How to send gift cards via text to attract new customers

Rewarding clients with a loaded gift card can strengthen your relationships, improve engagement, and give your bottom line a boost with minimal effort.

Plus, gift cards are a great way to attract new customers and give them the nudge they need to make their first purchase.

Want to know how to send a gift card via text? Here’s the low down.

Table of contents

1. Why you should send a gift cards to your customers
2. Why send a gift card via text?
3. When to send a gift card via text
4. 4 companies that send gift cards to customers
5. How to send a gift card via text
6. Sending gift cards via mass texting 
7. Sending gift cards with one-on-one business texting
8. Sending a gift card via automated drip campaign

Ping. 

Your client receives a text message (first surge of adrenalin). They open it to find a personalized gift card loaded with cash, ready to go (second surge of adrenalin). 

Gift cards are a nice treat for customers and can foster a positive perception of your brand. Even better, they are a relatively low-cost, low-effort marketing activity that can yield significant results. 

• Clients can choose their gift: 52% of consumers prefer receiving gift cards to physical gifts—we can safely assume this is because they get to choose what item to redeem. 
• Clients spend more: 60% of consumers spend more than the card’s value. This introduces customers to your entire service menu or product catalog and proves that gift cards are a good way of increasing revenue. 
• Clients redeem gift cards quickly: Almost half of consumers redeem their gift cards within the first month, keeping you front of mind. 

Gift cards a pretty much a win-win for both sides. Clients get a little something to treat themselves with and you get to build better relationships that (hopefully!) lead to long-term loyalty and more sales. 

So why are gift cards such a popular marketing activity? 

• They increase loyalty by bringing consumers back time and time again
• They improve top-of-mind awareness by keeping your brand at the front of shoppers’ minds 
• They build deeper client relationships by showing you care
• They boost revenue by encouraging customers to spend more
• They give new clients an incentive to make their first purchase with you

Sending gift cards via text comes with many advantages. Compared to snail mail, text messages are delivered instantly and can be redeemed straight away. And, when consumer email inboxes are fit to burst with promotional emails and work threads, sliding into their SMS inbox can be a great way to stand out. 

Your clients can instantly click through to their gift card and redeem it while the thought is still fresh in their minds. 

Gift cards are a great way to connect with your audience and build loyalty, but they work best in certain situations. 

1. Thank you gifts: Send clients a gift card after they’ve made a purchase or have finished working a contract with you. This will encourage them to come back.
2. Reviews and testimonials: Send clients a gift card when they share a review, testimonial, or piece of user-generated content. 
3. Special occasions: Celebrate your clients by sending them a gift card on their birthday or their anniversary with your brand. 
4. Shipping delays: Soften the blow of delayed deliveries or project hold-ups by sending clients a gift card they can redeem right away.
5. To attract new customers: Send a gift card for your business to potential clients as an incentive to sign up for a trial or get a product taster. 

Thinking about sending gift cards to your clients but not sure if it’s a good fit? Here are some examples of companies that send gift cards to their customers.

Vivid Seats rewards customers who purchase with them with a $30 gift card. They use an added time incentive to create a sense of urgency around cashing it in. 

Clothing brand STYLEBOP introduces customers to its new product line with the help of a gift card when they spend over $300. 

Clothing brand Lola Blu Boutique regularly runs giveaways on its Instagram account where followers can win a gift card. This increases the brand’s reach and introduces new customers. 

Sleep Country offers a seasonal gift card to its customers during the winter months. It encourages shoppers to go in-store where they’ll be able to browse more products. 

There are two ways you can send a gift card via text:

1. Send a gift card link via text
2. Send a gift card image via text

If you use a tool that creates gift cards for clients, you can copy the link and send it with SimpleTexting (the same as if you were sending a PDF via text). Alternatively, you can create an image-based gift card with a tool like Canva and send it individually to clients via text. 

To send a gift card link via text: 

1. Log in to your SimpleTexting dashboard and choose campaigns on the left-hand side. Toggle the “message type” to SMS. 
2. Select the link icon in the box, type your message, and add the link to your gift card. 
3. The link will show up in a message that recipients can click to navigate to their gift card. 

From this: 

To this:

To send an image gift card via text: 

1. Log in to your SimpleTexting account and choose campaigns on the left-hand side. Toggle the “message type” to SMS.
2. Select the image icon in the box, type your message, and upload the image to your text message.
3. You still need to include a link to direct clients to their gift card, so paste the URL into the message box too.

You can also add a GIF or video to your text to add an extra layer of engagement or attach an image to your SMS message.  

If your business is relatively small, it’s not too much hassle to manually send each client a gift card text. But as soon as you start to grow, you’ll want to send text messages en masse to save time. 

Mass texting lets you send your gift card link to multiple clients at once. However, you’ll need to automatically generate a unique gift card link for each customer or use a generic discount code that everyone can use.

One-on-one business texting lets you message one person at a time. This is a great way to build rapport with your best clients and interact with them directly in their message inboxes. 

To send a gift via our one-on-one business texting service:

1. Log in to your SimpleTexting account and open your inbox.
2. Either start a new message or open an existing message thread. 
3. Select the paper clip icon to attach a gift card image or simply paste the gift card link into the message box. 

The last thing you want to do is spend hours each day manually sending gift cards to clients at just the right time. You’ve got better things to be doing. But if you set up SMS drip campaigns, you can automatically send out gift card texts when clients take specific actions. 

You can automate a series of messages that are triggered based on specific events, like when a customer leaves a review, makes a purchase, or books a discovery call. The texts are sent automatically, giving clients a little adrenalin boost when they get a gift card they can use right away. 

Let’s face it, gift cards are fun. They feel like free money and give clients a chance to try something new or treat themselves (they can’t just put it towards rent or bills). But, most importantly, they can help foster deeper relationships with your existing customer base and garner ongoing loyalty.

This is critical when you’re competing against multiple other brands in the same arena. Standing out means creating a delightful customer experience and showing your clients you care—nothing does that better than a well-thought-out gift card. And, when you send it by SMS, you bypass the hundreds of emails already clogging up their inbox. It’s a win-win situation.

Ready to start sending gift cards by text? Sign up for a free trial or book a demo with our SMS experts.