The Scratch Off Impression

Ezine Article: Tips for Effective Employee Incentive Programs

2009-09-21T09:41:00.003-04:00

Employee incentive programs are an excellent way to motivate employees, add value to their accomplishments and keep them focused on attaining their goals. Any business can use an employee incentive program, and beginning a program tailored for your business is easier than you think. Choosing the right approach to your program can be the key to success, and it all starts with the tools you use for delivering incentives to employees.

Read the full article and discover 6 tips that will help make your employee incentive program a huge success!

Ezine Article: Marketing in a Recession With a Scratch and Win

2009-09-14T08:46:00.003-04:00

When everything costs more, your overhead, raw materials, gas for work, you name it, it's tempting to make-up for the cost by pulling money away from your marketing budget. You might think that it's a safe move to make. If less people have money to purchase products, you can save the money you would spend on marketing to get those customers and weather the financial storm, right? Wrong!

Read the full article to learn why you should be increasing your marketing budget during a recession and why there's no better way to do it than with a scratch and win promotion.

TBA Credit Union receives $1 million in increased annual deposits!

2009-09-11T09:39:00.005-04:00

Situation: TBA Credit Union began a company-wide competition to see which branch could cross-sell the most direct deposits in one month. Employees at all four offices eagerly accepted the challenge with high expectations of earning the Grand Prize - a chance to win up to $200 for the winning branch! But how could management ensure that employees would promote the service to current members and follow up with members to make certain the direct deposits began?

Solution: The Marketing Team at TBA Credit Union used a Scratch and Win employee incentive program inspired by the popular game show Deal or No Deal to help achieve a goal of 50 new direct deposit accounts. Employees received a Scratch and Win game card when a member enrolled in direct deposit. The employee scratched off a game card immediately after the 'deal' was made and redeemed the ticket for the revealed prize when the member's direct deposit started. Waiting to reward the employees after the direct deposit began was an excellent way of encouraging employees to follow-up with prospects.

Number of Cards: 250 – CR-80 Stock Cards

Prizes:

$5 - $30 gift cards
$50 and $100 cash prize
TBA Credit Union merchandise

Results: Employees at TBA Credit Union interested 90 members in direct deposit. Because employees were encouraged to follow-up, their efforts resulted in 60 new direct deposit accounts! That’s 20% more than their goal, totaling more than $1 million in increased annual deposits! The winning branch earned an opportunity to play Deal or No Deal during a company-wide meeting and won $150! "It was one of our most successful promotions to date!"

Ways To Use

2009-09-10T10:15:00.009-04:00

However you use a scratch and win, everyone is a winner!

Promotions
Customers are always looking for an extra value in their purchases and the companies they favor. Use a scratch and win promotion to let your customers win that extra value with discounts, free merchandise or other prizes - in turn, your business will be the winner.

In-Store Promotions
Increase Traffic
Create Brand/Company awareness
Increase Sales during off peak times

Loyalty Programs

Increase word of mouth marketing
Make up-selling easy
Increase Frequency

Sporting Events

Increase merchandise sales
Increase stadium advertising with an inexpensive approach
Create excitement amongst team sponsors

Direct Mail
Scratch and win cards are perfect for increasing traffic to your store or website. You can reach your audience at their home or business to promote new and existing products in your stores or provide a special code for a chance to win on your website. Believe us, they are much more fun than clipping coupons!

Direct consumer traffic
Increase your customers’ interaction with your brand
An excellent method to differentiate your promotion

Employee Incentives
Employee incentive programs can be used to increase safety compliance, increase sales, increase production, and boost morale. Scratch and win cards generate enthusiasm amongst employees within your company and provide a fun and exciting way to get the results you need.

Great motivational tool
Create excitement and increase production
Promote teamwork
Hold their interest
Create positives employee interaction
Programs are easy to understand and fast to implement

Tradeshow Giveaways
By using scratch and win cards, your company will have a creative edge over competitors that use typical advertising. Scratch and win cards create anticipation in your prospects and grab their attention, providing you with more traffic at your exhibits, more leads and a great way to generate a database for mailings.

Build a profitable database
Stand out and grab attention
Very inexpensive price with a very high return

Fundraisers
Scratch and win fundraising is a low cost, highly effective opportunity for your organization to raise awareness and support. The key to a successful fundraiser is providing a unique experience that will hold your donors’ interest, and nothing is more effective than a scratch and win game. Make donating exciting!

Create awareness with a winning technique
Inexpensive way to generate donations while creating excitement
Perfect for schools, charities and organizations

Ezine Article: Scratch and Win Employee Incentives - Increase Employee Productivity

2009-09-09T16:39:00.007-04:00

There is no better investment than helping your employees succeed, and implementing a scratch and win employee incentive program is the most effective and inexpensive way to do that

Scratch and win employee incentive programs are effective because they turn your program into a game that employees will want to play and win. You can use them to help your employees accomplish their goals, growing your business. They are easy to implement and their effectiveness is easy to track. So, if you want better productivity, more sales, increased compliance with regulations, and more from your employees, a scratch and win employee incentive will help you reach those goals.

Read the full article and see all the benefits of using a scratch and win employee incentive.

Hearts on Fire drives sales with employee incentive.

2009-08-23T13:22:00.005-04:00

Situation: Hearts on Fire, the world’s most perfectly cut diamond, wanted to boost their fourth-quarter sales. However, their products are never discounted to consumers. So, how could Hearts on Fire increase their premium jewelry sales without having their patrons pay the premium for traditional advertising?

Solution: Hearts on Fire recognized that they could meet their objective of increasing sales by making it their employees’ objective as well. They implemented a Scratch and Win employee incentive program and gave employees a game card for each sale made at specific trunk show events. The program ran on a points system, where accumulated points could be traded for Hearts on Fire merchandise, and each card was worth from 2,000 to 200,000 points with their top prize requiring 500,000 points.

Number of Cards: 10,000 – CR80

Prizes:

Points redeemable for free Hearts on Fire merchandise for employees only

Results: “The program definitely drove sales! Our employees felt it really gave them incentive to perform better and we could see the sales impact in our results.”

Perazelli's Ristorante steps up its marketing efforts.

2009-08-23T12:30:00.009-04:00

Situation: Perazelli’s Italian Ristorante was looking for a way to start the New Year with a great first quarter by increasing traffic to its two locations. They had tried using the “envelope method” in which coupons were printed in-house, inserted in envelopes and handed to customers in the restaurant. It turned out to be far more work than the results merited. They wanted the same effect in an alternative that was less work, more results.

Solution: Perazelli’s Italian Ristorante accomplished delivering the same style of prizes as their previous "envelope method", but added interaction and a professional appearance by using a Scratch and Win promotion. They distributed half their cards to new prospects by direct mail and handed-out the other half to customers entering their restaurants. Recipients were instructed to hold their cards until the month of January, when they could bring their card to one of Perazelli’s locations and scratch to see what they had won.

Number of Cards: 750 – 4”x6”

Prizes:

10% and 20% discount
$25 and $100 gift cards
Free appetizer or dessert with purchase
Free meal with purchase

Results: Perazelli’s Italian Ristorante received a 35% redemption rate! "The cards really helped us step up our marketing efforts. The promotion was so easy to complete and made us look much more professional than what we had done in the past."

Ezine Article: Successful Sales Promotions and the Disadvantages of Coupons

2009-08-12T12:13:00.003-04:00

There is no question that sales promotions provide excellent benefits to businesses and their customers and are a necessary component of any marketing mix. Discounting products and services through a sales promotion adds value that entices increased frequency from current customers and attracts new business. The most common tool in use today for delivering discounts is the coupon. The real question here is…why coupons?

Despite the widespread use of coupons, there is little proof that these are the best form of delivering discounts. In fact, there's a lot of proof to say otherwise. In this article we discuss what factors influence the effectiveness of coupons, such as clutter and why of the 2.6 billion coupons distributed annually only 1% are redeemed.

Click here to read the full article and see the benefits of using scratch and win game cards instead of coupons.

Steve Madden has most successful sales day with a scratch and win promotion!

2009-08-12T09:31:00.010-04:00

Situation: Black Friday is a big sales day for every business. But with so many customers expecting sales and so many stores offering the same boring discounts, how was Steve Madden going to make their stores stand out from the rest?

Solution: Steve Madden broke the mold by keeping everything in their store the regular price but offering every customer a scratch and win card worth discounts and free merchandise.

Number of Cards: 325,000 – CR80 (credit card size)

Prizes:

Free shoes
Free handbags
20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% off merchandise

The Results: To put it simply: “It was the biggest and most successful sales day in the history of our stores!” –Steve Madden, National Footwear Brand

Welcome to "The Scratch Off Impression"!

2009-08-12T08:44:00.006-04:00

We are very excited to be using this blog to help people understand the promotional power of scratch off cards and the impression they can make for your business! They are effective tools in any industry, so we know there will be something here for you. In addition to some very persuasive information on scratch off cards, you will also find information on prepaid card printing and how effective gift cards can be for business growth.

We'll be demonstrating all of this through case studies, articles, discussion and much more, so subscribe to our RSS feed and check back often to not miss any of the great goodies. Be sure to leave lots of comments, questions, feedback, really anything to help us make this an open discussion as well as a reference tool, and we will make sure to answer all of your questions.