A Brilliant Plan: Give, Give Back, and Tweet to Win

The holiday season is in full swing and businesses everywhere are looking to boost their end-of-year sales by offering all kinds of discounts and special offers. While many are ruthless in their attempts to gain customers (starting with 4AM Black Friday sales and countless items on clearance), others take a more inventive and even altruistic approach. After all, 'tis the season of giving. So, why shouldn't the companies taking our money also give a little, too?

Glamour Gone Good has had the good fortune of developing a wonderful relationship with Spa Week, a lifestyle brand delivering a robust spa directory, hundreds of spa deals and spa discounts, news and more all year-round.

What makes Spa Week so successful is its approach to marketing, which allows it to develop one-on-one relationships with its target audience. With a powerful online presence, it has successfully harnessed the power of social media to transform its audience into individual ambassadors of the Spa Week brand. And, now, it’s even discovered a way to integrate charitable giving into its online marketing strategy, further engaging its loyal consumer base while also attracting new consumers.

Below is an abridged version of Spa Week’s current holiday promotion, Give, Give Back, and Tweet to WIN!

Take a look at the three-step process it has developed for the campaign, which is ultimately meant to encourage SPA gift card sales.

GIVE: With the mission of spreading health, beauty and wellness lifestyle to the next generation, Spa Week’s Holiday Gift Card Sale offers $100 SPA Gift Cards for just $79.99. All other denominations are 20% off – you won’t find this deal anywhere else! SPA Cards are redeemable 52 weeks a year at thousands of day spas, medical spas, salons and wellness centers nationwide for massages, facials, scrubs, pedicures, acupuncture and more, and they never expire.

GIVE BACK: For every new @SPAWEEK Twitter follower we get from now until the end of 2010, Spa Week will donate 10 cents to Glamour Gone Good. Right now we’re at: 8,799.

We chose this organization because we absolutely love their concept, as well as the 3 women’s causes they support. GGG encourages beauty, fashion, salon and spa businesses to integrate charity into their everyday business by giving them fun and easy ways to give back to women in need, even if they don’t have much to give.

WIN: Follow @SPAWEEK and @GlamourGoneGood on Twitter.

TWEET: SPA-liday Gift Card Sale from @SPAWEEK! Follow them to #GiveBack to women in need, and Tweet to Win a $100 SPA Gift Card. http://ow.ly/3gSns

Every Tweet will count as one entry to win a $100 SPA Gift Card from SpaWeek, redeemable all year around for massages, facials and so much more. Contest Ends December 31st at 11:59 EST. Winner drawn and announced on this blog post on January 3rd.

This Spa Week campaign is a huge hit for the following reasons:

1. It offers a substantial discount on its holiday gift cards.
2. It has developed a catchy Twitter campaign to promote its gift cards.
3. It has integrated a brand-appropriate charity into its Twitter campaign, allowing its audience to engage in charitable giving activities while learning about Spa Week’s gift card promotion.
4. It is offering a free giveaway to further entice its audience to participate in its Twitter campaign, which both raises funds for charity and promotes its holiday gift card sale.

Key take-aways for other brands?

1. DEALS: Customers want more than just sales and discounts (but they always want those, too!).
2. DONATE: Tie a suitable charitable partner into your promotion. Customers want to feel good about their purchase and this is an easy way to give them that sense of satisfaction.
3. FREE GIVEAWAYS: Offer the chance to win something valuable (pick an item to which you want to draw extra attention) and find the appropriate platform from which to promote your contest or sweepstakes.

You Shop, They Donate

With the holidays around the corner, we’re seeing all kinds of incentives being marketed to shoppers these days, from coupons to free shipping offers to sales promotions of all shapes and sizes.

There’s no doubt that consumers want to stretch their dollars as far as possible this year, so these promotions go a long way. However, these aren’t the only ways for businesses to boost their sales this holiday season.

A great trend emerging in the consumer world is driven by cause marketing. More and more companies are realizing that consumers are interested in more than discounts and free gifts. They want the dollars coming out of their pockets to multi-task. What do I mean by this? More and more consumers want to spend money on products that give back to charity. (For more on this topic, read one of our previous posts, Do You ‘Shop For A Cause’?) Companies are listening. Here in the U.S., you see this most commonly during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October and around the end-of-year holiday season.

It’s a brilliant strategy to adopt because everyone ends up a winner. Consumers get excited by the fact that their money is not only going towards their purchases, but also towards meaningful causes. Meanwhile, brands see a boost in sales (assuming they market their promotions effectively) and get the chance to take advantage of these charity-driven promotions to garner new press opportunities. And, of course, the charities that benefit from these percent-of-proceeds promotions end up raising funds without having to do much on their end beyond spreading the word.

With all of this in mind, I was inspired to launch a virtual shop that features products and brands offering a percent of proceeds from all purchases made in their online shops shops to Glamour Gone Good. The brands currently participating in the Glamour Gone Good virtual shop are:

• CLOTH
• Good For Your Girls
• SalonSpa.com
• Stop Traffick Fashion
• The Glamour Band

Stop by the Glamour Gone Good shop and maybe you’ll find the perfect gift for a loved one or a little treat for yourself. If you’re interested in contributing to the shop, it’s not too late to contact us. Or, simply help us spread the word.

Perhaps this blog post and our own shop will inspire you to develop a percent-of-proceeds promotion of your own to support causes near and dear to the hearts of your consumers. If you want some help, email us at info@glamourgonegood.org.