If sales prospecting is a skill, converting prospects to customers is an art form. Gift cards could give you the edge you need for sales success.
The rise of inbound marketing has made attracting prospects a fairly easy exercise. Create great (really great) content, put it out there with a clever social media schedule and watch the likes, clicks and follows flow. Prospects? Not all of them. But certainly an invitation to dance, and more contact info than you would ever hope to get for free in the days of transactional marketing. Why buy a list when you can get personal profiles on a platter?
Now that you’ve got their attention
As long as you keep delivering great content, you’ve got potential customers on tap. But it’s going to take a bit more effort to keep the sales process moving. And here is where we suggest you appeal to some of the same human drives and instincts that sales pros have been working forever: Limited time only! You could win! Free trial!
Yes, I’m talking about the deep, irresistible draw of promotions, competitions and contests. Primordial-level deep. Dan Ariely has written a lot about the predictably irrational lure of the magic giveaway word, ‘free’. There is, for example, the tattoo rationale (because it’s free), the cheaper brand of chocolate experiment (because it’s free) and many, many more tales of intriguing human behaviour from Ariely at The Blog.
And then there are those other basic instincts that lure us to promotions and competitions: urgency (special price today only!) and scarcity (just 2 left). Who hasn’t landed up with some or other weird, useless kitchen gadget in the face of an urgency and/or scarcity pitch? Be honest.
From prospects to leads to customers
Your inspiring, insightful, relevant content has led your prospects to your website. How do you move them down the sales funnel and turn your prospects into leads? Well, how about a little give and take at this point? They give you a few more contact details, maybe a little more insight on their business pain points, and you give them a white paper, or an ebook, or some meaty, useful piece of information to help them do what they do smarter, better, faster? That works. Sometimes.
Personally, this is the point at which I pause and weigh up just how much this ‘free’ white paper is going to cost me. I could well be opening the door to a new stream of spam. Affiliates will find me. Google bots will hunt me down. Is this white paper worth the risk? I’m not immune to the lure of free stuff, but I can’t be the only person asking the question in the moments before clicking ‘download now’.
You had me at gift card
How about adding a little flavour to your offer? ‘Download now and stand a chance to WIN one of 10 gift cards worth R500!’. It’s the old heart and mind approach to motivation. Who wouldn’t love a R500 gift card? I would. And the white paper looks interesting. Click. You got me!
Of course, your inbound efforts are all about sharing, educating, advising and assisting with useful, relevant, engaging content. Like white papers. But that level of genuine connection has become a baseline. Converting prospects to leads and then to customers (and then to loyal customers) takes a little more gut-level appeal. And that’s where some classic promotional techniques like contests, sweepstakes and referral programs can enhance the effectiveness of your content-focused marketing. And what better reward than a gift card?
Take a look at this case study to see how gift cards can help turn customers into brand fans.
Why gift cards are a great reward
Gift cards are a fantastic mechanism for generating leads, converting prospects to customers and keeping existing customers coming back for more. They’re versatile, easy to deliver and universally popular – second only to cash – which is reason enough to make them a key element in your sales strategy and top of your loyal customer rewards list.
Cards pack a big reward in a small package. The shopping potential is a thrill, of course, but the real feel-good moment is in the whole ‘Hey, I won a gift card!’ rewards experience. No doubt your content is click-worthy, but adding a prize, or gift, or sweepstakes element to your inbound marketing takes customer relationship potential to a higher level. Don’t you think?
And from a purely practical perspective, you don’t need another lingering ‘to do’ in your diary, so the faster and easier the gift card order, purchase, delivery process, the better.
Get in touch with our reward specialists today to find out about our range of gift cards.
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