Viral Marketing using Gift Certificates

If you own a web store of any kind and do not offer gift certificates for your customers to buy and give to their friends, you are missing out on a sweet chunk of extra income that we refer to as viral marketing.

Why? Let's imagine that Mary purchases a $50 gift certificate for merchandise at your golf supplies website for John. John is delighted with the gift because he recently started golfing and wants to start out right with the best equipment.

When John visits your website, he actually buys $150 worth of merchandise and was quite pleased with the shopping experience. He used his $50 gift certificate that Mary gave him and felt like he really got a great deal. John is now your customer and returns to purchase more golfing supplies.

Selling products to John was easy and took very little effort. Mary already decided that John would be a perfect customer for your webstore. You likely would have never found John as a potential customer because you wouldn't have known he recently started golfing and was interested in buying quality golf equipment. It took zero effort on your part to make both sales.

But wait! That's not the end of the story. On Monday morning John is at the office water cooler and tells Mike about all the great golfing equipment he found on your website and that Mary gave him a gift certificate. Since most website owners don't think of offering gift certificates as a zero-effort form of viral referral sales, you have the advantage over other golf supply companies online.

Mike loves the idea and buys his buddy George a $50 gift certificate to your web store as a birthday gift. While Mike is at your store's website, he picks up a few items for himself that total $100. Are you seeing the viral profit loop that requires practically zero marketing effort to find these new customers?

Although Mary doesn't golf, she was pleased that John had so much fun shopping at your website, she told her friends who have husbands that love to golf and participate frequently in golfing tournaments. She also keeps your website in mind when she has a gift she needs to buy for golf enthusiasts in her circle of friends and relatives. After all, it was an easy gift for Mary to buy and she didn't have to walk from store to store looking for specific golf equipment for John that she didn't know anything about.

And to think that it all started with Mary who purchased a singel gift certificate for merchandise for her friend John. Now Mary, John, Mike, and George are your new customers. They were pre-screened as target customers for your business by someone else. Let's not forget that each of these people will tell someone else, and the profit loop just keeps going and going.

> Go shopping for Gift Certificate Templates

Our Gift Certificate Templates are provided in two formats (PDF printable version and PSD editable version in your graphics software of choice). You get both formats for a low licensing fee of $5.00 USD.

So have fun and start tapping into some viral marketing profits!