Around this time of year, you’ll find the shopping malls and online stores literally over-flowing with people looking for just the right gifts for their loved ones. They can’t decide if going with a nice book is the best idea or if they should head on over and buy a nice warm sweater. For the more techie types in the audience, maybe some iPod accessories are more suitable. Whatever the case, your goal as a business owner around this time of year is to attract these customers into your store rather than the guy next door.

While it may seem certainly appealing to the customer to find some incredible discounts on some great products, it may be a better idea for you, as the business owner, to offer a different kind of special. People are having a hard time finding the right gifts, so you can point them in the right direction by offering special gift packages as part of a promotion. More specifically, one way to do this is to provide a free gift when a customer purchases a gift card, for example, of a certain value.

I received an email a short while ago from Boston Pizza, saying that if I were to buy a $50 gift card, I would also receive a voucher for a free small pizza. This rewards people for buying gifts and as such, they may feel more inclined to buy a gift card from your store (Boston Pizza, in this case) rather than some other competitor. This doesn’t apply only to gift cards, of course. People will perceive it as a great deal if you throw in a valuable bonus gift when they purchase a certain product. Buy product A and get product B for free. This sounds a lot better than getting a mere 10% off and it results in more revenue overall for you too.

Have you seen any creative holiday promotions at a mall or store near you? Share your experience with this marketing technique through the comment form below!