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With the colossal number of brands in existence nowadays, marketing departments are always looking for ways to incentivize loyalty among customers. Always on the hunt for deals, modern consumers have access to endless purchasing channels and aren’t bound by geographical restrictions thanks to online shopping. Not only does it cost five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one, but increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. And yet, only 18% of companies focus on retention! Since retaining and nurturing existing clients has much better return on investment (ROI) than onboarding new ones, it’s crucial to develop solid retention strategies. Of course, loyalty and rewards programs, when crafted effectively, are a proven method to keep clients engaged and happy. Making them appealing and meaningful, however, is a must!

Gift Cards—An Effective Tool for Loyalty or Rewards Program

Incentivizing or rewarding customers with gift cards is proven way to increase loyalty to your brand. Their value is easy to calculate; therefore, recipients are confident they’re getting a good deal. They offer some measure of personalization, where clients feel like a given card was selected for them specifically. Furthermore, they can redeem cards and acquire useful items, which adds to overall satisfaction. As opposed to cashback rewards that tend to be injected in a client’s general budget, gift card rewards lead to a meaningful experience that customers remember and value. From a practical standpoint, they’re easy to administer and can be purchased at discounted rates from established distributors such as GCW. Additionally, for a more customized experience, you can get direct-to-custom gift card fulfillment via Fundstream Fulfillment. With API connectivity it’s easy to add gift cards to existing online loyalty or rewards programs. Now that’s a simple yet effective tool to drive desired outcomes!

Gift Cards as Contest Prizes

Contests are a great way to engage with customers and reward them for certain behaviours. People simply love to win free things and will gladly engage with a brand when such a possibility exists. With the vast selection of gift cards available through GCW, reward program managers or marketing departments can choose specific gift cards that resonate with their clientele. Combined with a solid social media strategy, they allow companies to remain relevant and stand out of the masses, leading to increased visibility. They can also lead to brand expansion, stimulating likes, tags, shares and mentions on all popular platforms, with very minimal impact on resources and limited costs.

Gift Cards to Gather Feedback

In business, knowledge is POWER! Data analysis is a proven method to gather useful insights, drive sales and support retention initiatives. As such, many companies spend large sums of money to develop pinpointed campaigns and gain a better understanding of who their target audience is, what interests them, and where brand disenchantment may arise. Rare are the companies that don’t have in-house customer satisfaction surveys to sway clients into giving feedback organically. That’s where gift cards have a positive impact. A great way for businesses to differentiate themselves from competitors is to offer gift cards in exchange for retroaction. In doing so, clients feel like their time and opinions are valued and are incentivized to fill out surveys, even when the sum is as small as $5. Handing out gift cards in exchange for critical data offers a definite ROI!

To create a robust marketing strategy, boost engagement with customers and encourage brand loyalty by using gift cards, get started and sign up today.