How to maximise revenue from your loyalty stamp cards

Make your stamp cards worth collecting, then remind people to fill them.

Loyal customers are a key revenue driver for any business, and they spend up to 67% more than new customers. A loyalty stamp card is a well-established way to turn one-time visitors into regulars: collect a stamp at each visit, get a reward when the card is full.

The trouble is the gap between cards issued and cards redeemed. Before a stamp card can earn its keep, it is worth asking how many of your customers actually fill and redeem one, and how long a full card takes.

The problem with loyalty stamp cards

Getting customers to sign up is usually the easy part. Keeping them coming back is another story, and the initial excitement of collecting stamps wears off over time. Research published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing puts the average redemption rate of rewards programmes at just 13%.

A stamp card increases the chances of a customer returning, but it cannot be relied on entirely to keep them coming back. The key is to keep customers engaged on a frequent basis in a variety of ways, and help them collect stamps along the way.

How to keep customers engaged

First, stay front of mind. Your regulars probably carry loyalty cards from a dozen other places, so it is on you to remind them that they have one from you too.

When creating your rewards, focus on two questions:

• Are they obtainable? Your average visit frequency tells you the ideal number of stamps for a full card. If a full card takes a year, nobody finishes one.

• Are they attractive? Which reward would your customers actually want? Is it worth collecting stamps for? Is it relevant to your business?

Email and SMS campaigns

As ever, email and SMS are great tools to keep customers interested and stay top of mind. A friendly nudge beats a card forgotten in a drawer.

Two kinds of campaign keep people moving.

Get them to collect more stamps

• "How many more stamps do you need? A fresh batch of ... arrived today, and we know how much you love them. Come by to get yours."

• "... more stamps to go. Come by today to get one extra stamp for every ..."

• "Special weekday deal: earn double the stamps when you buy ..."

• "Flash offer: buy one, get one free on all cocktails from 6pm to 9pm."

Get them to redeem their full stamp card

• "Still haven't redeemed your stamps?"

• "Got a full card? You're owed a free ... Come by today and enjoy."

• "Don't miss out on our special freebie for all redeemed stamp cards this month."

• "Your chance to win. All redeemed stamp cards from this month enter a special prize draw."

Still using paper loyalty stamp cards? Everything above improves when the card is digital. A digital stamp card lives in your guest data, so you know how many stamps each person has and can send the "two more to go" message to exactly the right people. It saves on printing, and the same data feeds your email and SMS campaigns.

Find out more about digital stamp cards in Stampede loyalty, or get in touch and we will talk it through.