Businesses are beginning to feel the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. With COVID-19 cases booming across the globe, health safety has become a top priority. Many organizations are having to make tough decisions to practice social distancing and keep employees safe. Major conferences are being postponed. Employees across the globe are being sent home to work remotely. Many businesses are wary that this crisis could disrupt the momentum they have built for 2020. Here’s what you may not have considered: digital rewards combined with online tools and tactics can help your company adapt. Learn how to leverage digital rewards to boost alternatives to the business practices disrupted due to the pandemic.
Any business that still uses physical gifts or plastic cards as rewards needs an immediate upgrade. Digital rewards beat out physical rewards in many ways, but they have two advantages that are especially valuable at this time: they can be delivered virtually and are completely contactless! Neither you nor your recipient have to touch a card. Instead, you can virtually deliver a gift card to any spot on the globe, in an instant, via email. And when your recipients want to make a purchase, they can use their e-gift without handing a card over to a cashier or touching a credit card machine. With current health safety concerns, it is key to prioritize consumer safety and sensitivity.
“If you don’t have to touch anything or hand over your card to someone there is a big degree of safety in that. The consumer sensitivity to catching coronavirus is now showing up at point of sale,” said Richard Crone, principal at Crone Consulting, LLC (Source: PaymentSource).
It’s important to move fast to adapt to the shifting economic landscape. Luckily, there’s hardly any administrative work required to set up digital rewards. Choose a digital rewards provider that integrates into your marketing or survey platform. With integrations into platforms like Marketo and Hubspot, incentives campaigns almost run themselves. Deliver webinar gifts, referral rewards, and more in a few easy clicks. Tracking your campaigns is simple, too. Manage all your digital rewards in a central incentives management system. This will automate the tracking of incentives and recipients in detail. This includes what was sent to whom and for what purpose. It is now easy for businesses to keep accurate records of their rewards and costs. Still worried that digital rewards aren’t personal enough? Tailor the gifting experience with custom reward delivery. A personalized e-gift can build human connections when in-person interactions aren’t possible.
Unsure which digital rewards to choose? We can help! Rybbon has added new rewards to support social distancing efforts. Recipient rewards preferences are changing as activities like going out to a restaurant or seeing a movie are on hold. People will appreciate safe, thoughtful rewards that can be used while they stay at home. From food delivery, to entertainment, to e-donations, we’ve got relevant rewards that your recipients will use and love. Showing sensitivity via your rewards catalog will make you stand out from your competitors.
Now that you know why digital rewards are a great fit for the current business environment, let’s talk specific strategies.
Fears of sharing germs preventing in-person meetings? Invite your prospects and customers to meet with you online using tools like Google Hangouts or Zoom. Then, say “thank you” for their time with a digital reward from Rybbon. Best thank you note ever!
Having to miss a conference or customer event due to coronavirus concerns? Don’t lose out on the connections you would have seen. Keep relationships warm with e-gifts. They send a touching gesture – minus the touch. Your connections will appreciate that you were thinking of them! E-gifts can be an excellent conversation starter when angling for a sale or partnership.
Run a marketing campaign using digital rewards, such as a referral rewards program. This can be a powerful lead generation tool to make up for leads that you would have earned at a conference. Be creative! For example, if many of your customers are stuck at home, offer a Hulu Plus e-gift card as the referral reward to ‘keep them entertained’. They’ll appreciate the thought as well as the laugh.
Do a webinar! With the cancellation of major events, virtual events have become all the rage. Incentivize attendance by offering a reward to attendees. Promote the reward in all emails and the registration page. Remind attendees about the ‘thank you’ gift at the beginning of the webinar and urge them to attend the full session to ensure attendance is captured. Send their reward soon after the webinar. Take advantage of your marketing automation tool’s integration with your webinar platform and rewards platform to do this easily. Finally, customize the reward email with follow-up content and a call-to-action. It will be your best performing email so use this opportunity to drive engagement.
Don’t forget about your internal stakeholders! You can set up an employee rewards program in no time using Rybbon’s rewards management platform. You can use this to do activities like host a virtual lunch-and-learn for your team while they work remotely. Those who attend your training will receive a $10 gift card towards the lunch option of their choice. Or, simply offer your employees a ‘thank you’ reward for their focus during this stressful time. Whatever route you choose, it is important that your employees feel supported. If you go the extra mile, your employees will, too. Your encouragement will motivate them to keep up the awesome work and not be swayed by disruptions.
Conduct surveys, product testing, focus groups, and more with online research tools. It can be as simple as a feedback survey via Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey, or as sophisticated as in-depth interviews using iTracks’ video interview tool. Digital rewards are a natural complement for these platforms. Rybbon’s rewards integrate with leading research tools to make incentivizing responses a breeze.
Successful businesses understand the importance of adapting quickly. Being proactive, not reactive, is key to preserving the momentum your team has worked so hard to build. Digital rewards complement a variety of online tactics that can help your business adapt to the current health climate. The best part: you can set them up in minutes from the comfort and safety of your desk. Your boss will be so impressed that you came up with all these awesome business ideas to offset coronavirus disruptions!
Here at Rybbon, we understand how important it is for your business to be agile. That’s why we built our automated rewards management system to be set up in no time. Set up a Rybbon account for free and send rewards with your first campaign in minutes.
Rida is a creative marketing professional who specializes in innovative marketing solutions for the technology space.
Rida is a creative marketing professional who specializes in innovative marketing solutions for the technology space.
