One of the most commonly used tactics to encourage the loyalty of your customers is to create exclusive promotions and offers aimed only at the people that have already purchased your brand. It is also often a powerful ploy to attract new clients who might turn into paying customers tempted by a chance of getting something in return. This can include access to raffles, exclusive products, and services or simply discounts for future purchases.
Today, we take you through launching a client-only promotion. We also show you how to verify clients, register them in your database, and validate their unique codes with only one application. The Easypromos Redeem Codes application allows you to configure a promotion adapted specifically to your needs and objectives. In addition, you can use the same app to distribute additional prizes and perks.
Check out all the promotions that you can create with mandatory code validation:
Opt for a code validation app
Looking to launch promotions for paying customers? Turn to our code validation application. It is the only tool you need to verify if those registered in your prize draw are your brand’s customers.
But how and where can you distribute unique codes?
When it comes to small products, customers can often find their unique codes on product packagings, or even inside the product (for example crisps bags). Codes can also be printed on receipts, invoices or even leaflets that employees hand out to each customer, or add them to orders that are shipped. The following example demonstrates how easy it is to distribute codes in the form of stickers by putting them on products you want to promote.
Barefoot Venus – a beauty product brand – looked for a one-of-a-kind way to promote their Mustard Bath Tin. Every tin came with a unique code that customers validated using the code validation application. Barefoot Venus rewarded their customers’ loyalty with free products, discounts, and store credit. To increase the number of validated codes and registered users, the brand added a banner to the product landing page.
What types of codes can be validated online?
The Easypromos code validation system works with several different options:
- Promotional codes: a single code associated with a specific campaign that is distributed to all customers. Many shops (online and brick-and-mortar) hand out codes at checkout or add them to order confirmation emails. These codes are normally part of thematic campaigns that run just over a short period of time. A great example could be Valentine’s Day code campaign: VALENTINES20. Customers use these codes to access special promotions, contests, games, or giveaways. They act as passwords to access customer exclusive promotions.
- Set of codes: most common when organizing brands have the entire list of all unique codes that have been distributed to customers. The codes are uploaded to the Redeem Codes application. Participants enter their unique code to verify they’re the brand’s customers.
- Regular expressions: codes that follow the same pattern can be validated without having to upload them to the application. For example, if the code always has 10 digits and starts with two letters.
How can you reward customers that validate codes?
Firstly, it’s vital to take into account a very important aspect: a customer participating in your online code promotion does more effort than the majority of your paying customers. This individual has enough motivation to read participation instructions, visit the promotion microsite, and fill out the registration form. Thus, their loyalty deserves an attractive reward.
Apart from appealing prizes, it is also important to ensure that the participation process is clear and not too complicated. Therefore, explain how to enter the promotion and share clear participation instructions. Take a look at the next two examples to see how the organizing brand communicated their promotional campaign. They clearly explained what the user must buy to obtain a code and validate it.
The social media posts and the landing page of the promotion both explained how to obtain a code and participate in the client-only promotion. In the next examples, you can see how the organizing brands explained the participation process step-by-step and how they also showcased the prizes that were up for grabs. To reinforce customer loyalty further, promptly indicate how the prizes are being distributed: if the users immediately find out if they’re one of the winners or if they have to wait until the end of the promotion.
Let’s now take a look at how you can assign prizes to participants of your customer exclusive promotions.
Run a giveaway for all registered users
Running a giveaway for all users that register through the app is a great way to motivate participants to join your promotion. Stone Ridge Medical Group wanted to reward their customers’ trust and strengthen customer relationships. All customers that visited their store while the promotion was active, received a code that allowed them to access the giveaway. One lucky winner won a new fitness watch.
Assign awards to specific codes
The next option is what we call “winning codes”. In the next example, you can see how an accessories shop can organize a promotion for their paying customers. Each client receives a unique code, which they then validate in our loyalty program application, which has the “winning codes” option enabled. It means that as the promotion organizer you assign prizes to specific codes. When the user registers and accesses the promotion they must introduce their code. The app then checks:
- Whether the code is valid.
- If the code is one of the winning codes.
The user automatically finds out whether they’re the lucky winner and how to claim their prize.
Try this option by testing our Redeem Codes DEMO and download our ready-made template to configure your own code validation promotion.
Instant moment prizes
If you prefer to control how the app distributes the prizes, you can configure the application so that it is combined with the Instant Win app. The participants still register through an entry form and introduce their code. The application checks whether the code is valid or not, and then checks if any prizes have been assigned to the time of the day that the user validated their code. If the entry of the participants coincides with a winning moment, then the user sees a winning message with congratulations.
The user experience is very similar to the experience that participants get in Winning Codes promotions, however, the brand notices a bigger difference. The organizer has more control over the prize assigning process, making it possible to choose how many prizes they want to give away daily or weekly, and when. When it comes to Winning Codes you never know how many codes will be redeemed or even if the holder of the winning codes will redeem them while the promotion is active. Instant Win promotions allow you to select the day, hour, and even minute at which you want to distribute prizes.
Greenbank Hunt Club Center distributed a variety of different prizes with the Instant Win but they also raffled big awards among all registered participants.
Give away prizes when a set number of codes has been validated
Here’s a solution for anyone who wants to reward only the customers that have spent a previously established minimum amount of money. In this kind of promotion the user normally must collect a specified number of different codes and then validate them through the Redeem Codes application to obtain a guaranteed prize that the application automatically presents on the final page. If the prize is a coupon, the user can download it in PDF or automatically send it to their inbox.
Here’s an example of how a gas station franchise can thank their customers for choosing their brand over and over again. The customers receive a code for every $20 spent at the station. Once the customer validates 5 codes they receive a 5$ discount on the next visit at the organizing petrol station. The participants can obtain their coupons in QR format or download them as PDF.
Why is it beneficial to encourage customers to accumulate codes online? It is a fantastic customer retention dynamic and a creative way to encourage repeat purchases. You also get to collect contact information from your customers and thus work on more direct relationships.
Try your luck with a branded prize wheel
Another way to generate excitement for your customers is to use code validation to access contests and games. For example, Los Alfares – a shopping center – launched a branded prize wheel for their paying customers. Every client that spends a minimum of $20 obtains a discount code to validate online. After introducing their code and filling in the registration form the user can spin the prize wheel and see if they’re the lucky winners.
How does the code validation application work?
In order to launch a code validation promotion for your paying customers, it is important to be clear about the steps that users must follow to enter the promotion.
- The user must confirm their identity: users register through an entry form or log in to your brand’s loyalty program, customer intranet, etc.
- Users fill in the missing entry form fields so that you have all the details that you need for your database.
- Participants introduce the code and validate it.
- Customers discover if their code has been validated and if they have won or entered your prize draw (depending on the type of promotion you went for).
The application configurations
- Unique registration: once the user registers they don’t have to repeat the registration process to validate subsequent codes. They log in and validate their codes straight away.
- Code accumulation: it encourages repeat purchases and makes customers come back.
- Each validated code is a new participation: it allows you to identify the most active users.
Do you want to organize your own code validation promotion? Use our Redeem Codes application templates and configure them according to your own needs and preferences.
How to verify the purchase
Sometimes a code is just not enough to confirm whether a user is an actual client. On these occasions brands ask for more specific information at the moment of user registration.
- Validate the code printed on the product. if you identified all distributed codes, upload them to the platform so that the code verification application can verify them.
- Ask for the date of purchase. Asking for the purchase date is a way to allow users to access the promotion.
- Upload picture of the receipt. Ask the participants to take pictures of their receipts and upload them to the app. Afterward, you can check if the ticket is valid.
- Identify where the user purchases the product. More often than not, such promotions are launched in collaboration with retailers and intermediaries. Asking for this information will make it easier to verify the purchase.
- Simplified invoice number: each receipt comes with a unique number. Request this information by adding an extra field to your registration form.
The following example shows you how the organizing brand asked participants to state at which shop they purchased the promotional product. It was simply an additional way to ensure that the user participating in the promotion is a real customer.
As you can see, there are many different ways in which you can verify whether users accessing your promotion are paying customers. Keep in mind that the more personal information you ask for, the more chances that the clients will lose their interest. Each new field is a new participation barrier. This is why it is so important to find a balance between user verification and enough motivation to participate. If the prize involved in the promotion is attractive users won’t mind making the effort. However, if the prize doesn’t appear to your audience you will use many participants in the registration process.
Thinking to create your own code validation promotion? Don’t worry, simply contact our Support Team!
