Remote Employees Becoming All the Rage

January 26th, 2012
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Does your company work in the cloud? According to a new Elance Report the number of businesses seeking to hire online contractors doubled in 2011. 83% of the small businesses surveyed by Elance said they plan to hire up to half of their workforce as virtual in the next 12 months. GiftCard Partners was built on a virtual model and has been recognized for its ability to function in alternative ways, free of the constraints of a 9-5 office atmosphere. Here are Elance’s predictions for the 10 most popular online jobs going forward

  1. Software Developer
  2. Visual Designer
  3. User Experience Designer
  4. Digital Marketer
  5. Technical Writer
  6. Web Researcher
  7. Data Analyst
  8. Content Moderator
  9. Accountant
  10. Distributed Workforce Manager
Does your company use flexible online consultants or employees as part of their business strategy? How do you think it could benefit employee flexibility?
For more information on online employees and virtual business practices check out this Huffington Post article.
The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Show You Care AND Engage Your Program Participants with their Rewards

January 25th, 2012
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We read a lot about gift card “breakage”. That pre-paid industry term that translates to “gift cards that have been sold but never redeemed”. Breakage is a negative term for gift card holders and it’s really not such a positive one for retailers (surprisingly). Although breakage leads to higher profit margins; retailers and merchants are NOT gaining customers or building loyalty if those gift card holders never visit the store to become a real customer.

Let’s turn this principle into an opportunity for employers, loyalty programs, and Scrip gift card programs, to communicate to their participants and engage them with your program. You know who you have given gift cards to. So, communicate with those program participants, and use that information to engage them in your program. Although many will have redeemed their gift cards, show you care and send them a reminder to use their cards…that employee, loyalty points redeemer, or the Scrip gift card buyer will thank you for the reminder.

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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Social Media as a Sales Tool

January 24th, 2012
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For small businesses, using efficient, low-cost marketing is essential to growing a brand and growing the business. Social media is a great way for small businesses to spread their brand. According to a recent survey, 81% of small businesses use social media in their marketing plan, and that number is constantly growing.

Giving gift cards through social media outlets is a great way to handle customer service inquiries that are brought through social media. Gift cards are also a great way to reward and recognize loyal customers publicly. Social media provides inexpensive, effective ways to grow business and small businesses are catching on quickly. How is your small business using social media?

 

For more information on how your business can utilize social media check out the abc-13 article.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Inspiring a Healthy Workforce in 2012

January 23rd, 2012
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This health and wellness incentives article caught my attention since it’s such an important channel for our gift card sales, but what kept my attention was Ken Baker’s sense of humor and fun approach. Baker, CEO of NewAge Industries “is willing to do whatever he can to encourage his employees to live a healthier lifestyle — including making bribes and bets.” His approach is more sophisticated than that statement leads one to believe.

There are many cute snippets in this story, like, if Baker’s sales manager Mike Allard lost 40 pounds in 2 months, he’d produce and wear a t-shirt printed with “The Man” in honor of him…if he failed to lose the weight, Allard would wear a shirt decrying defeat. It worked! The crux; motivation and incentives work to build a healthier workforce. “The programs, while voluntary, can offer financial benefits, including lower insurance premiums, gift cards and employer contributions to health savings accounts.” states Phillyburbs.com in Inspiring employee healthy lifestyles with employer incentives. NewAge Industries is just the kind of company that is taking advantage of federal health care reform policies that offers qualified companies grant money and tax credits to help such companies launch health and wellness programs. “By 2014, companies will be able
to offer rewards of up to 30 percent of the total cost of an employee’s insurance coverage.”

Small to medium sized business owner and not yet conducting your own health and wellness program? Read on, this is a great overview with interesting context and facts:Inspiring employee healthy lifestyles with employer incentives.

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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Holiday Gift Cards- Use Them or You May Lose Them

January 19th, 2012
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Total holiday spending on gift cards last year totaled $27.8 billion. And if history is bound to repeat itself, 25% of that gift card money will remain unspent by the end of 2012. Gift cards are a very popular holiday gift. They are convenient for the giver and stress free for the receiver. However, gift cards tend to be forgotten as the holiday season winds down, and recipients are less likely to spend the balances as the year goes on.

So what happens to unused gift card balances? The Securities and Exchange Commission allows retailers to count unused gift-card balances as income once they can reasonably say the card won’t be redeemed. Some states require unused gift cards to go to an unclaimed-funds accounts, or put a time limit on the validity of gift cards. Beyond the reasonable timeframe to claim unused balances, retailers can use the balances for general purposes.

So, as we move further into 2012, consider this a friendly reminder to spend your holiday gift card balances sooner rather than later. For more information check out the TheStreet.com.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Getting Levels of Performance and Incentives Right

January 18th, 2012
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In a continually changing business economy, finding the right mix of salary, benefits and incentives can be a daunting challenge to get right. There are categories of folks to consider in order to continually attract and recruit top performers, motivate all employees, and retain them. Of course that mix of benefits must help the company achieve its goals, so differentiating levels of performance with varying levels of incentives can help your company not “over-reward”.

Gift cards have become the go-to option for incentives for many reasons, but their appeal is super-high when differentiating levels of performance since they can be given in so many denominations and the recipient can make their own decisions about what to purchase from the retailer or merchant.

Have you created differing levels of achievement with goal specific incentives to match? Check out Business Finance Magazine’s Compensation Challenges in 2012: Finding the Right Mix to learn more about differentiation and how to shuck and jive with change in your organization with regard to compensation and incentive budgets.

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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Using Health and Wellness as a Public Relations Tool

January 17th, 2012
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CITGO Petroleum is using local health and wellness programs as a fantastic opportunity to highlight their local efforts and community involvement in America. CITGO is giving Lehigh Valley Health Network $5,000 in small denomination gift cards as part of CITGO’s “Fueling Good” program. This program uses CITGO gift cards as small rewards for individuals involved in the Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Health and Wellness program. The gift cards lower program costs for Lehigh Valley Health Network and allow them to continue their important work.

Gift cards are an extremely effective tool for use in health and wellness programs. They help reward participants for desired behavior, and don’t cost the program administrator that much. As is the case in this situation, gift cards are also a great way for program sponsors to get involved with health and wellness programs. CITGO was able to come in and help facilitate the positive program, while gaining favorable publicity.

 

To learn more about the Lehigh Valley Health Network’s Health and Wellness program and the partnership with CITGO Petroleum click here.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Benefits Package?

January 16th, 2012
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SmartBlog on Leadership reports that only 1/3 of people feel that their company does a good job communicating their benefits to them…these companies are leaving a great company investment un-leveraged. The benefits and incentives, such as the voluntary health and wellness programs you offer, are a huge asset to your company not only when recruiting, but on an ongoing basis for retaining employees and maintaining employee loyalty.

“Loyal employees aren’t necessarily those with the most expensive benefits. Rather, they’re employees who understand how to get the most value from their benefits because they received clear, open communication year-round. Employees who think their benefits communication educates them effectively are more satisfied and loyal: 71% are satisfied with their benefits, and 70% feel a strong sense of loyalty.” states Jennifer Benz in Why you should invest in benefits communication.

Did you know that a strong benefits & incentive communication strategy could also reduce health care costs? Click here to start improving your benefits & incentive communications for 2012.

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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5 Tips to Keep Your Employees Motivated in 2012

January 12th, 2012
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Think of these 5 tips as your new year’s resolutions as an employer. As 2012 goes into full swing and the economy and job market continues to struggle and maintain instability it is important for the success of your business and your employees that you keep employees motivated this year.

1. Act as a role model to employees, this will help inspire them and help employees realize their work passions.

2. Clearly define the organizational vision, mission and strategy as well as employee goals and objectives. This helps keep motivation specific and focused.

3. Delegate challenging and meaningful work. Minimizing busy work, and maximizing meaningful projects helps employees see their direct impact on the company.

4. Create individualized personal development plans with employees. This shows employer dedication and commitment to employees.

5. Monitor employees progress toward goals and reward good behavior. Rewards do not need to be big, a small denomination gift card can be just enough to reinforce the good behavior without costing the company too much.

 

For more on how to motivate employees check out the Forbes.com article.

The author:

Rachel Merkin is a recent college graduate, beginning a career in marketing and public relations. She has been exploring the worlds of social media and B2B gift cards since 2006. When she is not blogging, tweeting, or finding ways to leverage Facebook as a marketing tool, she spends as much time IN or ON the ocean as possible, beaching and boating.

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Why Retailers Can’t Table Tablet Marketing

January 11th, 2012
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We have written about and highlighted articles on the topic of tablet eCommerce and why they are becoming significant to retail marketing strategies, mostly from the perspective of prompting more retailers and merchants to accept gift cards online. This past Fall, eMarketer Digital Intelligence predicted that by 2014, 1 in 3 customers would use a tablet to make their online purchases. Tablet users will increase, and 1/3 of them will purchase online, whether or not they have ever made online purchases before. But even more importantly, Forrester Research reported that the purchase conversion rate for shoppers using a traditional PC is 3% and 4% or 5% for shoppers using tablets. So, retailers could see an increased lift, simply by the consumers’ choice of online tools. That speaks to the need for retailers to capture those new tablet users as customers.

Are you ready for this? If a gift card holder goes online to purchase with their shiny new tablet; will they be turned away by your website? Will they ever come back? That’s just 1 piece of the tablet pie. Now, tablets aren’t just in the laptop bag or on the desk …they are IN stores, provided by the store! If retailers offer this intriguing, cutting edge technology in stores, more consumers will be introduced to them and begin to feel comfortable with them, and perhaps become more likely to use their tablet at home to make online purchases…This is in-store marketing GENIUS!

In the recent Retail TouchPoints article 5 Ways to Use Tablets For In-store Commerce, we see a plethora of customer friendly tablets are being used in-store by retailers and merchants. “Tablets are here to stay; retailers need to embrace them and strongly consider how they can be used in stores to enhance brand experiences and build brand loyalty.” “Though many retailers are adopting this in-store technology, they’re just starting to scratch the surface of its potential. There are many ways retailers can use tablets to transform the in-store experience.” Says Gary Lombardo, Multichannel, Mobile & Social Commerce Product Marketing Lead, Demandware in the Retail TouchPoints article.

We are excited about these technologies and how retailers and merchants will integrate their gift card programs with their online sales efforts. What other cool ways have you seen tablets used in stores?

The author:

Stacey Sicurella is a 15 year marketing veteran, working in the Boston area for GiftCard Partners. Recent accomplishments include blogging with abandon, acquiring work-life balance and building amazing sand-castles with her children.

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