The growing popularity of gift cards—for everything from holiday presents to consumer promotions to survey incentives—is undeniable. And recipients have made it clear that the more flexibility that a reward card offers, the better. That’s why a prepaid virtual Visa or Mastercard international gift card is often an ideal choice for your marketing, customer, research, and employee rewards. But it’s important to understand how a prepaid virtual Visa or Mastercard international gift card differs from a traditional single-brand gift card, such as one for Amazon or Starbucks. Before you decide on the right rewards for your program, consider your needs, goals, and recipients. At the end of the day, it may be an even better solution to offer a choice of reward options. To make sure you have all the information, here are some clarifications about what a prepaid virtual Visa or Mastercard international gift card can bring to your rewards or incentives program. Reward Recipients Prefer to Get Cash False. Time and time again, our research has shown that recipients prefer the speed and convenience of getting a prepaid virtual Visa or Mastercard international gift card. Whether it’s customers in a loyalty program, employees receiving appreciation gifts or performance...
Rewards programs are just like every other initiative you undertake for your company: You need to make them as efficient and effective as possible, especially given recent budget cuts and economic concerns. And a gift card platform can help. While they are many online gift card vendors designed for consumer purchases, the best tool for your rewards will be a gift card platform meant for business. It needs to help you simplify your processes as much as possible while still giving your recipients the great experience they expect. Still not sure how a rewards tool will improve your program? You only need to open your “ize” to the possibilities! READ MORE: Why a Gift Card Platform Belongs in Every Team’s Tech Stack Digitize Reward Delivery Using a gift card platform that allows you to send a wide selection of rewards digitally via email not only streamlines the process for you and your teams, it also caters to recipient preferences. They can get their gift card or prepaid card instantly, even when they’re spread out across the globe. The added flexibility to deliver virtual gift cards using SMS is an even bigger bonus, since it allows you to reach different...
The right motivation can be the key to getting high response rates and, in turn, accurate, actionable insights from your survey participants, no matter what topic you’re researching. While surveys are a tried-and-true research method, online survey incentives are making it easier than ever to reward and engage participants. Looking to improve the quantity and quality of your responses? Look no further than online survey incentives. Here’s what you need to know. READ MORE: 4 Organizations That Found Success Using Survey Incentives in Different Ways Survey Incentives Take So Much Time to Manage, It’s a Full-Time Job False. Gone are the days of tracking incentives with a spreadsheet and fulfilling rewards in the mail. With the right digital gift card platform, you can quickly and easily streamline and, yes, even automate online survey incentives. Not only does your team save valuable time and resources, your respondents also get their reward immediately upon survey completion. Respondents Would Prefer to Receive Cash or a Check False. Times have changed. With most surveys completed online, it makes little sense to send participants a check in the mail when you can send them digital rewards as soon as they submit their responses. The same...
A great customer experience (CX) is no longer a nice to have — it’s a must. Today’s consumers expect personalized experiences, and that includes the rewards they receive as part of a loyalty program. Your e-gift card email delivery is a golden opportunity to improve CX, whether you’re rewarding customers for attending demos and webinars, participating in product feedback surveys, testing new features, submitting referrals, or sharing their experiences on review sites and social media. A Forbes Insights and Arm Treasure Data survey shows 83% of executives feel that not improving CX presents them with considerable risks to their revenue and market share. And CX drives over two-thirds of customer loyalty, more than brand and price combined, according to Gartner. With customers placing a higher value on their interactions with your organization than price or product, a top-notch customer experience is a definite competitive advantage. Customizing your emails — and the entire redemption process — not only makes your incentives more recognizable, it helps customers associate a positive reward experience with your brand. The BHN Rewards platform offers all sorts of ways to customize and personalize your reward program’s e-gift card email delivery. Here are some options. READ MORE: Improve...
Websites and digital services that sell gift cards have become more and more popular as companies do so much of their business online. But just like it’s important to choose the right providers for your technology, finding online gift card vendors that suit the needs of your rewards program is key to your success. To start, you must learn the possibilities of what these vendors can provide for you and your organization, whether you’re looking to use rewards to increase employee retention, boost survey response rates, engage with prospects and fill the pipeline, close more deals, or build better customer relationships. Here’s the truth about four common thoughts on what online gift card vendors offer. READ MORE: 4 Cost Considerations for Your Digital Gift Card Platform Online Gift Card Vendors Are Unnecessary — It’s Easier to Just Order Directly From the Retailer False. For ad-hoc projects that require 20 Starbucks gift cards for your team members or 100 Amazon incentives for survey participants, it may seem logical to simply go to the merchant’s website and order directly. But a digital gift card provider that aggregates options is a much more efficient and scalable way to fulfill your needs. What if...
Even though Employee Appreciation Day may have passed, you don’t need a special occasion to show your teams that you value their contributions. But just in case you do want an occasion, there always seems to be one on the horizon — like Companies That Care Day on March 18. Companies That Care Day has dual goals: First, and most obviously, for employers to show that they care about their employees, and second, to encourage businesses to do more with their employee and community initiatives. With all the options for online gift cards to send, you can quickly and easily tailor your selections to achieve these goals. READ MORE: Why Gift Cards Are Better Than Cash Bonuses for Employees Offer Choice and Flexibility Companies that care give employees the kind of rewards they want. More than 80% prefer to get prepaid cards or gift cards, and 57% prefer to receive them digitally, according to our research. Then it’s just a question of deciding which online gift cards to send to appeal to everyone. You can, of course, go with a universal option such as a Mastercard or Visa prepaid reward, which can be used to purchase just about anything. But...
It’s true! Every department in your organization can benefit from corporate reward programs. Thanks to their fantastic ROI, corporate reward programs do so much more for you than a typical budget line item. That’s because well-thought-out rewards and incentives can help increase revenue while making your employees more productive. Over time, it’s an investment that ends up paying for itself. Here are all the ways your company can use corporate reward programs to boost your bottom line. READ MORE: Why a Gift Card Platform Belongs in Every Team’s Tech Stack Sales Demo Incentives Having the ability to offer prospects a gift card or prepaid card to attend a sales demos or pitch meeting is a must-have tool for your reps. It gives sales teams more opportunities to get in front of prospects and wastes less time on no-shows in the process. Incentivizing attendance is well worth it when you consider that less than a quarter (23.9%) of sales emails are opened by recipients, and it takes 18 calls to connect with a buyer on the phone, according to Gartner. Reward-Based Promotions Offering rebates or a compelling reward with purchase can help speed up the sales cycle, pushing those on the...
Regardless of whom you’re rewarding and why — consumers who responded to your survey, customers who made a repeat purchase, brand advocates who submitted a referral, employees who went above and beyond, etc., etc. — it’s no surprise that among all the options for international gift cards, people love Amazon and cash-equivalent prepaid cards like Mastercard and Visa. Here at BHN Rewards, it’s really no surprise, because we mined our platform redemption data to find out what international gift cards are popular choices for recipients around the world. Rewards for Amazon sites were a favorite, although senders should keep in mind the limitations for using them internationally. Starbucks gift cards were also among the top choices in several countries — apparently people everywhere love coffee. Beyond that, there were some international gift cards that showed up on our lists and could offer you a chance to customize your reward campaigns more for different global audiences. Here are some options to consider offering. READ MORE: The Ins and Outs of Rewarding With International Gift Cards In Europe: Zalando Zalando is a fashion and lifestyle retailer that was founded in Germany. It has physical outlet stores throughout its home country and ships...
Maybe you’ve just realized the benefits of adding rewards for prospects and customers to increase your engagement, lead generation, and campaign success. Maybe you already use rewards but the manual process of buying them directly from retailers is getting too cumbersome. Either way, it’s time to evaluate digital gift card providers to find the most effective and efficient tool to help. There are a wide range of digital gift card providers available, but when you’re shopping for a rewards tool, it’s important to make sure you’re getting one that is appropriate for your needs. Many digital gift card providers are intended as direct-to-consumer e-commerce sites and won’t be the best to serve your business. Here are three questions to keep in mind as you start to look for a platform and provider that will make your rewards program seamless and successful. READ MORE: Download our Buyer’s Guide for evaluating marketing rewards platforms What Rewards — Including Global Options — Are Available? The first thing you need in a digital gift card provider is, well, the right digital gift cards. The kinds of rewards you need likely depend on how you’re using them and what your target audience is. B2B organizations...
Everyone likes to have options, especially rewards recipients. Whether you’re rewarding someone for participating in a research study, celebrating a milestone for an employee, or welcoming a new client to the fold, virtual prepaid gift cards offer the kind of flexibility your recipients will appreciate. Unlike an Amazon e-gift card, for example, virtual prepaid gift cards can be used like a debit card anywhere it’s accepted, giving even more choices of what to spend it on. But not all virtual prepaid gift cards are created equal. As you optimize your rewards program to include this popular choice, hare are some of the differences your team should consider. READ MORE: Is Cash Still King? 8 Times a Digital Prepaid Card Is Better The Brand or Network It’s a Part Of This distinction is important because it dictates at which retailers the card can be spent. Mastercard and Visa rewards are widely accepted, whereas an American Express- or Discover-branded reward card typically has more limited redeemability. Small mom-and-pop shops and emerging businesses tend to accept Mastercard and Visa because their transaction fees are far lower. If you want to support shopping local—and give the most flexibility—these cards are a better choice. Where...
