The vast majority of consumers hold to the traditional folk wisdom that if a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.  If they don’t discount it immediately as some sort of scam, they are at least deeply suspicious, wary of requirements, conditions, and loopholes.  That want to know “what’s the catch?”

Unfortunately, free rebate certificate promotions fall into this “too good to be true” category.  If you tell a potential customer that, for example, if they buy a car you’ll give them a certificate for $500 worth of free gas, they are instantly suspicious and on their guard.  Many will ask you what the catch is.  Consequently, if you use free gas and grocery promotions (we offer six categories plus a Combo), you have to know them backwards and forwards. You need to be able to explain to a customer, on a moment’s notice, exactly how the gas and grocery certificates work so thoroughly that they have no doubts left that the offer is indeed legitimate.  To help you in that, this article will explain in detail just exactly how free gas and grocery promotions work. 

First, you (the store owner) purchase a number of these free certificates from a redemption company.  You buy them at a greatly discounted rate, paying “pennies on the dollar”.  You then use these certificates as an incentive to get customers to buy your product or service.

The best analogy that you can use to explain the process to your customer are the mail-in rebates for items at electronics stores like Best Buy.  The customer pays full price for the item, mails in the rebate receipt, and within a few weeks the company mail back a check for the rebate amount.

To use free gas and grocery promotions, the customer must: (for this article I’m referring to Gas and Grocery but we have six categories available – Gas, Grocery, Dining, Pharmacy, Pet and Retail

1. Choose a gas station (for gas certificates) or grocery store (for grocery certificates) that they want to use their certificate with.  They can choose any store they want, but then must always use the same store for the entire certificate redemption period.

2. Activate the free gas or grocery certificate, and state which store they plan to use it at.  They can ONLY do this online.
(Your customer must have access to a computer)

3. The redemption company provides the customer a redemption coupon that is printable from the registration site (much like a mail-in rebate form) with the customer’s name, activation number, and month & year the coupon needs to be sent in on.

4. On the first day of the next month, the customer begins saving receipts of their gas and/or grocery purchases. 

5. At the end of the month, the customer mails in the redemption coupon for that month and their receipts to the redemption company. Receipts must be entered by the end of the month and mailed before the 15th of following month – see “Terms and Conditions” on actual certificates. 

6. If their receipts show they have spent at LEAST $100 on gas or groceries that month at the store they previously selected, the redemption company will mail the customer a $20 VISA gift card or make a “Direct Deposit” on their Visa card which the customer may use anywhere. ( or Option B – 24 hour turn around after approval of physical receipts)

7. They continue this process until the certificate amount is used up.  For example, if they received a certificate for $100 in free gas, they can get $20 in free gas once a month for five months.  If they get a certificate for $500 in free gas, they can get a gift card for $20 worth of gas once a month for 25 months ($20 per month x 25 months = $500.00).

That’s how it works.  The customer does have a few hoops to jump through, and a deadline each month, but nothing unreasonable.  If you explain this clearly enough to them, hopefully they’ll become convinced that your free gas or grocery promotion is legitimate.  That builds customer trust—something worth its weight in gold in a competitive marketplace.

The following is a “Industry Specific” slideshow presentation on HOW the actual system works.
This presentation is for the “Home Security” industry.
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com/slideshow/security/starrebates

Only the Best,

Michael Goulet – TL
Direct Strategies, Inc.
“The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
http://www.incentivebasedpromotions.com/    (Star Rebates)

Another testimonial from a satisfied business owner.

April 19, 2010

Dear Mr. Pouls:

We have a successful furniture business in Waite Park, Minnesota. We researched Star Rebates and contacted some companies that have done business with you. We learned that Star Rebates has a stellar reputation and that you have had no problems.

The Star Rebates program is simple and is set up to help the customers avoid mistakes, such as sending in the wrong receipts. Our customers are receiving their rebates via gift cards and direct credit to their Visa cards. We have had several customers comment on how much they like the program, and we have even had previous certificate holders return to make additional purchases!

We definitely are pleased with the promotional value of this program, and our customers have expressed their appreciation to us. We will continue to take advantage of this program – it has been a great resource!

Star Rebates is doing a fantastic job in providing our customers with very efficient and timely service. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding this program. Thank you Star Rebates!

Sincerely,
Phil Loch and Dale Dirkes

Here is and industry specific presentation just created for the Home Security Business. Will have more presentations soon covering multiple industries.

Check how our Rebate Certificate can be used in your business.

http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com/slideshow/security/starrebates

Our Introduction Presentation

Free nights in a top hotel. Free airfare. A free ocean cruise. A free Caribbean vacation. If you told your customers that you would give them their choice of one of these free travel offers – would that help you close a sale?

For just pennies on the dollar, you can give your customers one of these free travel offers for just making a purchase, renewing their membership, referring a friend, or joining or your mailing list. How about enticing your customers to make a larger purchase by giving them not just one, but twenty of the most popular vacation destinations, which have been jammed-packed in our Lifetime Travel Book. An incredible $15,000 in value!

Or if you prefer, we’ll customize a travel offer just for you!

LifeTime Travel Book:

The LifeTime Travel Book is truly an amazing product. It is made up of 20 of the most popular travel offers. These travel offers never expire so the customer can take a trip every year for the rest of their life and never have to worry about the trips not being valid or the fees going up.

To redeem, the customer simply goes to www.LifeTimeTravelBook.com. Once on the site, they click the button called “Click Here To Register Now.” They will then enter their serial number and click “Continue.” From here, all they have to do is choose the travel offer they are interested in and then proceed to redeem that offer.

Please note that the Travel Incentive Program is built on upgrades. So in some instances, a customer may only pay taxes or boarding fees or some registration fees which is far cheaper then getting the whole trip and paying for it. But the company makes its money by booking each reservation over the phone and trying to then upgrade the customer from a two night stay to a four night stay or from an inside cruise cabin to a cabin with a view, from coach airfare to business class or from a standard vacation from one that includes car rentals, excursions, etc.

To learn about our travel partner please visit www.ClaimYourFunPlanetVacations.com and click on the testimonial button. There you will find 20 or so testimonials regarding the company and their travel program.

Travel has been around forever but there has never been a LifeTime Travel Book. The travel company, is really a travel agency that redeems the products in the LifeTime Travel book. An amazing statistic is that only 3% of the travel offers are redeemed exactly as offered. The other 97% choose some form of an upgrade – and that is how a travel company makes its money.

In the very near future our LifeTime Travel Book will be offered as a Fundraising opportunity for Non-Profits.

Only the Best,

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

Over the next few days I’m going to send detail information on our products and invite you to review and see how these products could be used in your business. With our products, Video Presentations and documentation all your questions will be easily addressed.

The majority of the information below was compiled and provided by my associate and Franchisee owner Angela Smith of Direct Strategies, Inc.

Rebates:

The definition of a rebate is important for you to understand. If you do not understand it, then you will review the Terms & Conditions and think they are harsh. Rebates are our most popular program but they do require work. The definition of a rebate is that you need to do things in order to obtain your rebate. We offer other products which programs are much simpler, but the rebate program has the biggest “wow” factor. You have to decide what is best for you. I would like to outline below the benefits and possible challenges of rebates so that you can make a clear decision. Our site allows you to take a “Demo” tour of our system.

Benefits:

* In the rebate program the customer receives $100, $300 or $500 based on the rebate you select. The way that they receive this rebate is they either get a $20 visa gift card each month until it has equaled $100, $300 or $500 or by simply providing a credit card number, they can receive a $20 credit to that number every month until they reach the full value of the rebate.

* The customer enjoys their rebate by going to the web site www.MonthlyGiftCards.com and entering their pass code and expiration date. After they enter that information they simply fill out the registration form and send it in within ten days with a $12.95 registration fee. The registration process takes less then a minute.

* During the registration process they must select a brand that they plan to shop at in order to obtain their rebates. So if they select a fuel rebate, they have to select a gas brand like Exxon or Shell or any other brand and they must shop their each month and send in $100 in receipts from that brand in order to collect their $20.

* The two most popular rebates are food and fuel because most people can spend $100 a month in food and $100 a month in fuel so they are not being asked to do anything more then they would otherwise do. If they do not spend $100 a month or they spend it at the wrong store then they cannot submit those receipts for that month’s $20. But they are not disqualified from the program, they just miss that one month.

Possible Challenges

* Point #3 of the Terms & Conditions explains to the customer that once they register they have ten calendar days to send in their registration form along with a $12.95 cashiers check or money order. This is done so that the rebate company does not receive bad checks with no recourse.

* Each household is permitted to submit one rebate certificate per type per year. There are five types, so each household could have one food rebate, one fuel rebate, one dining rebate, one pharmacy rebate and one retail rebate.

* The redemption process is an online process which has worked wonderfully for both the rebate company and the customers. Each month the customer goes to www.MonthlyGiftCards.com and clicks on the button labeled “add a receipt.” They enter for example $50 at BP Oil. The reason this system is so successful is because the system will tell you if you made a mistake or if you are pre approved. So at the end of the month, simply print out your Pre-approval Form and send it in with your receipt and you already know you are pre approved so you will either get $20 credited to your existing visacard or a new $20 visa gift card – whatever you select. Because this is an online process, some customers may not be able to easily take advantage of the program – if they do not have access to a computer.

* Finally, if you get the $20 credited to an existing Visa, then there is no expiration date to use that $20. If you get a visa card, you must use your credit within 90 days or there is a $5 monthly charge to the card. Rebates have the “wow” factor that lots of businesses want but they also have hurdles as is inherent in the word “rebate.” Prior to our work with Star Rebate, which has been in business for 12 years and has an A-Rating with the BBB, there have been two other rebate companies that have gone out of business. Those companies that went out of business appear to have planned to go out of business from the beginning as they had no $12.95 registration fees, they charged small amounts of money for their rebates and they had no controls in place as does Star Rebate. For example, Star Rebate has advertisers on www.MonthlyGiftCards.com. These advertisers help support the program.

Rebates make their money on non-usage. In a way, it is sort of like the insurance business. Everyone buys homeowners insurance or even life insurance but if every home burned down or every person died the same day, then the insurance company would go out of business. In the rebate business, the company has been around for 12 years and they have a tried and true model where only 20% of all rebate customers redeem. Some register and forget to send in their $12.95. Others don’t send in their $12.95 because it is not worth it to only get back $20. A rebate program requires a lot of work by the customer and because “life happens”, the majority of people don’t follow through the length of the program. If you look at all of your membership companies today, all of those membership companies give away tremendous benefits that cannot be afforded with a $9.95 membership fee. How do they do it? They do it because only 3% nationwide take advantage of membership benefits. Those statistics can be verified independently. So if you decide to do rebates, now you understand how the model works.

Only the Best,

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com

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• What The CARD Act Means for Businesses (online.wsj.com)

For quite some time now, businesses have been catching onto the secret to grow business without a lot of extra advertising money. Through the use of free gas and grocery certificate incentive programs, not only have they seen sales increase, but customer loyalty has been at an all time high through the use of these incentives. By providing a reward that the customer needs these certificates make it possible for them to have products or services previously not possible.

This option is not available just for the businesses now, however. Non-profit groups that need to earn fund-raising dollars can get access to these free certificates also. Now paired with the easily recognizable name of Kidz-IDZ, free grocery and gas certificates are waiting to help your organization earn money.

How you do this is simple. Just offer free groceries or gas in return for a donation to your organization from $20-$30. The purchaser will receive a certificate that needs to be activated, and every month can exchange $100 in grocery receipts for a $25 Visa card. It’s really that simple.

The plan for fundraising has been set up through an established company that knows how to make your marketing plan easy. With an easy to read catalog, customers will be able to select a dollar amount for the donation and see the reward given back to them – either groceries or gas.

Recently we have added a new feature to our free gas rewards. There is now a new type of certificated for your customers. The pharmacy certificate is available to use towards prescription and non-prescription medications. In addition, customers also get a prescription discount card that can save customers up to 60% off prescriptions. Combine that with s $25 reward card, and you are providing customers with a huge benefit in today?s savings with rising medical cost.

If customers have children (or grandchildren), as an additional bonus, they will get a free Kidz-Idz with each certificate purchased. This will provide a safety net in the event there is ever a need to have children?s photos and fingerprints on hand, as well as any other identifying information that may be hard to think of in an emergency situation.

What other program offers you so much for so little? Higher sales or dramatic fundraising results, great value for your customers and loyalty to the program? Get started today with your certificates. Help your customers save money on the things they use everyday while you help stimulate the economy by growing your business.

Only the Best,

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com (Business Website)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Website)
w-612-235-6372
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

Is your business or organization looking for ways to increase profits or raise money? Consider incentives such as a certificate for free groceries, gas, retail or pharmacy certificates. With the struggling economy, consumers are becoming more cautious with spending. Intrinsically, most people want to help organizations they care about, but in order to maximize profits, you must offer them value in addition to knowing they have made a difference.

When deciding to use an incentive program such as a grocery or gas certificates program, not only are you maximizing your profits, you are actually offering your customers a good deal. So, wondering how this works? How do you actually make money by giving away products?

Simply order the certificates for your business, or get a fundraising catalog for your organization, and determine what you want to offer your customers. Whether it?s gas certificates, free groceries,merchandise/retail or pharmacy benefits (or a combination of these), you are appealing to 100% of the potential buyers in your area. Everyone must eat and drive, so the opportunity for free groceries or gas will be a welcome change from the candy tins.

If your business is already established, you can set the requirements in order for customers to receive the certificates. For example, get $200 in free groceries with the purchase of (whatever your product or service is). This will ensure that for your investment, you get guaranteed business. The appeal of your offer will draw in customers that may never have considered your company before.

These certificates have a proven track record of working. Skeptical users are now loyal customers as they have produced amazing results for business. With the struggling economy, how much is a sale worth? Wouldn’t you like to promote customer loyalty and provide a good benefit to your customers at the same time?

In order for your customers to redeem any of these certificates, it?s simple. All they need to do is register the gas certificate number or free grocery certificate online and then send in the receipts for purchases they are already making throughout the month. Customers don?t have to change spending habits, miss out on sales, or shop at special stores – simply redeem the free groceries, gas, retail or pharmacy!

Since gas and groceries aren’t the only things people must have, recently there has been the addition of merchandise and pharmacy certificates as well. These can be used in conjunction with prescription and regular purchases. This will be a real draw for those who take regular medications.

With such an amazing return, you customers are sure to share the good news with friends and family. Imagine the long term growth this can have for your business!

Offer your customers up to $600 in free food or fuel, and keep the economy moving while your business booms.

Dare to make a Difference,

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com (Business Website)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Website)
w-612-235-6372
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

When looking for fund raising opportunities, it is easy to get bombarded with options that offer little to no benefit to the agency that needs the funding. For a strong alternative, keep incentives in mind for your customer. What are you selling that they actually need? With our struggling economy, it is getting more difficult to convince customers to purchase trinkets. By using a fundraising program that offers real value, such as gas certificates or free grocery certificates, you are offering a value that will make your fundraising profits soar.

When deciding to use certificates for your fundraising program, you will be issued a catalog. This is a risk free program for you. Simply present the catalog for friends, neighbors and co-workers to look through. They will have the opportunity to purchase either free gas certificates, free grocery certificates, or gas and groceries.

The denominations in free product increase with the amount of the donation. For example, a donation as low as $20 will get $200 in free gas. A $30 donation gets three times that amount – $600 in gas and groceries.

How does this work? The customers who make the donations redeem certificates for $25 Visa gift cards. The customer simply keeps receipts from regular grocery or gas purchases over a month, and once it totals $100, redeems the receipts via an account to receive the gas or grocery certificates. It?s win-win for everyone.

This type of incentive program has long been in place as a hook for new business. Giving away a product that every person must have anyway appeals to 100% of the customer base. Every person has to eat, and nearly every person has to drive, so by offering gas or grocery certificates you are giving back for something they do anyway.

This program is now paired with the KIDZ-IDZ. This program is designed to help customers save money while not changing spending habits. It eliminates the need for clipping coupons, but still rewards them. What?s even better, they can still cut coupons and bargain shop and STILL receive the rewards.

Why would you want to try to sell something that is going to leave customers feeling they overpaid for a piece of junk? With the KIDZ-IDZ incentive program, your customers will look forward to the new gas and grocery certificates year after year. The draw of this program will make this a fundraising event that actually grows every year instead of becoming the dreaded annual fundraiser.

Gas and grocery certificate programs are the new way to raise funds for your organization, by providing value for your customer and keeping money in your organization?s pocket.

Dare to make a Difference,

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com (Business Website)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Website)
w-612-253-6372
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

• The site is full of information that will help any prospective or current client understand WHAT we do, HOW we do it, and WHY we can continue on the long road
• Pay close attention to the ADVERTISE link (numerous options to our clients) – how about a list option that is growing at close to 50,000 new members per month you could have access to (refined to Zip Code for local impact)
• We are opening dozens of Manufacturer FORUMS over the next 30 days.  We will be connecting the manufacturer with their buyers.  Social Networking is HOT right now and will be for some time to come.  Manufacturers will be able to display audio/video, do surveys, polling, offer specials and coupons all within their own private label forum.  The manufacturer will assign a moderator for the forum.  All users in the forum will be able to communicate with each other as well.  For example if it was the Weight Watchers forum the users could exchange recipes.  And Weight Watchers might be introducing a new meal and offer it FREE for taking a survey or deep discounts.
• We have a FREE discount prescription card coming shortly that will be FREE to every end user that entitles them to up to 60% off prescriptions.  $500 in Rewards Cash that will get them Entertainment coupons that offer 2 for 1 restaurant discounts, and the ability to purchase $25 OFF coupons in restaurants across the USA for ONLY $5.  And the list goes on and on…
• The new Pharmacy/RX certificate is right around the corner.  Stay close!
• If you’re facilitating, sitting on the fence thinking about what you could do improve your business etc…what are you waiting for exactly…
• We have the solution “Incentives That Work“!

Gas and grocery promotions ( also Merchandise and Pharmacy available April 1, 2009)—offering certificates for free gas or groceries to encourage customers to make purchases—has the potential to drastically improve your business, sales, and profits. Note that we only said “potential”. Like any other sales campaign, if you don’t do free gas and grocery promotions just right, you’ll only get mediocre results—or possibly no results at all. This article will give you some hints and tips on how to get the most out of free gas and grocery promotions.

ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE

First and most importantly, you HAVE to advertise a free gas and grocery promotion as much as possible. The purpose of free gas and grocery promotions is to get customers into your store who wouldn’t normally come, and to make purchases they wouldn’t otherwise make. If you DON’T advertise the free gas and grocery promotion adequately, what you’ll get instead are people who come to your store planning to make a purchase anyway, and consider the free gas or grocery certificates a pleasant, but unexpected, surprise bonus.

There are many ways to advertise. Blast emails are probably the cheapest. A direct mail campaign to a targeted audience is also effective. Finally, spend the money to place an advertisement where it will reach a large general audience, like an ad in the local newspaper or a commercial during the local news. The goal is to make as many people as possible aware of your free gas and grocery promotion.

BIG DEAL

You also have to make the deal sufficiently sensationalistic to turn heads. If, for example, you only offer a certificate for $50 worth of free gas if a customer makes a $1000 purchase, that’s not going to encourage very many people to come into your store. In general, the closer the values of the purchase and the free gas and grocery certificate are, the more people will respond. That same $50 free gas certificate, if offered in exchange for a $100 purchase, will generate more interest. A $500 free grocery certificate in exchange for a $1000 purchase will have the same effect. The ultimate is to offer a certificate equal to the amount of the purchase—for example, a $300 free gas certificate for a $300 purchase—because customers will see that as “free money”, and consider themselves fools not to take you up on the offer.

MEDIA MATTERS

If your free gas and grocery is sufficiently sensationalistic (such as in the last example mentioned above), it might generate enough interest to be newsworthy. Contact your local newspaper and television news program, and let them know about your sale. There’s always the chance they’ll have a slow news day, and decide to run an article or news report on your free gas or grocery promotion. This is essentially fantastic, free advertising. Even if your local media declines to do a spot on your promotion, you haven’t really lost anything—it takes almost no time or money to have made a phone call or mailed a letter.

FOLLOWUP AND FEEBBACK

Finally, make it as easy as possible for customers to collect on their free gas and grocery certificates. Your free gas and grocery campaign can backfire if the first round of certificate holders grumble to their friends that your promotion wasn’t all it was cracked up to be—or even a scam. That’s the kind of free advertising you DON’T want.

Instead, explain the redemption process to your customers in detail. Provide them with written instructions. Finally, purchase your free gas and grocery certificates from a redemption company that makes it simple and easy for certificate holders to get their free gas or groceries, with a minimum of conditions, restrictions, deadlines, or hoops for the customer to jump through.

Michael Goulet
Free Fuel Nationwide Team Leader
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com