Imagine this: a customer walks into your shop, roams around the aisles to check your products, and finally decides to make a purchase. Upon receiving the payment, you hand her a plain receipt, tell her to have a nice day, and watch her leave the establishment. Now what?
Believe it or not, that transaction right there is a missed opportunity. While making a sale is the high point of any business, your marketing strategy should also be geared towards sustaining customer engagement even as they leave your shop.
One of the most effective and often overlooked ways to do this is by using custom receipts. Though commonly used to provide customers their transaction details and nothing more, custom receipts, including those made of thermal receipt paper, can be used as printed promotions for your business. In other words, they can help your marketing big-time.
Here’s how:
1. They encourage customer loyalty
Many business owners think that the customer experience ends after making a sale but the key to managing a successful, long-term business is to build a client-base that continually supports your product. In fact, research shows that increasing your customer retention rates by 5% can boost profit by 25% to 95%.
Custom receipts end up in the hands of existing customers which makes them a great customer retention strategy. For example, you can use your custom receipts as a discount voucher customers get for every purchase.
Giving away freebies and discounts is a great way to attract customer loyalty. According to the Valassis Consumer Intel Report, 65% of consumers regularly plan what to buy based on available coupons and discounts.
You may also opt to create a promotional contest where customers can use their receipts as raffle tickets. That will invite customers to visit your business frequently and gain more entries. There are plenty of ways to use custom receipts as loyalty programs— you just have to be creative.
2. They help in brand awareness
Many marketers think that printed promotions are obsolete, what with the rise of digital marketing. However, these printed receipts can actually work hand in hand with your businesses’ digital marketing efforts. Unlike flyers and brochures, customers are more likely to take home their receipt. That means other people, including those who never interacted with your brand, will see that your company exists.
By including your business logo in the custom receipt’s design, you can help those people familiarize themselves with your brand. Additionally, by designing QR codes that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional, you can insert a QR code that leads to your website when scanned on the custom receipt. Anyone who sees your receipt can then access your website where they can learn more about you, your products and services, and ongoing promotions. You can increase your website visitors
Custom receipts can also help you promote important business information. Other than your logo, you can showcase your business’s contact information (mobile/phone number and email) and address. Of course, don’t forget to include your business’s official social media pages to help customers find you online and increase your engagement with them.
3. They can serve as triggers for brand recall
Custom receipts aren’t just great for brand awareness. They’re an excellent tool for triggering brand recall, too. That’s very important to ensure sales. Remember, you’re probably not the only company offering those products or services. You need to always find ways to stay top-of-mind with potential clients if you want them to choose your company over the others.
Custom receipts can help do that for you. Since they come in printed form, they can be found practically anywhere. Just about anyone can, therefore, have access to it. When was the last time you yourself saw a receipt? Probably just a few hours, even minutes, ago.
But what’s the relevance of all this? Well, since receipts are everywhere, they can always help potential repeat customers remember your brand. So, when it so happens they’re looking for a solution to their problem, they’ll just dial your number or go online and place an order.
4. They help you reach “non-techies”
As widespread as social media is, there will always be a demographic untapped by technology. That’s why some consider print ads as still one of the most reliable forms of marketing. In fact, according to the Brandsmen, 56% of customers perceive print marketing as the most trustworthy amongst other forms of marketing.
Custom receipts can help you reach that demographic that doesn’t have access to the internet or is not tech-savvy. Mind you, they’re quite a lot. A Federal Communications report found that 21 million Americans lack access to broadband internet. Research also shows that 19% of Americans still don’t own a smartphone, one of the main tools for accessing the internet.
It’s safe to assume, then, that these are the people who prefer printed material over anything digital.
Your receipts can serve as marketing tools that showcase your brand identity and show what your company is all about. The “non-techies” don’t need to physically go to your store to get them. They might just chance upon these receipts when a member of their household purchases something from you.
If you reach that group of people, you can increase your customer base.
5. They help you save on marketing costs
Incorporating custom receipts into your marketing strategy is extremely cost-effective. Unlike other printed promotions, printing a thousand receipts would only cost you around $1.50 or $0.0015 per piece. Businesses already produce a number of receipts per day as it is so it will only require a minimum amount of additional printing fees to get custom information on it.
Compared to the prices of running online ads, receipt marketing costs way less and can already generate impressive results as mentioned before.Bear in mind that there are types of receipt paper to consider when implementing the perfect receipt marketing strategy. These papers are made with different materials and can produce different outputs, depending on your business needs.
Always issue a receipt!
Receipts are not just pieces of papers that provide transaction information. Believe it or not, they can grow your business, too.
In this article, I shared with you five ways receipts can do that. Receipts can encourage customer loyalty. They can help in brand awareness and serve as triggers for brand recall. They can also help you reach “non-techies” and get you to save on marketing costs.
So, what’s the moral of the story? Always, always issue a receipt! Because receipts are not just proof consumers made a transaction with you. They can be a great way of reaching people who might actually want to do business with you and of getting those customers to come back. The best part is, all of these you can do at minimal cost!