How Gift With Purchase Engages Loyalty Program Members

You may already have a loyalty program in place, which is a critical tool for engaging your customers but are you trying to acquire more members and get them more engaged?

Adding a Gift with Purchase loyalty amplifier to your program can not only incentivize more customers to join but also raise engagement levels for your brand.

Here’s how Gift with Purchase can help you achieve your loyalty program goals.

What Are Gift With Purchase Loyalty Amplifiers?

In a time when there is more competition and choice than ever before for your customers, it can feel like the only way to compete is on price. But adding a Gift with Purchase offer on top of your existing loyalty program can incentivize your members to choose your brand over others.

Offering a free gift makes it easier to keep your brand top of mind. The unique aspect of a Gift with Purchase is consumers receive this when they buy a specific product or spend a certain amount of money. And the gift possibilities are endless — branded merchandise, bonus points or digital rewards like discount codes for online shopping.

While all loyalty amplifiers help you achieve specific program goals in some way, Gift with Purchase amplifiers are effective retention tactics because they offer your loyalty program members of immediate value without the need to save up for a reward.

How a Gift With Purchase Increases Engagement in Your Loyalty Program

A Gift with Purchase offer tied to your loyalty program can help achieve your goals of brand awareness and customer engagement.

It’s hard for consumers to turn their backs on a free gift and, if they’re not members of your loyalty program, a Gift with Purchase program can even elevate your enrollment if there’s an offer tied to joining.

Another key to engaging your customers with this loyalty amplifier is it’s a value-add for your brand, differentiates you from your competition and makes you memorable to them.

Gift with Purchase programs can include guaranteed rewards, cash, offers and charitable donations. You can increase engagement by allowing participants to track their purchases on dashboards so participants can track their progress toward their gift. 

You can also incorporate a sweepstakes overlay to attract to drive engagement between purchases.

Gift with Purchase offers give you that immediate value-add that separates you from your competition, excites your customers and keeps your brand top of mind.

Brands Using Gift With Purchase Loyalty Amplifiers

Here are a few examples of major brands using a Gift with Purchase loyalty amplifier.

Jimmy Dean created the Jimmy Dean Gift Exchange aimed at offering consumers a choice in order to increase engagement.

The company hosted a virtual recipe exchange, requesting consumers to submit pictures of holiday recipes featuring Jimmy Dean sausage in exchange for their choice of six irreverent gifts, including knit sausage socks, glass-blow Jimmy Dean sausages and sausage-scented wrapping paper.

Ferrero Candy came up with the Ferrero Better Game With Butterfinger to drive incremental purchases from the company’s candy portfolio while promoting the launch of the Halo Infinite game.

Consumers uploaded receipts from qualifying Butterfinger, Baby Ruth or Crunch bar purchases to unlock tiered rewards. The more they bought, the greater the payout in the form of exclusive Halo Infinite in-game content.

Meanwhile, the General Mills Retro Game Night advertised General Mills’ breakfast and snack portfolio at Target.com with a shoppable activation.

Leveraging the nostalgia of its brands, General Mills partnered with Target to bring fun back to the table through family game night.

By stocking up on three qualifying items, shoppers were rewarded with $5 Target digital gift cards they could use toward the purchase of a retro board game. Shoppers could purchase the participating products at Target.com’s online General Mills store.​

Increase Your Customer Engagement With a Gift With Purchase

Our Customer Engagement and Loyalty Survey found that 85% of consumers would join a brand’s loyalty program to receive a gift with a purchase. 

This is a promising statistic and something to consider if you want to increase customer engagement and loyalty program enrollment.

Gift with Purchase programs help you acquire new loyalty program members and create brand awareness.

This article is part of The Ultimate Guide to Loyalty Amplifiers.

If you want to learn more about loyalty amplifiers, check out the previous article in the series, How Trivia Helps Onboard and Educate Your Loyalty Program Members, or the next article in the series, How User-Generated Content Turns Loyalty Program Members into Brand Advocates.