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How to tell your customers you sell gift cards — 7 marketing ideas
Many businesses already sell gift cards, but surprisingly often their customers have no idea. When that happens, the gift card goes to waste as a sales tool — even if the system is up and running and cards are available.
Marketing gift cards doesn’t require heavy campaigns or a complicated strategy. In most cases, it’s enough to make gift cards clearly visible in the channels where your customers already spend their time — on your website, in your store, by email, and on social media.
Why is it worth actively telling people about your gift cards?
A gift card isn’t just an add-on product — it’s a versatile sales and marketing tool. It brings in revenue upfront, smooths out demand between seasons, and often brings new customers in the form of recipients of the gift. It’s also the kind of solution many people reach for when they simply can’t come up with a gift idea.
The biggest barrier to growing gift card sales usually isn’t the price or the product — it’s that customers don’t know the gift cards exist. Once the basics are in place, sales often start to grow without any separate advertising budget.
Here are seven ideas for marketing your gift cards.
1. Give gift cards prominent placement on your homepage
Your website’s homepage is usually the first point of contact a customer has with your business, and it should quickly answer the question: “Do they sell gift cards?” If finding the answer takes several clicks, many customers will give up and look for a gift elsewhere.
Add a clear call to action on your homepage — something like “Buy a gift card online” — and make sure the button stands out from the rest of the content. Briefly explain what the gift card can be used for, such as your full range of products or all your services. The shorter the path to purchase, the better the gift card will sell.
2. Make the gift card its own “product” in your online store
If you have an online store, a gift card deserves the same careful treatment as any other product. For SEO and discoverability, it’s worth giving the gift card its own dedicated page — for example at unicom.fi/gift-card — so that search results (e.g. “Unicom gift card”) lead directly to the right page. This means its own product page, a clear name and description, and easy findability both in the menu and in search engines.
A good gift card page should include at least:
- A clear product name
- Answers to the most common questions: value, validity period, and where the card can be used
- Easy access from the main menu or a dedicated gifts or promotions section
When a gift card page is well built, customer service enquiries decrease and purchase decisions happen faster.
3. Make use of your physical location
In a physical setting, the customer has already made the choice to come to you. That makes it natural to remind them about gift cards as part of their visit — without the message feeling pushy.
Even small touches are enough. If gift cards are sold in person, make sure they’re clearly displayed. Put a sign at the till saying “Ask about gift cards”, place a small stand in the waiting area or on tables, and add a brief mention to receipts or booking confirmations: “Gift cards also available.” Make sure the message is visually consistent with your brand and appears consistently — that way it sticks in people’s minds.
Are you a small business owner who’d like to try gift card sales with no commitment and no monthly fees? Take a look at Unigift Basic.
4. Mention gift cards in emails and booking messages
If you use a newsletter or a booking system, marketing your gift cards can largely be automated. This is one of the most effective ways to keep gift cards on customers’ radar without ongoing effort.
In practice, you can:
- Add a permanent line at the bottom of your newsletter: “Don’t forget — gift cards are available too”
- Send a short, targeted email before a seasonal peak like Christmas or Mother’s Day
- Include a subtle mention in booking confirmations: “Surprise a friend — the same services are available as a gift card”
A small, consistent reminder tends to work better in practice than a single big campaign.
5. Use social media for everyday moments
Gift cards don’t need to appear on social media only around public holidays. The more often you highlight different use cases, the easier it is for customers to recognise a gift card as the solution to their own dilemma — a friend’s birthday, a colleague’s farewell party, or a thank-you for a neighbour.
Effective content ideas include posts along the lines of “3 occasions where our gift card is the perfect choice”, a short story from a gift giver or recipient, and a quick reminder that gift cards can be purchased digitally at the last minute. The most important thing is that every post also tells people how to buy one — not just that gift cards exist.
6. Build a lightweight seasonal campaign framework
A gift card is a particularly strong product at certain moments: Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduations, and corporate gifting season. It’s worth building a simple framework for these occasions once, and then reusing it year after year with small adjustments.
A typical seasonal framework might include:
- 1–2 social media posts ahead of the season around the theme “this solves your gift dilemma”
- A seasonal banner on the homepage or in the online store
- A short reminder in the newsletter
- A small in-store message, e.g. “The perfect gift for Mum / a graduate / a colleague”
Once the framework is built properly once, you don’t need to plan each season from scratch.
7. Don’t forget business customers and partners
Gift cards are often an underused product on the B2B side, even though they’re an excellent fit for staff recognition, client gifts, and campaigns. For many businesses, a gift card is the easiest and most flexible way to give a gift, because the recipient gets to choose what they want.
The most effective starting point is often a direct approach. Send a short email to your most important business customers and ask whether they have a need for quality staff or client gifts. You can also put together ready-made gift card packages (e.g. 10, 50, or 100 cards) and explore partnerships with local businesses. For business customers, clarity is key: state the price, how delivery works, and how the gift cards are redeemed.
Make buying as easy as possible
Across all the ideas above, one thing matters more than anything else: how easy it is for the customer to buy a gift card. However good the marketing is, a clunky purchase journey will kill sales effectively.
When you use Unicom’s ready-made online gift card solution — such as Unigift Basic for those just starting out with gift card sales — you can direct all your marketing channels to a single clear point of purchase without any heavy technical project. The gift card can be purchased online 24/7, delivered to an inbox as a digital card or in a printable format, and redeemed both online and in store. All your marketing needs to do is mention it often enough and clearly enough.
Have any questions? Get in touch and we’ll look together at how gift card sales can be made easier, more reliable, and more profitable for you.