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)

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

How can giving away fuel and free groceries help your business grow? With our struggling economy right now, consumers want value. By providing gas or grocery certificates as incentives for your new or existing customers, you will generate a valuable hold in the marketplace by offering a necessary service that gives good rewards.

Now that you are wondering how something so good can be true, you might want to know how it works, right? Our company works in conjunction with the Direct Strategies, Inc. This company has learned how to create brand loyalty through using these certificates. You, the business, must first purchase these certificates, then it’s up to you to give them away.

Rebate Certificates reward consumers for being loyal customers of their favorite grocery store, gas station, retail/department store, pharmacy, spa, movie theatre, restaurant or sporting event. That’s eight different categories which, in exchange for submitting their monthly receipts, customers get $100, $300, or $500 in Visa cards as a “thank you” for being a loyal customer!

Certificates are available in denominations in amounts from one hundred to a thousand (Combo Certificates).The minimum order is 25 certificates. This way you can give a small incentive for a test drive, for example, and increase the reward for a purchase.

You will get the customer in the door, then seal the deal with a certificate. Imagine how much more inclined someone shopping for a car would feel towards purchasing if they knew they were getting $500 in gas if they bought! And example would be one hundred dollar certificate to get your customer in the door and five hundred for a purchase.

Your customers will not have to jump through hoops for these rewards. It’s simple; they register their certificate online or by snail mail with a $4.50 fee (to cover postage) and select the business where they will be buying. Each month, they simply send in receipts for purchases they would have made anyway. Once they have purchased one hundred dollars in groceries or gas, they will get a $25 card for each month.

In order to keep your name in front of your customers, you can have your company logo put on the voucher. This means over the months it takes to redeem receipts for the gift cards, your customer will be seeing your name as a reminder of who gave them free gas.

Companies who have tested this program have seen fantastic results. Now, in addition to businesses, non-profit groups are able to gain access to free gas and grocery certificates and incentives. With so much success as a draw for established businesses, imagine the success of a fundraiser that will provide a needed item in exchange for a donation. People generally want to help students or other non-profits, but who really wants a $10 tin of cookies or wrapping paper.

Get started with your program today. Don’t you want to be at the forefront, before your competition figures out what works? Get to the customers first with free fuel and grocery certificates.

Only the Best,

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc. – “The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
http://incentivebasedpromotions.com/ (Product Site)
http://fundraisingandincentives.com/ (Non-Profit Certificates)
http://fundraisingandtravel.com/ (Non-Profit TravelBook)
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

The Pharmacy Certificate

1. Must purchase 50% prescription and non-prescription medicine. The other 50% can be anything in the Pharmacy.
2. CAN have more than one receipt dated from the same day. The REASON: Some pharmacies make you pay for prescriptions at the pharmacy counter and other items at a separate cash register.
3. We give away a Prescription Discount card at activation now that saves a person up to 60%. Add that to a $25 VISA card each month and you have a grand slam for everyone.

You, the retailer, buy a large number of certificates for free gas and groceries at a greatly discounted rate (pennies on the dollar). ( View our Presentation Certificate Program PowerPoint)
You then offer these certificates as an incentive for customers to buy your merchandise.  Historically, these types of incentives have worked well, and the gas and grocery incentives are very popular due to the rising cost of both fuel and food in these tough economic times.  The traditional use of these free gas and grocery vouchers is to offer a customer one of these certificates if they buy a certain dollar amount of merchandise from you.  Although that works quite well, there is so much more you can use these gas and grocery certificates for.  This article will give you a list of ideas.

Use gas and grocery incentive certificates to:

·    in exchange for scheduling in-home sales demonstrations
·    get a customer lead to come in and hear your sales pitch
·    get new customers to sign up for new services
·    to get customers to extend the length of their service agreements
·    get dormant customers to order new or repeat services
·    encourage customers to make big purchases
·    as customer loyalty rewards for repeat business
·    reward customers who refer new customers to you.
·    to get more traffic for seasonal businesses (like landscaping) during off-months
·    to encourage customer spending during economic downturns
·    to attract big crowds for grand opening events
·    to create free advertising through a local media buzz
·    to win out over competitors who normally could undersell you
·    as the prize for employee sales competitions
·    to encourage employees to hit sales goals
·    as employee attendance or safety rewards
·    use a few certificates cards for your company’s vehicle fleet – everyone likes free gas, even you!

For Non-Profit Organizations:

·    to encourage higher donations during fund raising
·    as prizes for raffles or other contests
·    to generate attendance and sell more seats at seminars

As you can see, there are tons of ways to use gas and grocery incentive certificates.  A little creative thinking will take you a long way.  As a general rule of thumb, the trick is to find out what the key is to making a sale, then offer the gas and grocery incentive certificates to get customers to do just that.

Let me give you an example.  In automotive sales, for example, if you can get the customer behind the wheel for a test drive, the chances that they’ll buy the vehicle rises dramatically.  Knowing this, a car dealership in New York ordered 700 gas certificates, and offered them to customers during a weekend event in exchange for just coming in and taking a car for a test drive.  By 5:00 AM the morning of the event, they had people lined up outside the door.  By the end of the first day, they had to place an emergency phone call to order more gas certificates just to make it through the weekend.  The sales campaign worked so well, that dealership now orders 5,000 gas certificates per month on a regular basis.

If you try a gas or grocery incentive-based sales campaign, tinker with different approached and conditions for customers to get the incentive certificates.  Experiment and find the approach that works best for your particular business.

Michael Goulet – Team Leader
Direct Strategies, Inc.
“The Incentive Pros!”
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
w-612-377-5262
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

Given how successful free gas and grocery promotions have become as the world has fallen on economic hard times, you might be thinking on doing one of these promotions for your own business. You may quickly discover, however, that there are lots of redemption companies out there who will sell you the free gas and grocery redemption certificates and handle the processing for you. How do you know which company to buy from? What should you be looking for in these companies? How does one know how to shop for free gas and grocery certificates? This article will guide you through what to look for in a company, and what services might be worth paying a premium for.

Don’t be driven by the lowest price alone. There are many other important service factors to consider before choosing a supplier for your free gas and grocery certificates. The two main areas to examine are how easy it is for the customer to redeem the certificates, and how flexible the company is in working with you.

First and foremost, carefully examine the company’s process for customers to redeem their free gas and grocery certificates. Find the company that offers the simplest and easiest method for certificate redemption, with the fewest hoops the customer has to jump through. It is important to do the best you can to make sure your customers do indeed get the free stuff that motivated them to make a large purchase of your merchandise in the first place. Why? Because if they have difficultly collecting their free gas and groceries—and especially if they aren’t able to collect the full amount of their certificate—they’ll feel cheated, scammed, and complain about you to their friends. The last thing you want your company to have is a reputation for failing to deliver on promises and cheating customers.

Some redemption company’s certificates can only be used at certain stores, which may irritate some customers. Other certificates expire in unreasonable amounts of time. Some enforce strict deadlines that if the customer fails to meet, the certificate is forfeit. These are just some of the many terms, conditions, restrictions, and red tape some companies use in an attempt to prevent the customer from collecting the full amount. The customer, naturally, we be frustrated with the redemption company, but take their anger out on you for offering them a bum card.

When shopping for a redemption company to buy certificates from, look for one that has a relatively simple and easy process for collecting the free goods. Look for a company that lets the customer use the certificate at whatever store they want, issues cards that don’t expire, either reasonable or no activation deadlines, and comb the rules carefully and make sure there are no loopholes though which a customer’s certificate may be forfeited altogether.

As for your end, look for a company that’s flexible in working with you. You probably won’t find a redemption company that will give you one free trial certificate, or let you purchase only five or ten. Redemption companies make their profits by selling free gas and grocery cards in bulk. Some companies, however, offer amounts of certificates as low as 25, which provides you with an inexpensive way to do a “trial run” to see if this type of promotion works for your company. Look for redemption companies that offer cheaper per-certificate prices if you buy larger quantities.

Look for redemption companies that offer a wide variety of certificate amounts. The most common are amounts of $50, $100, $150, $250, $300, $450, and $500. Another benefit to look for is a company that will let you mix and match the card amounts in your bulk purchase. Finally, another great bonus to look for is a redemption company that will let you put your company logo on the free gas and grocery certificates. This simple thing can help you turn each certificate into a free advertisement reminding the customer that your company provided them with all that free stuff.

Michael Goulet
Free Fuel Nationwide Team Leader
http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com
w-612-235-6372
Fax-480-304-9095
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com

Marketing minds have come up with a incentive program.  Our program allows you to purchase grocery certificates at pennies on the dollar to offer to your customers.  Grocery certificates are something that will get everyone’s attention since 100 % of people eat and most drive.  By giving grocery certificates to your customers, you are boosting your business while retaining your sales.  How does this work?  Well, when marketing minds work in synch, we can find a unique way to help you.  When your company buys these certificates from us, you hand them out to customers. Once they have spent a set amount of money with your company, they can be redeemed for groceries or gas at any location.
It’s a gas or grocery certificate that entitles their customer to participate in an EXCLUSIVE, INVITATION ONLY rebate program.

The ways you can use this incentive program is limitless (2 minute presentation) – you can do this as a Grand Opening incentive, customer loyalty award, new customer reward, or any other way you can imagine. Some businesses use them to schedule in-home demonstrations.  The success has been phenomenal for these businesses.  “One large Northwest furniture outlet with 24 locations used over 3,000 gas certificates for a three month promotion. To qualify for a $500 certificate customers had to purchase at least $999 worth of furniture. You do the math… the company brought in over 3 Million dollars during that promotion. And since then they have purchased 1,000 grocery certificates for a new promotion.”

Let us explain how this program works.  Your company purchases the certificate for a greatly reduced price.  You give your customer the certificate when they spend a certain amount of money with your company, and you are only spending pennies on the dollar to offer this deal.  Companies who tested this method of incentives for customers with one hundred certificates are now ordering them every week because of such a huge increase in business.  See an increase of up to 30% in sales!  This will be invigorating to your employees as they see the increase in traffic.

Please visit my site and watch our Presentation, review our FAQ for additional details http://incentivesgroceryandgas.com

Now that you have found the secret to increased sales and customer incentives, hurry and contact us so we can help get your business going!

Michael Goulet
Free Fuel Nationwide Representative
michaelg@freegrocerycenters.com
612-235-6372