Wild Whitepapers
About Wild Whitepapers
Wild Whitepapers feature a combination of our favorite 3rd party research papers in addition to our own Wild B.O.A.R. Instructor authored articles. Careful study in this section is MANDATORY for piglets seeking to learn how to operate in the field. Comments and feedback always welcome. Stay thirsty.
Gift and Loyalty Program Accounting FAQ
Accounting for gift and loyalty program activity can be exceedingly complex and highly dependent on local and state statues, conformity to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and basis of accounting (cash or accrual). As a business owner you should consult your accountant for guidance and tax ramifications on any decision made or contemplated concerning your business. Because of the complicated tax code and the uniqueness of every... [Read More...]
How to Accelerate Cardholder Activations
Introduction Alert: Before going into the many ways to increase activations, we need to make sure our offer is worth activating. In other words, if there is a problem with our offer or it’s not strong enough, then even the best strategies will be limited in success. The opposite is also true, the better our offer, the more activations we will have since more people will want to take advantage of our offer. Here is a quick check list... [Read More...]
How to Rebuttal the Client Issue of Integration with Existing POS Systems
Introduction One of the most common objections clients voice when choosing a loyalty program is whether or not that program integrates with their current POS (Point of Sale) system. This objection does have some merit but there are many other important aspects to consider ‘beyond integration. In actuality, there are scores of critical issues which should be considered when it comes to choosing the proper loyalty program such... [Read More...]
Warren Buffet Prepaid Strategies for Retail & Restaurants
Warren Buffet loves to take advantage of cash flow. If he were a small business owner, he would be figuring out a way to bring in instant cash NOW for products to be delivered later at a markup. This ‘cash flow’ philosophy is very similar to a loan, but instead of seeking money from a bank, what if this up front money came from our customers in the form of a guarantee to purchase our products later at full price? If the customer... [Read More...]
Merchant Fundraising Strategies
Cause Marketing is one of the best (if not the best) ways to build a business and there are many different strategies merchants can utilize to implement a quality cause marketing and fundraising program. Many merchants, however, incorrectly associate fundraising as an expense (indeed if fundraising is not tied to the transaction or done improperly it can be an expense). This is one of the key differences between Cause Marketing and fundraising. A... [Read More...]
Our Loyalty Program’s Value Proposition
Steve Schroeder and Adam Miller, founders of AmeriCardGold Stored Value Networks, LLC are often asked by Resellers and Private Label Partners what makes our loyalty program different from all others in the marketplace. This is a complex question to answer because its not just about differentiating the various technical and marketing features of our software vs. competitive vendors but also how to market a client’s business properly differently... [Read More...]
Advanced Closing Techniques: Superstar Rebuttals
This whitepaper will help you handle just about any objection you might encounter in the field from business owners. As true B.O.A.R.S., we have heard it all, and prepared this list in order to help you deal with just about every conceivable objection merchants might throw your way before they sign up. Please review carefully and re-read several times over in order to become an expert in closing deals and overcoming objections from merchants. ... [Read More...]
Understanding the Math and Value of Rewards
Many merchants do not understand basic math when it comes to calculating ROI on rewards, so we often need to educate them on the difference between rewards and discounting. Unlike traditional forms of advertising, issuing rewards is not an expense, but a strategy to increase spending and frequency without incurring any distribution costs to deliver the value. The higher the rewards, the better the ROI (to a certain extent of course) but 20% cash... [Read More...]
Top 10 Email Marketing Trends for 2010
2906_10_Trends_Whitepaper_Survey Read More →
Getting Serious About Social Media
LETTERS TO THE C-SUITE: SOCIAL MEDIA Executives around the world continue to ask, “How can social media be monetized?” and “How does it fit into my existing interactive marketing?” The latest research from Forrester points to social media being the fastest growing marketing channel, reaching $3.1 billion by 2014. The chance to connect with customers in real-time is incredibly powerful and presents an amazing opportunity—arguably... [Read More...]
Share of Mind Leads to Share of Wallet
Good brief study analyzing Share of Mind Leads to Share of Wallet using customer service and loyalty as the solutions. The study references Toyota as an example on how they plan on using better customer service to try and repair the damage to their brand. We have a BETTER solution a MUCH BETTER solution for business owners to capture a share of the mind of their customers and thus capture a higher share of their wallet. Once we help our clients... [Read More...]
The Loyalty Guide 4 – Executive Summary
Published by The Wise Marketer, one of our favorite B.O.A.R.D certified favorite websites, The Loyalty Guide 4 is a complete, comprehensive report covering every aspect of customer loyalty marketing, customer engagement, customer acquisition, customer retention, best customer marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), customer data-driven business intelligence (BI), loyalty metrics, measurement, reporting and predictive analytics. The report... [Read More...]
CMO Summit Whitepaper – The Leaders in Loyalty
Excellent research from the CMO Summit entitled, The Leaders in Loyalty: Feeling the Love from the Loyalty Clubs. The Executive Summary is available for download right here. Juct click the link below. CMOLoyaltyWhitepaperResearch Just in case you don’t have time to do a full review, I have summarized the research findings in the above whitepaper: Almost EVERY brand is trying some form of loyalty program from plastic cards to punch... [Read More...]
Wild B.O.A.R.S. Customer Loyalty 2009 Research Highlights
Wild B.O.A.R.S. instructors scour the Internet to find the most relevant articles and market research on the loyalty industry and summarize the findings for our fellow BOARS and piglets. These articles and findings provide a treasure trove of data on successful strategies and where the industry is headed. Each year we summarize findings from our favorite articles published throughout the year so you can read in a few minutes what took us all... [Read More...]
Thought Provoking Questions to Ask a Business Owner
Closing a loyalty presentation should be an engaging discussion with frequent two way communication without any real ‘close’ being necessary. We encourage you to challenge your clients and prospects to think hard about their business investment and to understand risk vs. rewards philosophies. Just look at what we have presented in this guide, it’s all based on solid evidence and common sense. There really is no other alternative but to... [Read More...]
Pirates of Profits – Customer Loyalty All Aboard the Member Ship
Do we have a membership program in place for our business? If not, we are not only missing a huge revenue stream from advance sales and membership fees, our spending on traditional advertising is much higher than it should be. Research from Bain and Co. shows 90%+ of responses from traditional advertising are generated from existing customers. Have we considered offering a low cost yearly membership into our business with special savings, perks,... [Read More...]
No Limit Texas Hold-em Customer Loyalty
How to Avoid Getting Beat on the River Although the love of money may be the root of all evil, the love of customers may be the root of all profits! Many business owners have gambled a great deal of these profits at the poker table of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and have either been bluffed out of the game or held onto a hand which was already beat. Customers are much more demanding, but are also much more responsive to convenient... [Read More...]
How to Advise Clients Procure a Certified Credit Card Terminal
Merchants who currently have or acquire a certified credit card terminal can run their credit card processing AND our loyalty program simultaneously on the same machine. The merchant’s credit card processing application will run exactly the same way as before. The merchant does not have to switch either credit card processors or banks to install our loyalty program. Think of the credit card terminal as an apartment complex with various tenants... [Read More...]
Why 24×7 Fundraising Works For Restaurants
The feeling of saving money is one of the most powerful emotions in determining consumer behavior. There are only two other emotions which rival the feeling of saving money and that’s the feeling of goodwill, supporting important causes, or making a difference in the lives of others. We might argue a third emotion has entered the game in 2010 and that’s the feeling of sustaining the environment or frequenting ‘green friendly’ businesses. ... [Read More...]
The Importance of Building a Database
Building a database is often considered the most important ‘asset’ of any business. Yes, even more valuable than the real estate, equipment or other capital investments. The purchase price of a business is largely determined by cash flow, expenses and customer data and nothing effects these three categories more than a living and active database of customer behavior, visitation and spending. The wise and insightful usage of customer loyalty... [Read More...]