Additional Income / Benefits from Gift Cards
If you have ever been the lucky recipient of a gift card, you may have noticed that some of them have names of companies seemingly unrelated to that which the card is for. This is because, like sporting events and school fundraisers, gift cards are eligible for sponsorship. If you are able to find and add a sponsor (or two) to your gift card, you might find that you can offset the cost partially or even altogether. If you, for example, charged Coca-Cola to have their logo on your gift card, the fee could go towards the the processing bill for the gift card for your business. Or you could use the barter system, if you and your family are regular Coke drinkers, and get a few free cases in exchange for sponsorship. Perhaps you have a distributor who is interested in reaching your clientele directly to sell his daughter’s makeup line and you can do that in exchange for a discount on your next few orders. The possibilities are limitless within the right group of businesses working together to ensure the overall success of the group/community.
One major benefit of a gift/loyalty card program is that they usually require some basic information from the customer that you wouldn’t normally get from a cash transaction, including his or her email address. The marketing potential of having customers on a mailing list willing to receive special offers and promotions is the gift that keeps on giving!