By Courtney Jaehme, Head of Business Development and Marketing, Jigsaw Business Solutions
Launching and managing a gift card programme can be challenging, as can growing one! Here are 7 top tips from our team of gift card experts to support you whilst you explore gift cards for the first time or look to boost your revenue from an existing programme:
- Don’t overlook them: Gift cards are sold in channels that your products can’t access directly. It is crucial to utilise them to expand your routes to market and new audiences.
- Offer an omni-channel experience: Offering your gift cards across multiple channels is essential. This includes B2C spaces such as on pegs in supermarkets and through your own website. On top of that you’ll want to offer them across numerous appropriate B2B channels too, such as in Employee Benefit schemes. This will help to raise awareness of your gift card product, make it easy to access and establish brand loyalty with your customers.
- Dedicate resource: Gift cards are a complex product but with huge opportunity. Be sure you have enough resource to realise their full potential and drive growth, ongoing.
- Shout about them: Don’t shy away from advertising your gift cards as much as you would any other product. Include them in your marketing calendar, particularly leading up to seasonal occasions where gifting is at the forefront of your consumers’ minds.
- Embrace innovation: Stay ahead of the curve with creative gift card assets, animation, unique promotions and more. Don’t be afraid to test, fail, learn and try again, it’s the only way you’ll learn what works.
- Connection and “share-ability”: You spend so much time and money building your brand loyalty, it is important to provide your best spokespeople (your customers) with a way to share their passion for your brand… gift cards are a great solution!
- Emotive shopping: Remember that gift cards help soften the transactional nature of a purchase because they are often gifted to the end user from a loved one or as a reward for their achievements, this means that users are reminded of the gift giver whilst they shop, making the experience warm and even more enjoyable.There are so many things that gift cards can be used for – employee engagement, incentives, gifting, rewarding customers, acquiring more customers and the list continues. Gift cards will unlock great value for your business if harnessed and driven correctly, so be sure that you have put the time into examining your options and earning potential.
If you haven’t yet launched a gift card or aren’t satisfied with the revenue you’re earning so far, Jigsaw are here to help. Send us a message to get the ball rolling!
