your circle of business and personal service providers.
At the end of your next dental appointment, tell your dentist and the receptionist, assistant, waiting room patients and whoever else is in the area, that your gift baskets open doors that once seemed shut, repair problematic relationships, increase sales, and make life’s bumps easier to manage.
I gained new sales because I dared to mix a dentist’s visit with business promotion, and it was worth a big smile.
How have you captured sales from people who provide you with service?
Get Designs and Marketing in Gear Now
The summer season is a vibrant time for your business, but only if you believe that it is and treat this as a time for planting, building, and succeeding in the coming months.
Here are three things that veteran gift basket retailers are doing right now to guarantee higher profits.
1. Reviewing old design photographs to remind themselves of techniques that have worked in the past and can be revived in fall and winter.
2. Contacting customers by postcard and through other direct marketing methods,
telling them what they’re finding at trade shows that will wow their customers.
3. Sending small tokens of thanks and appreciation for past purchases, whether it’s items found in inventory or specialized packages of M&M’s with their gift basket logo on the candies.
My marketing campaigns are underway now, especially since many people I’ve met at recent events are interested in distributing gift baskets to their customers.
These people include presidents and directors of agencies, public relations officers at non-profit organizations, and sales vice presidents of pharmaceutical firms.
This is the time to get your business ready now for big sales ahead.
Which designs are you creating, and what marketing products will you mail?
Do You Market Gift Baskets While Driving?
I was in my car on Saturday when I noticed a gift basket business delivery van in front of me.
The writing on the back of the van said, “Follow me to The Gift Basket Kase,” and included the company’s telephone number.
I smiled broadly because I’d never seen the van in the past, but then I realized what was missing from the information. There was no Web site address.
The van began exiting the highway, and I was able to see its side panel. No Web site address was shown there either.
Several marketing methods that works consistently for gift basket designers worldwide are included in 101 Ways to Market Gift Baskets.
Does your delivery vehicle, whether a personalized van or car, include all of the methods customers can contact you so they can choose how to order?
While driving, your Web site address may be easier to remember than the phone number. The more options you give prospects to contact you, the better.
How do you advertise your gift baskets to people driving next to you?
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