<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1960181384305267&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">

New Research Reveals Cards Drive Increased Spending, Visits and Willingness to Support Social Marketing

It isn’t new for us to hear that prepaid cards are great motivators and incentives. But a new loyalty and prepaid survey reveals just how much prepaid has affected consumer spending habits and long term adoption when used in the B2B space as incentives. Here, we outline some of the most interesting tidbits and pair them with our market observations and viewpoints. Let us know your thoughts via the comments field.

Read More

What do Groupon, Facebook and Gift Cards have in common?

They are all top of mind for consumers. As you read through this feature, consider what this could all mean for the B2B gift card market via incentives and loyalty programs. How can these programs be enhanced by social media and consumer trends like group couponing? Move over Groupon, Mr. 50 million strong. Facebook’s 600 million users are offered-up some of your group couponing action. But, is there really room for another Groupon?

Business Insider’s Groupon survey suggests YES, as they start to see Groupon’s regular users become less active over time…

Read More

Take-aways from Loyalty Expo: Social media, personalizing loyalty & mobile segmentation

GCP’s
Vice President of  Sales,
Diane Freeland,
is back from Loyalty 360’s annual Loyalty Expo & shares the top discussions that caught her attention.
Social media and customer care: Social media has altered the role of customer service in an organization, from primarily a support function to an extension of marketing. Brands can listen to what customers are saying, they can be proactive and more widely solicit product or service feedback, offer incentives like gift cards or points for sharing product information. Many of GCP’s clients are taking social media seriously,
1-800-Flowers was one of the first retailers to use Facebook's platform. For more details on social media & customer care, check out:
How to Integrate Customer Service Into Social Media Marketing. It also includes 12 Ways Social Media Enhances Customer Service and 5 Ways to Measure Social Media Customer Service.
What’s next for loyalty programs? Are traditional points based loyalty programs dead?  The consensus was NO. However, significantly different redemption options need to be brought into the mix with gift cards, merchandise, and travel rewards (e.g intrinsic rewards like virtual game currency). We heard some interesting discussion around personalizing loyalty rewards for individual participants. Traditional loyalty programs offer everyone the same reward options; when rewards are personalized it starts a dialogue and treats the customer to rewards they’ve selected versus what is offered across the program. What if customers can select or “favorite” categories of rewards like gift cards for children’s clothes, brands of merchandise like “Apple”, and travel customized to “Inns on the east coast”? The learnings from programs like this could go a long way for the development of loyalty programs that listen!
Mobile Segmentation Marketing: Another interesting way to listen and respond to loyal customers; shaping customer personas based on their mobile usage. This allows thoughtful marketers to send the right kinds of messages to the right users and reward for loyalty via the right technology. The goal is to better increase the value of customer relationships based on how customers use their mobile phones, like m-certs (mobile gift cards). Carlson Marketing gave some great examples of how they are engaging in this strategy for the Hallmark Crown Rewards loyalty program; "Interactions turned into transactions". For more insights to mobile technology and gift cards, read GCP's article:
Why Mobile & Virtual Gift Cards are Becoming a Way of Life GCP will be launching our new website in the coming week, keep a look out:
www.giftcardpartners.com Follow us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/GiftCardPartner

Read More

Saying Sorry with Gift Cards Instead of Thank You

This is a great example of using gift cards to smooth over a customer service nightmare . Approximately 8,000 Hawaiian Electric Co. customers went without power earlier this month. HECO will soon issue $50 gift cards and formal letters of apology to many of their customers who went without power for an extended period of time. Many companies say “Thank you” to their customers with gift cards via loyalty and rewards programs. Will saying “Sorry” with gift cards keep customers loyal? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment. Read the full story:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14259331

Read More

Are gift cards right for your loyalty program?

"As gift cards become more popular with consumers, brands are also looking into the cards for different programs. From loyalty rewards to in-store rewards, gift cards are becoming an integral part of loyalty marketing, but is this solution right for your brand?" by
Kristina Knight Check out the Loyalty 360 story here:
Are gift cards right for your loyalty program?

Read More

A better way to buy gift cards in bulk

Register today and get access to 250+ popular gift card brands, personalized customer service, and simple and secure ordering.

SHOP GIFT CARDS

Subscribe to Email Updates