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Holiday Gift Card Campaigns

Gift cards are among the most purchased gifts during holidays. A well-timed campaign with seasonal designs and a bonus offer can significantly boost both gift card sales and overall store revenue during peak periods.

Campaign planning

Start 4–6 weeks before the holiday to give time for design, setup, and promotion.

Key dates to plan around

Holiday Campaign start Key selling window
Christmas / Hanukkah Early November Nov 15 – Dec 24
Valentine's Day Late January Feb 1 – 14
Mother's Day 3 weeks before 2 weeks before
Black Friday Early November BFCM weekend
Father's Day 3 weeks before 2 weeks before

Step 1 — Create seasonal designs

Create 2–3 themed gift card designs for the holiday:

  1. Go to eGift Cards → Design & Translations
  2. Upload your seasonal images (1200 × 750px)
  3. Name them clearly: "Christmas 2026 — Classic Red", "Christmas 2026 — Winter Blue"

For design inspiration, keep it simple: a seasonal color palette, your logo, and a clean holiday motif works better than a busy illustration.

Step 2 — Create a themed gift card type

Create a gift card type specifically for the campaign:

  1. Name: "Holiday Gift Card 2026" (shown on storefront)
  2. Designs: assign your seasonal designs and allow the buyer to pick
  3. Denominations: offer a range including a mid-to-high anchor (e.g., $25, $50, $100, $200) — higher denominations sell well as gifts
  4. Delivery delay: let buyers schedule delivery for Christmas morning

A "Buy $100, get $20 free" promotion drives urgency and increases average gift card order value.

  1. Go to Promotions → Add Promotion
  2. Type: Bonus on purchase
  3. Trigger: minimum purchase $100
  4. Reward: $20 bonus card to the buyer
  5. Start date: your campaign start
  6. End date: December 24 (or the day before the holiday)

The bonus card goes to the buyer — rewarding them for gifting.

Create a holiday promotion

Step 4 — Customize the seasonal email

Update your gift card email template with holiday styling:

  1. Go to Email Template
  2. Adjust the header image to a seasonal one
  3. Update the color scheme (deep red and gold for Christmas, pink for Valentine's, etc.)
  4. Add a seasonal greeting in the email copy

Don't forget to save a copy of your original template before editing — you'll want to revert after the season.

Customized seasonal email template

Step 5 — Promote the campaign

GiftCard Hero doesn't manage your marketing — that's your job. Common channels:

  • Email campaign — segment customers who've purchased in the last 12 months
  • Homepage banner — announce the seasonal design and bonus offer
  • Social media — "The perfect last-minute gift" messaging works well for gift cards
  • Paid ads — gift cards respond well to "last-minute gifting" targeting

A key message that converts: "Guaranteed delivery — no shipping required." Digital gift cards solve the last-minute gifting problem better than physical products.

Step 6 — Post-campaign cleanup

After the holiday:

  1. Set the seasonal gift card type to inactive (don't delete — you'll reuse next year)
  2. Set the promotion to inactive
  3. Restore your original email template

You'll re-enable everything next year with minor updates.

Measuring campaign success

After the holiday, review in Dashboard:

  • Gift card sales during the campaign period vs. the same period last year
  • Redemption rate (did people actually use their holiday cards?)
  • Sales lift from card redemptions in January–March (holiday gift cards are typically used after the holiday)
  • Promotion ROI: bonus cards given out vs. incremental sales generated