Using Promotional Campaigns in your Real-Time Loyalty or Gift Card programs

In addition to the standard reasons for wanting a loyalty or gift card program, there are some excellent real-time marketing capabilities that these programs can give you. The Ernex Promotional Tool Kit gives merchants the capability to insert and print receipt coupons and custom messages on the receipt, or to run swipe-and-win sweepstakes. And if you are running an Ernex loyalty program, you can also run a bonus points campaigns.

But what exactly are these Promotional Tools?

Custom Messages - Personalize promotional and "thank-you" messages, or "seed" a promotion for a selected base of customers at the point-of-sale.

Custom Coupons - Up-sell or promote new products with personalized coupons printed directly on customer receipts. Target by location, region, and customer spending level or other parameters.

Swipe 'N Win Sweepstakes - Encourage repeat purchases with a chance to win prizes each time customers use their gift or loyalty card. Notify winners directly on their receipt.

Bonus Points - Reward loyalty program customers with extra points based on parameters including specific customer segments, locations, time-of-day and day-of-week.

Most Popular Campaigns by Industry Entertainment Swipe 'N Win sweepstakes Hospitality Custom Messaging Restaurant Custom Messaging Retail Bonus Points Sports Swipe 'N Win sweepstakes

Campaign Popularity
Given the choice between these four types of campaigns, the most popular campaigns are Bonus Points campaigns (40% of campaigns) and Custom Messaging campaigns (38%). This speaks to the desire of many of our merchants to drive their customers to their place of business during traditionally slower times of the day or week, or to attract specific groups of customers.

Most Popular Time of Year
Over the last two years we have launched approximately 6 campaigns per month with our clients. The most popular time of the year to run a promotion is during the first months of the fall (October with 18% of total campaigns and September with 12%). This reflects the realities of businesses in two industries: restaurants that are trying to improve sales in a traditionally slow time of year and hotels that are looking to capitalize on the increased amount of business travel that happens in the fall. The months leading up to summer (June with 15% of campaigns and May with 9%) are the next busiest time of year, as businesses try to drive sales before the summer months.

Custom Coupon Redemption Rate Stands Out
Using the Custom Coupon feature, a merchant now has the ability to understand the effectiveness of their couponing with the coupon validation functionality. While it takes a little extra time at the point-of-sale, several Ernex clients have used the coupon validation feature to provide an audit trail for their loyalty program member redemptions as part of a manual or auto redemption campaign. Coupons of this type had an excellent redemption rate of 40% on average! Compare this to the 1-2% redemption rate for newspaper inserted coupons and you know that you have a definite winner.

Average Campaign Duration
Because there is a much lower cost involved with setting up a point-of-sale campaign, merchants don't feel the need to drag out campaigns long after they have passed their prime. Almost 45% of the promotions run by our clients are under 5 weeks in length. In fact, 72% of the promotions are under 10 weeks in length.

What Industry is Taking the Lead?
While this number may be skewed based on the types of clients in our client base, we have found that the restaurant industry has taken to using promotions quicker than any other industry. Restaurants have run 54% of the campaigns, followed by retail with 23% of the campaigns.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas of the capabilities that may be available to you within an Ernex-powered loyalty or gift card program. By taking advantage of these exciting Promotional Tools, you open up an entirely new avenue to market and communicate with your gift card users and loyalty program members.

• Increasing the Excitement Around Your Stored-Value Program
• Leveraging Perceived Value in Your Loyalty or Marketing Program
• Ernex Gift Card Program
• Ernex Swipe 'N Win Program
• Ernex Custom Coupons
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