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)

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)

• 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

Believe it or not, free gas and grocery certificates are one of the most successful incentives in the marketing world. Such incentives can increase sales up to 30%, making it one of the highest rates of return on investment. For some, however, this may seem completely illogical. If a customer buys $500 worth of my merchandise, and in exchange I give them a certificate for $500 worth of free gas, how could I possibly make a profit?

The simple answer is that a $500 free gas certificate does not cost you, the retailer, $500. Instead, you buy the certificates in bulk at a greatly discounted rate, just pennies to the dollar (and the more you buy at once, the lower the cost per certificate). Therefore, the comparatively small cost of the certificate justifies itself by encouraging a customer to make a large purchase they might not otherwise have made.

Okay, that makes sense, you might say. But doesn’t that mean that someone, somewhere, is losing money. The answer to that question is yes… and no. It’s complicated. The goal of this article is to explain that complicated system to you, so that you understand how everyone involved benefits from free gas and grocery incentives.

Free gas and grocery incentives are underwritten by fuel and food companies as part of a strategy to generate guaranteed repeat sales, regular customers, and brand loyalty. They see the free gas or groceries not as a giveaway, but as an investment in creating a loyal customer from whom they will make much more that $500 over the course of their lifetime.

You see, in order to use the certificate for free gas or groceries, the customer has to select one grocery store or gas station where they can redeem their free goods. And they don’t get, for example, $500 worth of free gas all at once—they get it gradually over several months. Rather, they purchase gas and groceries as usual, and at the end of each month they mail their receipts for the gas or groceries along with a redemption coupon to the redemption company. If they spent at least $100 dollars on gas or groceries that month at the store they previously selected, then the redemption company send them a gift certificate for $25 at the store they selected. This continued every month until the customer has redeemed the full value of their free gas or grocery certificate value.

So, although a gas company may be giving away, for example, $500 worth of free gas, they are guaranteed at least $2000 worth of sales from that customer, for a net return of $1500. Furthermore, they have this customer’s loyalty for a period of months or even years. For example, for a customer to redeem the full value of a $500 free gas card, they’d have to fill up at the same gas station for 20 months ($500 divided by $25 per month = 20 months). Besides, once the free gas certificate runs out, the customer will probably still shop at the same gas station or grocery store anyway—stuff like that becomes habit forming after several months.

So the grocery and gas companies get guaranteed sales, the redemption companies that sell the certificates get paid for their services, retailers like you make more sales, and the customer gets free stuff. It’s a win-win situation all around. Or, more specifically, a win-win-win-win situation.

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

HOW FREE GAS AND GROCERY PROMOTIONS WORK

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 gas and grocery 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, 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 gas and/or grocery 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:

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 do this either online or through the mail.

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.

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 $25 VISA gift card which the customer may use anywhere.

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 $25 in free gas once a month for four months. If they get a certificate for $500 in free gas, they can get a gift card for $25 worth of gas once a month for 20 months ($25 per month x 20 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.

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

HOW TO SHOP FOR FREE GAS AND GROCERY CERTIFICATES

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

Savvy business owners know that the cost of good advertising is priceless.  Expensive newspaper ads, flyers and signs have long been the industry standard.  However, as consumers become more conscious of rising fuel and grocery prices, advertising needs to take on a new approach to find new customers and retain current customers.  We have a new and economical way to help your business with this advertising plan that will amaze your customers and leave you amazed with the results. You can use the rising costs of food and fuel to your advantage.

Gas and grocery are the main theme through out article. We offer a total of 8 certificate categories in which the same principals apply.(we offer Eight Certificate options)

Rebate Certificates reward consumers for being loyal customers of their favorite grocery store, gas station, retail/department store, pharmacy, spa, movie theater, 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!

Grocery and Gas certificates are something that will get everyone’s attention since 100 % of people eat.  By giving grocery or gas certificates to your customers, you are boosting your business while retaining your sales.  How does this work? It’s a gas or grocery certificate that entitles their customer to participate in an EXCLUSIVE, INVITATION ONLY rebate program.

When marketing minds work in sync, we can find a unique way to help you.  When your company buys these certificates from us, you hand them out to customers. 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.

The ideas for using these certificates don’t stop here. By using these certificates, you will have very loyal customers AND increased profit margins.  You can use it as a lure to extend the length of service agreements, increase the traffic to your location, generate a local media buzz, gain market information on your customer base, and offer promotions that are impressive compared with your competition.

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. With one car dealer, the results were so amazing for a free gas offer he had to order emergency certificates to make it through the weekend.  Can you imagine this kind of traffic to your business and how this will excite your employees?  Please contact us for more information on pricing.

So contact us to provide your customers with a great product from you and an incentive to go with it.  Let’s keep the economy rolling!

Please visit my site and review our FAQ for additional details.

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