5 Ways to help grow your business with gift cards


Get ready to start growing.

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Gift card programs can improve cash flow, especially versus other marketing approaches. Traditional marketing strategies with strong demonstrated return on investment take time to result in sales. Selling gift cards allows you to generate revenue in advance of providing products or services.

Here are 5 tips to help you get started.

1. Rewards— Offering cash back rewards helps create customer loyalty and encourages additional spending at your business. You determine the reward amount, and every time customers use their gift card at your business, they receive cash back directly loaded onto their gift card. This encourages repeat business, and your customers will never have a zero balance!

2. Online Digital Gift— Offer a digital experience with a branded website to purchase digital gift cards and you won’t miss out on another gift card sale. This enables your customers to purchase and send physical or digital cards to their friends and family.

3. Mobile— Mobile payments are here, and consumers are ready. Your customers have the option to convert their physical gift card into a mobile gift card so they can pay with their smartphone. In today’s environment it’s important that your customers pay the way they want, using their preferred methods which includes no contact.

4. Social— Promote your gift cards on Facebook. Customer recommendations go a long way in attracting new business. Encourage cardholders to share a virtual gift on Facebook with our social gifting feature. You decide the offer amount and we take care of the rest. When you let your customers help spread the word about your business, you reward their friends with a digital coupon and save money on advertising.

5. Payments— Cardholders have the option to reload their gift card automatically or manually at any time, making the checkout experience more convenient and efficient. When cardholders reload their gift card, they simply link their card to a credit card. When customers pay for purchases with their gift card, they never miss out on receiving cash back rewards.

We’re here to help if you need any assistance leveraging your gift card program to your customers. To learn more about gift cards, call us at 800.509.0625 or visit us at valuteccardsolutions.com.

RESTAURANT GIFT CARD HELPFUL TIPS


Are you maximizing your gift card program?

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There are many ways that you can use your gift card program in your restaurant to drive sales. By beginning to build brand awareness and a great community reputation, you will help increase customer satisfaction and raise foot traffic. Be creative with displaying your gift cards. Create visibility in your restaurant in as many locations as possible: front door decals, outside signage, inside table tents and signs, employee buttons, and on your receipts. Also consider using gift cards to resolve customer complaints or dissatisfaction. Use gift cards to drive customer loyalty by acknowledging that your customers are important. Rewarding repeat diners will help to encourage bounce back dining which in turn, helps to grow your business.

Here are some additional tips to get you started.

  • Identify your loyal customers by capturing their contact and demographic information. Use this information to run targeted marketing campaigns for top customers including custom greetings and promotions for birthdays, anniversaries and more.
  • Reward customers with an emphasis on the spending that has the most profitable results for your restaurant.
  • Advise customers to use their gift card as a pre-paid card each time they make a purchase by saving it to their digital wallet.
  • Use the data captured to offer flexible operational reports to show adoption rate, loyalty penetration, and success of campaigns.
  • Create multiple looks and styles of your gift card to offer more options. Think about holidays and school events where your cards may be featured. Refresh the look of your cards every year.
  • Having your customers use their loyalty card each time is a way to track and later promote relevant offers based on purchase behavior

Use gift cards to help grow your sales and encourage customer loyalty. Helping your customers become familiar with your business demonstrates the value you bring to them while driving repeat sales back to you. And gift cards are easy, allowing you to focus your time on your business.

We’re here to help if you need any assistance leveraging your gift card program to your customers. To learn more about gift cards, call us at 800.509.0625 or visit us at valuteccardsolutions.com.

RETAIL GIFT CARD HELPFUL TIPS


Are you maximizing your gift card program?

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There are many ways that you can use your gift card program in your store to drive sales, streamline operations, and help maximize profits. Begin to build brand awareness and separate your business from the competition which will help increase customer satisfaction and raise foot traffic in your stores. A loyalty and gift card program can drive customer satisfaction while encouraging those customers to purchase your more profitable products.

"According to one financial services company, 74% of consumers said they spend an average of $59 on top of the original value of the gift card 1 ".

Here are some tips to help you get started.

  • Your customers can purchase gift cards at your store to give as gifts. Advertise their availability every chance you have.
  • You can use gift cards to resolve customer complaints, (examples: missed delivery time or an out-of-stock issue).
  • Send out a pre-loaded promotional gift card as part of a private letter sale announcement and invitation to further encourage customers to come in and shop with you.
  • Load promotional gift cards with random “mystery” amounts so the customer has to come into your store to find out the value of their card.
  • Drive customers to your higher margin items by offering a higher value promotional gift card with “qualifying purchase”.
  • You can use gift cards for charitable donations when requested.

Use gift cards to help grow your sales and encourage customer loyalty. Helping your customers become familiar with your business demonstrates the value you bring to them while driving repeat sales back to you. And gift cards are easy, allowing you to focus your time on your business.

We’re here to help if you need any assistance leveraging your gift card program to your customers. To learn more about gift cards, call us at 800.509.0625 or visit us at valuteccardsolutions.com.

IS YOUR GIFT CARD PROGRAM READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS?


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Gift cards are one of the most versatile and desired holiday gifts your customers can give and, because gift cards are so widely accepted, they work across any industry or business. With 28% of surveyed 1 consumers starting their holiday shopping earlier this year (and many pointing to the pandemic as the reason for earlier shopping) now is the time to make sure your gift card program is ready to go.

Design eye-catching themes
Using themed designs—holiday, seasonal and others that stand out—will increase customer interest in your gift card program and help drive sales. Get your designs to your card provider now since the holidays see longer wait times for production. Most customers start holiday shopping in November and you want to be ready for them so you don’t lose valuable revenue.

Order early and order extra
You don’t want to run out of gift cards right before the holidays end. It’s better to have too many cards, than not enough. Don’t make the mistake of only ordering enough to get you through the season, or you may miss out on last-minute shoppers looking to snag those gift cards. More than half of consumers (52%) report 2 that they are more likely to buy more gift cards this holiday season than in previous years. Give them enough choices to keep them in your store or on your website.

Don’t forget to promote your cards!
Want to drive more traffic to your store or website? Promote gift cards on social media or through an email campaign. Once you have customers in the door, think strategically about where to place your card display stands. Choose a high-traffic location that is central inside your store and easy for customers to find. Make sure your displays are engaging and consider setting up multiple display sections in high-traffic areas throughout the store.

And don’t forget about your online shoppers. Digital gift cards are the fastest growing segment 2 within the $127 billion gift card industry. Digital cards can help with last minute holiday shopping and allow your business to sell gift cards 24/7 from your website. You never have to miss another sale! With growing demand for digital gift cards, especially around the holidays, you should have a strategy in place to meet your customers’ needs and how they want to shop and pay

Get ready to boost sales
In order to be prepared for your customers' holiday demands, you need to act now. Decide on your designs, get your order in early and be sure to secure extra inventory. Being prepared for the busy holiday season helps your customers get the gift cards they need to check friends and family gifts off of their holiday to-do list. A fresh and highly promoted gift card program can help you drive growth that propels your business into the future.

Need help getting started with a gift card program? Call us at 800.509.0625 or visit us at valuteccardsolutions.com to learn more.

1 : First Data 2018 US Consumer Study.
2 : 2020 BrandedPay Holiday Shopping Preview Report.

HEALTHCARE GIFT CARD HELPFUL TIPS?


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Using loyalty and gift programs in healthcare A number of health-related businesses can make great use of a loyalty and gift card program, including pharmacies, chiropractic providers, cosmetic surgery centers, dentists, holistic and alternative healing centers, wellness facilities, and many more. Gift card programs provide benefits to healthcare businesses as well as their customers. Use a gift card as a prepaid card so the consumer can use it to save up for or add money as needed to cover the cost of their services. Consumers are increasing their use of gift cards as prepaid card products for convenience to pay for services they routinely use in personal services and healthcare. Gift cards can also provide a means for customers to give health-related products as gifts such as natural medicines, relaxation products, and health classes

Here are some tips to help you get started

  • Reward current or new patients with a discount off their next procedure with a gift card. Offer new customers a $5 gift card good for a discount on any healthcare products you offer above a certain price.
  • Pass out pre-loaded cards at special events to introduce new customers to your facility.
  • Create promotions that keep patients coming back. For example, when a patient joins your loyalty program, they receive one free service or visit for each five they purchase.
  • You can use gift cards for charitable donations when requested.

Use gift cards to help grow your sales and encourage customer loyalty. Helping your customers become familiar with your business demonstrates the value you bring to them while driving repeat sales back to you. And gift cards are easy, allowing you to focus your time on your business.

We’re here to help if you need any assistance leveraging your gift card program to your customers. To learn more about gift cards, call us at 800.509.0625 or visit us at valuteccardsolutions.com.

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