Everyone is marketing everywhere. Product advertisements are pushed through multiple channels both online and offline at all hours of the day. It’s been estimated that the average person sees between 4,000 to 10,000 ads daily. If you’re an advertiser, you’re not only competing against other companies in your business vertical, you’re competing for customer attention against distractions of all kinds. Advertisers must strive to stand out in a sea of light, color, and sound.
Don’t waste your receipt real estate by passing up the chance to make more money.
With so many advertising avenues available at any time, the simplest solutions are often overlooked. Internet, television, print ads, and radio are all options that spring to mind when it comes to marketing channels, but receipts can be fantastic marketing tools too.
Don’t waste your receipt real estate by passing up the chance to make more money. Many in-store shoppers still receive paper receipts when they complete a transaction, so it’s a perfect time to make a pitch and encourage your customers to come back.
1. Branding: Logos and Taglines
Your store branding sets you apart from competitors.
This one’s pretty simple, but it’s important and effective. Your store branding, whether it’s your store logo or slogan, helps you differentiate yourself. Branding builds on the idea of offering your customers a unique store experience that they can’t get elsewhere.
You want your customers to associate your brand image with positive, memorable experiences that they’ve had when shopping in your store. As long as you’re striving to give your customers a great in-store experience, it’s a good idea to hand them additional literature with your branding on it as they walk out the door.
2. Promote House-brand Items
Build your fanbase by pushing private-label products.
When you’re selling your own private label products, you’re making more money with better profit margins. You’re also building a loyal fanbase for repeat business. Your house brand can become an important ingredient in offering a unique store experience.
You can use your receipt real estate to pitch your private-label products and encourage customers to try them out. When customers “make the switch” away from third party brands to your own private-label items, you gain an exclusive advantage that no one else can replicate.
3. Attach Store Coupons and Push Promotions
Store-exclusive discounts keep customers coming back.
Whether you’re offering a personalized promotion based on a shopper’s habits or attaching an item-specific coupon, there are many ways you can incentivize repeat business.
While you can send digital coupons or insert a sheet in your local newspaper—you can also go straight to the consumer when you attach these discounts and deals to a receipt. What’s more, saving money at the checkout will be fresh on the mind of each customer as they complete their transaction, so the timing is favorable.
4. Communicate Savings and Value
Shoppers like to know when they’re saving money.
If a retailer can offer exact figures on how much a customer has saved by using discounts, coupons, and/or loyalty promotions, this can help to cement the message that you’re providing value to the consumer. To emphasise this, some retailers will circle the savings amount or points earned lines, or they display total savings in a larger font than the actual total a customer paid.
You should consider putting the savings each customer nets on every receipt. The right unified commerce platform should allow for receipt customization so this can be broken down by year-to-date, month-to-date, or lifetime savings. This will reinforce the idea that shopping in your store is a smart decision.
5. Push Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are important marketing engines.
Every effort should be made to solicit each and every shopper that patronizes your store to join your loyalty program. With the right loyalty program, you can increase the size and lifetime value of your customer base, calibrate marketing campaigns, and generate insights on your customers’ shopping habits.
Getting a receipt into a customer’s hands that promotes your loyalty program is just one more opportunity to make the ask. They sign up and save money, you see an increase in business.
6. Customer Surveys
Collect feedback and capture more email addresses.
You can collect valuable feedback from your shoppers through surveys, and you’re promoting positive interaction between your brand and your shoppers. Additionally, this is another chance to try and encourage shoppers to sign up for your loyalty program.
Consider incentivizing your shoppers to take the survey by offering a contest entry, a deal, or a discount that’s applicable on their next visit.
That’s a trifecta of good marketing; you get feedback and data, you promote a positive experience between your brand and your customers, and you encourage repeat business!
Conclusion
The largest companies in the world are spending millions and millions of dollars on a mission to get better email open and click-through rates. Those rates will vary across industries, but despite this, even the most elite copywriters and email marketing teams will only see email open rates of about 1 in 5. Click-through rates? Way lower. Those sit at about 1 in 50.
- SMS solicitations can also be easily ignored.
- Snail mail advertisements often end up in the trash, unopened.
- When the average person spots a street marketer slinging sales promos, they sidestep them.
- When an in-store shopper completes their transaction, many will hold out their hand for a receipt instinctively. This presents a unique opportunity to get your customers to willingly take advertising literature from you—use this to your advantage!
P.S.
For shoppers that prefer e-receipts to traditional paper receipts, the above six tips can still be followed! There are a few perks to that approach too.
- You’ll save money on receipt paper.
- If you’re using a POS system that allows for custom e-receipts, you can link directly to surveys and loyalty sign up pages from within the e-receipt.
Make sure you’re covering all your bases!
P.P.S.
Use your receipt space wisely, but don’t go overboard!
