Helping your customers create a gift guide for Father’s Day

As a business owner offering products or services that fathers might enjoy, it’s possible to make the most of Father’s Day (and generate sales) by creating a gift guide filled with gifts for dads on your blog or website.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a dad gift guide

Creating a Father’s Day gift guide on your blog or website to showcase great gift ideas is easier than you may think.

1. Include products or services that will appeal to fathers.
2. Narrow your list down to the best ideas.
3. Take or find photos for each item.
4. Tell people where and how to buy each item.
5. Compile, publish and promote

Let’s break down each step a little further.

1. Include products or services that will appeal to fathers

What do dads really want? It’s probably not another pair of socks. Do a little market research to find out which of your offerings will appeal to fathers:

• Ask friends and family members who are dads.
• Pose the question to your followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or any other social media network where your business is active.
• Send an e-mail to your subscribers or create and online poll.

You can also look at other Father’s Day gift guides online and in magazines, but you’ll want to make sure you’re looking for inspiration that will appeal to your business’s target market.

Consider what your company sells and tie it into your guide

Let’s say you run a bar. Perhaps the first thing on your dad gifts list could be a private whisky tasting at your location. Products that fall in line with that type of gift might include whisky glasses, a decanter, or an ice cube tray. If you have a barber shop, your potential list of dad gifts may include specialty razors, combs and other grooming products.

Think of themes that work well with your company. Once you start brainstorming, you might be surprised how quickly you come up with a list of gift ideas.

Work with other companies for cross promotions

If you want to get more bang for your efforts, you could team up with other local companies to create your dad gift guide. For example:

• A restaurant could partner with a golf club to offer a round of golf followed by a meal.
• A spa could join forces with a hair salon to offer makeovers for dads.

The possibilities are endless!

2. Narrow your list down to the best ideas

Keep your Father’s Day gift guide short and simple to make it easy for customers to choose. Too many products will overwhelm them and they’ll look elsewhere for inspiration.

Think of a dozen or so items. If you have more than a dozen, break it up into categories or themes so your reader doesn’t get intimidated by the selection. Be sure to cater for budgets and tastes that range from beer to champagne if you have a diverse product range.

3. Use awesome photos for each item

Photos can make or break your dad gift guide. Besides, you’ll need great photos and graphics to share on social media. Depending on what you’re selling, a classy product shot could help seal the deal.

You could also try to tap into the purchaser’s emotion with evocative scenes and action shots, especially if you’re selling an experience rather than a product – an adventurer giving a thumbs up as he prepares to abseil down a cliff face, a dad and son embracing, or a proud golfer posing with a new golf club.

4. Tell people where and how to purchase each item

The whole point of creating a dad gift guide is to generate sales. Whether you’re making money off your own products or services, or getting a commission on someone else’s, you want people to buy from your links and referrals.

For every item on your list, you should include:

• The full name of the product.
• The company that sells it.
• The physical store or e-commerce website to purchase the item (if not yours).

5. Compile, publish and promote

Put these materials together on a dedicated webpage and/or blog post in an attractive and search engine optimised fashion. You’ll want to include:

• An eye-catching title.
• An attention-grabbing intro.
• The actual list of dad gifts with links, photos and descriptions.
• A personal touch that speaks to the reader and makes them want to give you their business.
• A description of each gift item that includes keywords people are going to be searching for online, like “gifts for dad in Johannesburg” or “Father’s Day gifts South Africa”.

Once you’ve written the post and hit the publish button, it’s time to go into full promotion mode.

Share your gift guide everywhere

Create promotional graphics with your awesome photos for Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram to announce your Father’s Day gift guide is live. You can use a free tool such as Canva. The better your photos are, the more likely your posts will be shared.

You could say something like, “Looking for a great gift for the dad in your life? Check out our latest dad gift guide.” Add that killer photo that entices them to want to know more, as well as your link to the guide, and you’ve got the makings of a great social post to promote your guide.

Next, send an e-mail to your list with the announcement of the guide and one or two teasers from the list of gift items. You might include an image or two. Be sure to include a call-to-action such as, “For the full dad gift list, visit our website”.

To get more eyeballs on your links, tag any brands or companies you mention in your guide. Who knows? Maybe they will share your post and help you drum up more traffic to your site.

Track, test, tweak, repeat

Keep sharing the dad gift guide on social media, in your e-mails and wherever else you see fit until Father’s Day. Track everything as you go. Take note of what’s working, what’s yielding the most clicks, and any comments people are making. Be sure to engage with people who are commenting on your post.

The things you learn could help determine how to make future gift guides better.

Armed with the knowledge from this promotion, you can create additional guides for kicking off the summer, winter holidays, birthdays and other celebrations.

The best part? You’ve already done the lion’s share of the work. You can update and re-release your Father’s Day gift guide every year. And, while it lives on your site, you might drum up more year-round traffic.

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