The trouble with thank-your gifts is figuring out what to send. You can’t choose something that’s too expensive, nor can you pick something that might be seen as worthless. You have to walk a thin line between price and practicality when selecting thank you gift ideas.
Digital Gift Voucher Program in Retail
How to Use Gifts for Marketing?
While the explicit purpose of a customer appreciation gift is to show you care, it has another motive as well: to market your online store. You certainly want
What better way to show customers that you care than to send them a customer appreciation gift? Your competitors might try to win over customers with stale “thank you” emails. You, on the other hand, can leave a deep impression.
Industry.
Gifts vs. discounts
Using discounts and offers to maximize sales is old hat in e-commerce. The question to ask is: how does a discount compare against a gift in terms of marketing impact? To answer this question, you’ll have to consider two things:
Discount value and conditions: A steep discount with liberal terms might end up costing you more than a free gift. On the other hand, if the discount is too low with strict terms, customers might not be interested. Interestingly, research in consumer psychology indicates that people prefer to get more rather than spend less. A free gift might have higher perceived value since it gives them more. Of course, this only applies if you’re actually telling customers that you’re giving them a gift. This brings us to the next point.
customers to feel happy and appreciated, but it would also be nice if they were to recommend your store to their friends.
To use customer appreciation gifts as a marketing tactic, there are a number of things you need to keep in mind.
How often you offer discounts: The perceived value of a discount depends on how frequently you offer it. If you have frequent sales and offers, customers might not be too enthusiastic about yet another discount, no matter how steep.
Another dilemma is figuring out who to gift — some customers or all of them?
There are pros and cons to each approach. Telling customers upfront might convince them to make a purchase, especially if they see the gift as a “deal”.
At the same time, it robs you of the customer delight that comes with a surprise
Gifting to some vs. gifting to all customers
Should you tell customers about the gift or should you just send them a surprise?
On the other hand, if you want to use gifts as an incentive to buy more, tell customers about it upfront.
Whatgift. approach you use will depend on what you hope to achieve with the gift. If your goal is to delight customers, build loyalty, and increase word of mouth (including social media), choose a surprise gift.
Explicit vs. secret gifts
To get the most out of your customer appreciation gifts, there are a few thing you should keep in mind:
Customers who receive something free and unexpected are driven to shop more, according to one study. Thus, it might be worth it to lose money upfront on a sale by giving a gift. You can make up for it with repeat purchases.
Maximize the impact of gifting
Customers buy more when there is a “mystery” involved in the purchase, as one University of Miami study discovered. Keeping the gift, a secret can help in this regard.
Gifting everyone has the obvious cost disadvantage. You might also not realize many benefits from gifting people who are inactive on social media or unlikely to recommend you to friends. At the same time, gifting only a few customer might make them feel special at the cost of other customers. Customer B might wonder why Customer A got a gift and he didn’t. This can create resentment for your brand — the exact opposite purpose of gifting. A better approach is to use the Pareto Principle and target your top 20% best customers. These are either customers who are active on social media or correspond to your ideal customer profile. Since you want more such customers, targeting them can yield better results.
How to Select Customer Appreciation Gifts?
A customer appreciation gift is usually something physical, useful, and related to your business in some capacity. It has a simple purpose: to thank customers for their business. Whether the gift elicits a “wow” or “eh” will depend on the quality of the gift.
Focus on gifting customers who are active on social media or have a history of sharing your stuff. Prompt them gently to upload pictures with their gifts on their favorite social network.
Consider donating to charity on behalf of the customer instead of giving away a gift. Research suggests that charity donations work better than a practical gift, especially when the original purchase is frivolous in nature.
There are a number of rules you must follow when selecting a customer appreciation gift:
Giving away a freebie creates immediate word of mouth, according to an article in the Journal of Marketing. That is especially true if the gift is the first experience the customer has with your brand. Thus, besides your top customers, you can also target first time buyers when giving away gifts to create a positive first impression.
Your customers like to share pictures of free gifts, as in this example of a birthday gift sent to a customer by Sephora These are just some tactics to maximize the impact of your gifting. Your next challenge is to select the right gift. We’ll share some rules for gift selection below.
It should have perceived value: Above everything else, the gift must have perceived value. Even if it is cheap, it must fulfill a need or appear valuable to the customer. It should be useful: A good gift is usually one that serves some practical purpose. Souvenirs and trinkets that only take up space are easily forgotten. A useful gift will remind the customer of your business every time they use it. It should be easy to store and transport: No customer wants to deal with an unwanted gift that takes up too much storage space. Neither do you want to worry about the hassle of transporting a large gift. Always pick something that is small and easy to transport. It should be durable and lasting: A gift that is perishable or easy to destroy will quickly lose its value. Avoid fragile items or anything that might spoil over a couple of weeks. It should be related to the business: An ideal gift is related to the business in some way so that it reminds the customer of you. If you run a fashion store, select a fashion accessory, not a book on macroeconomics. It should be harmless: Lastly, the gift shouldn’t trigger allergies, have dangerous, sharp edges, or pose a choking hazard to children. Ask: can this gift cause problem for anyone in my customer’s household (especially old people and children)? If the answer is “yes”, pick something else.
When selecting gifts, keep your customer personas in mind. Ask yourself: what would someone from this demographic enjoy? For instance, if your target customers make over $200,000/year and live in a wealthy suburb, a cheap gift card to a discount store wouldn’t work. Make demographics the centerpiece of your gift selection process and you’ll seldom go wrong.