Ferret Card is a free loyalty program designed for the small business. This blog is meant to help all our participating merchants better understand and make use of Ferret Card. ferretcard.com
Having Fun While Expanding & Growing with the Ferret Card Family
by Lauri Taylor
My nature has always been about helping people. Now I can do it on an even bigger scale by helping merchants that own small to medium sized businesses sign up for free to use Ferret Card's amazing self-serve platform and escalate their business to the next level. Every Merchant should consider this as their own loyalty program. It is a phenomenal marketing tool that gives you reports and statistics that help you fine tune your advertising and reach out to your targeted audience. We are leading the way in this new mobile app marketing generation.
Through Ferret Card the merchant gets more great exposure, it links to their website or Facebook page and brings in new customers. The customers who become Ferret Card members have a self-serve platform to utilize also. Ferret Card members get rewarded for being loyal customers at their favourite stores, restaurants and establishments. You don't have to call Ferret Card to redeem anything like other loyalty programs. You simply go into your account, check out the participating Ferret Card Merchants, find out what they are offering and choose where to shop. This is even more simplified when using your Ferret Card app on your smart phone or Ipad.
Technology is moving us forward into a more global collective connection on all levels. Now you can take advantage of it and see where to shop around the world as the Ferret Card family, merchants and user's data base grows exponentially.
I am really looking forward to the upcoming promotional events and contests to win great prizes. More fun for everyone! Stay tuned....to Z103.5 throughout August and September on the radio and online the grand prize is Awesome!!!
Become a Ferret Card Merchant and Member today and benefit from more great relationships. Tell all your friends.... It's fun, it's free and it's win/win. Everyone benefits.
Article written by: Lauri Taylor (Account Executive of Ferret Card Canada)
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, I found myself looking for a place to lunch in the Richmond Hill area. Then it came to me.. I decided to visit one of our new Ferret Card merchants for myself! Covernotes Tea and Coffee Shop.
To my wonderful surprise, Covernotes has cozy, quaint, and charming atmosphere. Soon after walking in, I found myself instantly start to relax. At this local spot, you can order from a variety of coffee, tea and delicious food options. And the best part of all? You can sit comfortably and indulge yourself in one of the many novels spread out throughout the shop.
After finishing every last drop of my green tea, I decided to take some time to find out what rewards were available to loyal customers.
I soon found that you could receive 75% off a novel when you have... stamps!
I got curious about this discount and asked the cashier whether the books were for sale? He briefly answered yes; the books are used and are for sale. The prices are within the book.
I thought how nice - now I know where to get used books, have a read, and enjoy a tea at the same time.
(And trust me when I say, I love tea.)
What was great about this overall experience, was that I wouldn't have even visited Covernotes if it wasn't for Ferret Card!
I am pleasantly surprised and delighted with Covernotes and will definitely be a return customer.
Before heading home I decided to take another look at the Ferret Card App, to see if there are any other stores I should visit around the area.
A specialty candy store called The Candyman quickly popped up, and I couldn’t resist giving them visit to get some sweets for my children.
Again, after visiting The Candyman and purchasing a variety of yummy goodies... I realised I may not have ever of been aware of such an awesome local shop, if not for Ferret Card.
This was truly a personal “Aha Moment”, proving to me that this does work.. it really does help the small business, and helped open my horizons as a customer. All thanks to the Ferret Card platform.
Article written by: Dr. Annie Lim (CEO of Ferret Card Canada)
Out of all the elements of Ferret Card’s platform, the one feature we get the most questions about is the Stamp Exchange. Some merchants worry that it can be abused by customers, and some merchants worry that it can be misused by unscrupulous merchants. To address these concerns, I thought it best to write this blog entry to talk about the Stamp Exchange in greater detail.
How it Works
First of all, the important thing to remember about the Stamp Exchange is that Ferret Card users are able to exchange stamps in their wallet only for stamps available in the Stamp Exchange. In no way does the Stamp Exchange increase the potential redemption cost to a merchant.
For example: A merchant has done sales of $5000, and has thus issued 5000 Gold Stamps to Ferret Card members. Those Gold Stamps are held either by that merchant’s customers, or have been traded into the Stamp Exchange in exchange for stamps from other merchants. The total number of Gold Stamps in circulation remains 5000, regardless of what that merchant’s customers do with those stamps.
The only way that Gold Stamps are deducted from Ferret Card’s platform is when they are redeemed by a customer at a store.
As a merchant, if you offer great Rewards to your loyal customers, they will be much less likely to trade away your Gold Stamps. They will want to hold on to them, in order to come BACK to your store to redeem. REWARDING and RETAINING your loyal customers should be one of your highest business priorities, and having a great Reward for Ferret Card users achieves exactly that!
Alternatively, if the Rewards you offer your customers are not appealing, they are less likely to want to keep your Gold Stamps. This is where the Stamp Exchange comes in: your customers can trade away your stamps, in exchange for stamps from another business offering better Rewards. While your customers have still been rewarded for visiting your store, you haven’t given them a great reason to return to your business. This is a failure in RETAINING your customers.
Further Restrictions
In order to encourage Ferret Card users to keep their Gold Stamps and come back to your store, Ferret Card imposes additional trading restrictions:
Users can only trade for Gold Stamps from stores they have been to before (no such restriction on Silver Stamps)
Why we do this: To ensure that users are only redeeming Gold Stamp Rewards at businesses they really have been to before. A Ferret Card user redeeming a Gold Stamp reward at your business really is a loyal customer!
Users must trade away 2 Gold Stamps for every 1 Gold Stamp received in return
Why we do this: This discourages excessive trading of stamps amongst Ferret Card users, so that they are more likely to keep the stamps they have and earn a redemption level at your store. Additionally, it also means that with every trade the total number of stamps in the Stamp Exchange increases. This leads to greater choice for Ferret Card members!
The Power to Choose
Ferret Card members love the Stamp Exchange because it gives them the power to choose which rewards they want. There could be many reasons why a user would want to trade away your stamps:
Maybe the user doesn’t live near your store. Trading away your stamps is a way for that customer to still get value out of your Ferret Card Gold Stamps, and allow another of your loyal customers to make use of those stamps instead
Maybe the customer just needs those few extra stamps to redeem for a great Reward at another business. It’s not that they’re not a loyal customer, but they need those stamps right now!
Maybe your rewards are not appealing. They could still love your business, but they just feel they get better value by trading away your Gold Stamps
Maybe they really don’t intend to come back to your store
By analysing what your customers do with your stamps in our Ferret Card CRM reports, you can think about what areas you need to improve in your business.
Countering Misuse
One of the comments we get from merchants is that there is a potential for other merchants to misuse the Stamp Exchange, by issuing lots of stamps to themselves and then trading those stamps in the Stamp Exchange for stamps from other merchants.
We do admit that this is something a short sighted merchant could do, but the Stamp Exchange has been designed in such a way to minimise such potential misuse:
Gold Stamps can only be traded for Gold Stamps from stores you have visited before. A merchant looking to misuse the system is limited in the number of stamps they can trade for. Additionally, this is great for the other merchants: this means they have a customer coming back to their store, regardless of where that customer got their stamps!
The Stamp Exchange is limited by the number of stamps that have been traded away by other users. There is no effect on the total liability of other stores. Instead, it is driving a customer back to those stores
It is increasing the potential liability of the merchant trading away their stamps. All those stamps traded away are now available in the Stamp Exchange, to be traded for and thus redeemed at your business.
I.e.: If a merchant traded away 100 of their own Gold Stamps for 50 Gold Stamps from a coffee shop to redeem a free coffee, the cost to the merchant is that those 100 Gold Stamps could be redeemed at from their own store. For the coffee shop, those 50 Gold Stamps were already outstanding and could have been redeemed by anyone who traded for the stamps.
Failing all that, Ferret Card also continually monitors merchant’s usage of the platform. If we believe a merchant’s sole intention is to try to take advantage of the Stamp Exchange, Ferret Card can also terminate a merchant from the system.
Any merchant who tries to misuse the Stamp Exchange is losing out on a valuable tool to REWARD and RETAIN their customers, in exchange for maybe getting a free coffee from another merchant. It is our belief that those merchants who are serious about building their business are not that short-sighted. If used properly, Ferret Card is an amazing tool for small businesses to really enhance their offering to their customers!
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
Once again, thank you Mary Meeker for doing the hard work of compiling the stats, and reaffirming our belief in the future of the mobile internet!
Mary Meeker, partner of VC firm Kleiner Perkins, is well known for periodically giving presentations which send the tech world in a tizzy. Her full presentation, given at the D10 Conference 30th May 2012, can be read at:
The great news is that the opportunity for mobile advertising is absolutely huge. Based on a comparison of time spent in media vs. advertising spend, the implication is that the mobile advertising market should be 10 TIMES as big as it is now!
And that is based on current figures… the mobile internet is rapidly growing, now accounting for 10% of global internet traffic.
At this point, there really should be no doubt that the mobile internet represents a huge shift in how we access information, spend our time, and entertain ourselves.
The Bad:
The bad news is that mobile advertising monetisation currently sucks.
eCPM refers to the cost for an ad to appear 1000 times (or 1000 sets of eyeballs), regardless of whether the user clicked or interacted with the ad in any way. Ads sold on a CPM model are always much cheaper than CPC (“cost per click”) ads, for which an advertiser only pays when the user clicks on the ad.
The above statistics therefore show that it is 5 times cheaper to advertise on mobile than on the desktop internet. It only costs $0.75 for your ad to be seen 1000 times, as compared to $3.50 on the desktop internet.
So what’s the implication here? Is mobile advertising a dead end? Is there no value in mobile advertising? Is there a massive excess of mobile advertising inventory over mobile advertising demand?
The Ugly:
For the benefit of those who are familiar only with iPhone, I present to you the reason that mobile advertising rates are far cheaper than desktop internet:
What the hell is that?!?!?
Current methods of in-app mobile advertising are WRONG in so many ways:
It’s intrusive: Get out of our way, there are eggs that need saving
It’s small: Not enough space to get a proper message across, and yet the ads are already taking up a higher percentage of screen space than they should. Most of us don’t mind a few ads on desktop internet websites, but not something as in-your-face as this!
There’s no value: Really, was I going to click on an ad in the middle of my game? It’s useless for the player, and useless for the developer. Mobile click through rates are rightly terrible because of this, and this is reflected in the cheaper prices.
It sucks bandwidth: If you’re on a mobile data plan, you’re effectively paying to see these ads!
There’s little targeting: How do these ads know who I am, and what I am interested in? This is very different from the desktop internet, on which companies have had years to come up with effective targeting solutions (examples being Google or Facebook, or online advertising firms who know how to place ads on websites to achieve the highest possible click-through rates).
The Future
At Ferret Card, it is our strong belief that the key to mobile advertising is not to simply replicate what worked for desktop internet advertising. Mobile is a completely different medium, with different benefits and challenges.
Ferret Card’s entire business model is based on the idea that users don’t mind ads that are:
Not intrusive: Ferret Card users will only see our Specials when they access Ferret Card app or website. We aren’t trying to shove Ferret Card down people’s throats while they are trying to play Angry Birds. Users who are checking out Ferret Card are already mentally “in the zone” to check out specials, rewards, or new businesses. This is one of the motivations for logging in to Ferret Card: to actively seek out great specials and great local businesses.
Giving something of value: Ferret Card’s advertising model is based on Specials, which are effectively mobile coupons. Every special must be either a discount or freebie. This is something which is of value to the user, and not just an annoying banner ad.
Targeted: The worst ad I ever saw in Angry Birds was for a dating service. What made them think I was looking for a soul mate in the middle of committing porcine genocide? What made them think I was even single, or even of dating age? The answer of course is that they didn’t know anything about me, but were just trying their luck due to the cheap eCPM they were likely paying to deliver those ads. Targeting ads takes a bit more work, and will cost more to reach a specific audience, but will always have a MUCH better response rate. These are ads which are far more likely to be of interest to me, and which I may actually take notice of.
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
To be the world's biggest rewards program, we must be completely NEUTRAL with regards to payment systems. Ferret Card users must be able to earn stamps regardless of whether they paid a merchant in cash, credit card, or magic beans.
Why is this important? Because as a merchant, you don't really care how your customers pay, so long as they are paying customers.
Below is a fancy "infographic" prepared at much time and expense to highlight the point:
A rewards program run by MasterCard will only benefit one subset of your customers. A rewards program for Citibank MasterCard will only benefit an even SMALLER subset of your customers. And at the end of the day, the goal of those programs is not to reward loyalty to your store, it is to reward loyalty to the card. Citibank and MasterCard want people to use their card, they don't much care about whether people do that at your store or somewhere else. This is a conflict of interest between the merchant and payment processor, whereby each side has different goals.
There are other companies out there as well who are working on the smart-phone loyalty program business, but as part of a payment solution. These include Square and Google Wallet. Again, these face the same conflicts of interest as any other payment processor loyalty program.
Payment system neutrality is important for Ferret Card. We want people spending money in your store, and we don't particularly care how they do that.
2. Technology neutrality
Despite Ferret Card's heavy focus on smartphones, we believe that technology should not be a factor in whether a customer can take part on Ferret Card.
Customers who do not have a smartphone can just as easily use a physical Ferret Card, or can register online at www.ferretcard.com for the full benefits of having a registered account (sharing silver stamps, receiving specials, rating stores, etc).
On the other hand, a merchant operating Ferret Card will need internet access at their point of sale to credit stamps to customers, and redeem rewards. We feel it is easier for the merchant to have their system ready and waiting, than to demand that all our users have the necessary gadgets to take part. It is easier to train a merchant, than to train every potential customer. Ferret Card is the online rewards program that even your granny can use!
3. Rewards should come from YOU
All things being equal, which reward is better for a merchant to offer: a $10 voucher for use at your own store, or $10 worth of products provided by a third-party rewards program operator?
Ferret Card believes that rewards should come directly from the merchant, not from Ferret Card. There are many benefits to this:
- rewards which come from a merchant help to build loyalty with the customer. A $10 voucher for use at your store means a very good chance the customer is going to come back again... and most likely spend more than $10!
- if rewards were to come directly from Ferret Card, this is an opportunity lost for the merchant to build customer loyalty
- additionally, if Ferret Card were to give the rewards, it means that Ferret Card would need to charge the merchant a fixed price for every stamp issued (so as to cover the redemption costs). This would be an additional cost to merchants to operate Ferret Card. Merchants still need to bear the cost of reward redemption now, but this is set by the individual merchant. Individual merchants have the freedom to choose how much they are willing to give to reward loyal customers
4. Rewards are for loyal customers
The purpose of a rewards program is to reward LOYALTY. Loyal customers are people who actually spend money in your store on more than 1 occasion. They are not:
- people who Like you on Facebook
- people who Follow you on Twitter
- people who bought a daily deal (Groupon)
- people who check-in at your venue (FourSquare)
- people who walked in and walked out of your store (Shopkick)
These are examples of other tools you can use to market to customers online and via mobiles, but are not capable of truly determining who is a loyal customer.
Ferret Card rewards only real loyal customers. Stamps are issued by the merchant to paying customers only. In this way, the merchant is in full control of the rewards program.
The trouble with Foursquare as a loyalty program
A special mention here is for Foursquare, in order to properly differentiate the way Foursquare thinks about loyalty, as compared to Ferret Card.
Foursquare has the opposite approach to Ferret Card, whereby it is the customer who checks-in to a venue on Foursquare. The customer is in full control of the check-in.
A typical "loyalty reward" on Foursquare may require a customer to check-in to your venue 5 times. In theory, this means the customer has visited your store 5 times. However, this does not mean that the customer has actually bought anything. Your most "loyal" customers may be your own staff, and the people who work in the vicinity of your store... regardless of whether they ever actually bought anything!
Giving control of your rewards program to your customers in this way can lead to unexpected abuses, difficulty in controlling the cost of your loyalty program, and ultimately fail to reach your real loyal customers.
5. A rewards program needs to be universal
How many individual store loyalty cards do you carry? How often have you forgotten to bring your card to a store?
If the store loyalty program was UNIVERSAL, and could be used in many places, the chances of forgetting your card are reduced. If your store loyalty card is loaded onto your SMARTPHONE, the chances of forgetting your card are almost non-existent.
A UNIVERSAL store loyalty card is one which is accepted at as many stores as possible. Ferret Card's goal is to be the world's biggest rewards program, with as close to universal acceptance as possible.
6. A rewards program needs to be unique
In contrast with the above point, a rewards program also needs to be unique for each participating store. Each participating store needs the freedom to run the rewards program that best suits their business, allowing the individual store to build true customer loyalty. Whilst this may seem hard to reconcile with the need to be universal, striking the balance between these two needs is one of Ferret Card's major strengths as a platform.
Each participating store issues UNIQUE gold and silver stamps on Ferret Card, which cannot be used at other stores. Ferret Card itself is universal in that is can be accepted at many stores, but the stamps themselves are unique to each store.
To tie in the universal and the unique is one of the role's of the Stamp Exchange. This gives users the ability to trade the unique stamps from one store, for the unique stamps from another store. The merchant still retains full control, as the total number of stamps on issue from their store never exceeds the number of stamps they have issued.
i.e.: A cake shop has issued a total of 10,000 gold stamps on Ferret Card. They have a reward, which requires 100 gold stamps to redeem 1 free cake. The store owners know that the MAXIMUM number of free cakes that could be redeemed are 10,000 / 100 = 100 cakes. The cake shop benefits from being part of a universal rewards program, while at the same time having full control over the rewards they are issuing.
7. Ferret Card needs to be free
We believe that Ferret Card should be free for both the merchants to operate, and customers to use. No monthly charges, no upfront fees.
Why? Because the more stores that use Ferret Card, the more customers will sign up, encouraging even more stores to use Ferret Card, and so on. It's all part of our world domination plan. Charging merchants a monthly fee is the sand in the engine that could stop that from happening. We want as many merchants as possible to give Ferret Card a try without any obligation. This is the essence of the "freemium" model, where one part of the service is given for free, while we charge for another part (in this case, Ferret Card Specials as a paid service).
A great explanation of how the freemium model works can be read in this blog posting on TechCrunch:
A great quote from the article: “The easiest way to get 1 million people paying is to get 1 billion people using,” says Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote.
We have confidence that Ferret Card is an incredibly useful resource for merchants, and that they have no reason not to give us a try. As our network grows, the value of the network becomes greater. Eventually, more and more of those merchants will see the additional value in paying for Ferret Card Specials and Ferret Card Premium Listing.
8. Ferret Card needs to be viral
Not viral in the sense that our ferret is carrying the bubonic plague, but viral in the sense that users will attract more users, ad infinitum. This is the evil genius behind the silver stamp.
By allowing Ferret Card users to share silver stamps with their 5 closest Facebook friends, they are directing those friends to also sign up for Ferret Card. If those friends don't sign up for Ferret Card to claim these silver stamps, they're missing out on FREE STUFF. And being a good friend, you don't want your friends to miss out on free stuff, do you?
Silver stamps are win-win for customers (more rewards), Ferret Card (more users), and merchants (more potential customers).
9. The future is social
Actually, so was the past. Your customers have always been talking to each other, and spreading word of mouth about your business, both positive and negative. The difference now is that we are all connected 24/7 thanks to the internet and social networks like Facebook.
As a business, you need to leverage on your customer's social connections to help spread the word about your brand. You want your customers talking about your store, and you want them to share how great you are with their friends. Of course, sometimes they need a little nudge to get the conversation going. This is why Ferret Card has baked in so many social functions, such as sharing silver stamps when you visit a store, sharing reviews with your friends, or sharing your favourite store once per week.
Many businesses know that they need to get involved in social media somehow, but most either don't know how, or don't have the time to invest in it. Participating in Ferret Card is a short-cut to taking advantage of social media, by letting your customers do the talking.
10. The future is mobile
People are spending more and more time on their smartphones, as their smartphones increasingly do pretty much everything.
Market research firm eMarketer reports that average daily time spent on mobile devices increased 30% in 2011 over 2010, reaching an average of 65 minutes per day. That is well ahead of average time spent on newspapers or magazines (http://www.emarketer.com/PressRelease.aspx?R=1008732). Businesses need to get their message across on this new medium.
The market for advertising dollars on mobile devices is poised to explode, as advertisers have not yet caught up with new technology. As reported by eMarketer, advertising in newspapers or magazines is hugely disproportional to the actual amount of time spent with those media. This only further highlights the HUGE potential for mobile advertising.
Ferret Card stands to be a big winner in mobile advertising, by being a tool for any business (small or large) to be able to accurately deliver specials to their target audience. Ferret Card is able to do this by having access to a large database of users and their transactions, allowing us to deliver relevant specials to our users.
Just as Facebook is able to deliver great targeted ads to its users by luring them in with a compelling free product(the social network), Ferret Card is also able to deliver great targeted specials to our users by luring them in with another compelling free product (Ferret Card Rewards). This is how Ferret Card will take its share in the mobile advertising market!
11. You should know your customers
Who are these funny people coming into your shop, taking your stuff, and giving you money? Shouldn't you know more about what makes these people tick?
That is exactly the point of Ferret Card CRM. We help you to keep track of the figures and statistics of your business, so you have a better understanding of your customers. Using this information, you can then better target your specials using Ferret Card Specials.
We believe Ferret Card is in an ideal position to be able to generate reliable customer reports, as Ferret Card is open to all customers (regardless of payment method used). Additionally, reports generated by Ferret Card are likely to be more accurate due to customer's linking their accounts to Facebook.
12. You don't need to know everything about your customers
On the other hand, you really don't need to know everything about your customers. Ferret Card holds customer privacy in high regard, which is why Ferret Card CRM does not provide you information on any individual customers, only on your customers in aggregate.
Ferret Card also does not offer any way to communicate directly to any individual customer, so it is not possible for a merchant to build up a mailing list to spam customers via Ferret Card. Nobody likes spam, and Ferret Card doesn't want to be known as a company which facilitates unwanted e-mails!
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
As an avid consumer myself, I love the idea of Ferret Card.
Yes, I could be a little bias.. However consider this...
What if we were rewarded for things that we are already doing? In other words, some of the services we use every day like getting a haircut, visiting a spa, or getting our car maintained, WE are paying for without any rewards but a bill. With Ferret Card, these merchants will REWARD and give back to us for using their services or products.
How cool is that? Keep doing what you are doing.. Get rewarded.. And.. Reward your friends too!
Another plus point: I only have to carry ONE card that allows me to be rewarded at places I frequently visit. In fact, I really only need to carry my smartphone with me to receive rewards. I can download the Ferret Card Member App and have my card number(s) stored in the App. I will definitely not forget to bring my phone out with me wherever I go!
Many times I've left my paper reward card at home or in my car.. parked far away as I visit shops only to realize how frustrated I am for not being able to collect my stamps or points. And not to mention, the countless times I've forgotten coupons I have cut out at home and couldn’t redeem any discounts or deals..
With Ferret Card, these problems can be eliminated.
In regards to rewarding your friends, Ferret Card allows you to select 5 best friends from your Facebook account and the merchants will reward them when they reward you too! Think about how happy your friends would be! Receiving rewards, all because you selected them!
Visit FerretCard.com to sign up and experience the rewards yourself - Become a Member today!
Article written by: Dr. Annie Lim (CEO of Ferret Card Canada)
Why would a user want to use Ferret Card? For that matter, why would anyone use Facebook, or Twitter?
For Facebook the simple answer is that people want to keep in touch with their friends. For Twitter, it is that they want to keep up to date with what is happening. For Ferret Card, it’s because people want to benefit from rewards and specials.
How about Ferret Card? Some of the feelings that are evoked in Ferret Card users:
A sense of community connection: Shopping at a small business run by someone passionate about their business always gives you a much better feeling than shopping at the big, faceless mega-store. Did you ever walk out of a Walmart with a warm and fuzzy feeling for doing so? How about the last time you shopped at a small business, where the owner greeted you with a smile and wished you a good day?
A sense of sharing: By registering their Ferret Card with Facebook, a Ferret Card user can share Silver Stamps with up to 5 of their best friends. If I can give my friends something when I shop, at no cost to me, why wouldn’t I? Even better if the Silver Stamps came from a great little shop I just have to tell my friends about!
A sense of not missing out: If there are rewards, points or stamps to be had, you feel like you are missing out if you don’t collect them. The same feeling drives other loyalty points programs, such as frequent flier programs. Sometimes it’s not even the value of the points or stamps themselves, but the mere fact that they are getting something. The Chinese even have a word for this feeling (in the Hokkien dialect) “kiasu”, which roughly means “fear of losing or losing out”. It is this feeling that drives users to keep using their loyalty programs, or to choose to shop at merchants with better loyalty programs.
And of course… there’s also the rewards and specials to take advantage of!
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
The Favourite function on Ferret Card is arguably the most powerful tool at your disposal as a merchant. Not only does it help you reward your most loyal customers, but it also helps spread the word about your business amongst those customer's friends. Who could be a better ambassador for your business than your happy customers?
Being picked as a customer's Favourite is similar in some ways to clicking Like on Facebook. However, there are a number of key difference which make a Favourite truly stand out over a Facebook Like:
you can only have 1 Favourite at a time, and can only change Favourite once per week. This is compared to being able to Like many things on Facebook with no limit. There is thus a higher value to each Favourite
you can only pick stores you have actually been to as a Favourite. This means that it is coming from real customers, who have actually visited your store. There is no such control for Facebook Likes
there is an actual reason to pick a store as your Favourite, as not only are you sending a strong message to your friends that this is a great store, but you are also being rewarded by the store the next time you visit
A recent study by eMarketer.com shows that the primary reason many users Like a brand on Facebook is in order to get some special deal or promotion. Without that benefit, many users would not otherwise bother to go out of their way to promote your brand to their friends. This further highlights the important of rewarding customers who show loyalty to your business.
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
Most small businesses would have heard countless times that they need to be involved in social media these days to stay competitive. This means keeping in touch with customers via Facebook, letting your customers know what is happening at your business via Twitter, trying your hand at a viral video campaign on YouTube....
The Upside: The great part about social media is that it is free!
The Downside: The bad part about social media is that it can take quite a bit of time and effort to maintain your business's online presence. For a small business owner, you may not have the time to manage it as well as you would like.
How Ferret Card can complement this: Ferret Card is itself integrated with Facebook. This means that whenever your customers take an action on Ferret Card, their friends will see that. For example:
Whenever you issue Gold Stamps to a Ferret Card member, up to 5 of that customer's
friends are also earning Silver Stamps.
Whenever a customer reviews your business, it is also shared with that customer's friends
on Facebook.
Whenever a customer selects your store as a Favourite, they are sharing this with their
friends on Facebook.
Whenever a customer grabs a special you created on Ferret Card, their friends will see that.
Whenever a customer redeems a reward or special at your business, their friends will see that
The great thing is that these are all customer initiated actions. There is much greater marketing value in customer initiated actions, as they are not simply seen as "spam" being pushed out by a store. A customer redeeming a reward at your business is obviously someone who likes you enough to be coming back. The trick is to make it as easy as possible for your customers to be able to share great businesses with their friends.
Running Ferret Card is a way to take advantage of your customer's social networks, without needing to do all the hard work yourself. All you need to do to is to encourage your customers to sign up for Ferret Card, start issuing Gold Stamps, and keep working on the great products and services you're already providing. The power of social media will then be working for you, not the other way around!
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
However, it is safe to say that loyalty plays an important role for most businesses. It's an oft-repeated mantra that 20% of your customers account for 80% of your sales. The trick is identifying which customers are in that 20%, and to encourage them to keep coming back. The value of a loyalty program is that it rewards those regular customers who keep your business afloat. You know, the customers who keep you in business.
Another classic saying is that it is 5 times more costly to gain a new customer than to retain an old one. Whilst these numbers are just figurative, the basic idea is that keeping your existing customers is paramount to keeping your marketing costs down. A successful business with happy, loyal customers can therefore afford to cut down on marketing, and should instead focus on keeping those customers happy and loyal.
What about new customers?
This is where the savvy Ferret Card merchant will benefit even more, by realising that Ferret Card is not only a loyalty platform, but also a marketing channel. Even if you think you business doesn't need a loyalty program, there are substantial benefits to running Ferret Card.
People hate being marketed to. Over TV, radio, internet, e-mail, flyers, billboards, etc, we've learned to largely block out most of it. You probably don't remember what the last billboard you saw was, or the last internet banner.
This is where social media comes into play. Whilst people have being marketed to, they can't help but to tell their friends about that great new restaurant they visited. How many businesses have you tried out solely based on the recommendation from a friend? Word of mouth marketing is truly the holy grail of marketing. The trouble with word of mouth is that the right situation just doesn't make itself happen. You thought that new Korean restaurant in town was amazing, but you're not about to go out of your way to tell all 200 of your friends, family and colleagues about it. Ferret Card helps to make word of mouth referrals easy. If I saw 4 of my friends went to this shop, maybe I should ask one of them what they thought of it. A friend redeemed a reward there? Must be something to it!
All this is only possible if you are running Ferret Card Rewards in your business. So while you are busy rewarding your loyal customers, you are also reaching out to their friends.
Does that mean I have to sit and wait for customers to discover me?
Not at all! Since you've been using Ferret Card Rewards to reward your customers, the Ferret Card system has been learning all about who your customers are. You can then use Ferret Card Specials to start targeting them directly, based on the criteria you specify.
John Wanamaker is attributed to saying "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." That is the problem with traditional media such as newspaper or TV advertising. Ferret Card lets you cut out that wasted portion, and target the people who you really want to reach.
So even if you don't think your business is in need of a loyalty program, there are still plenty of reasons to use Ferret Card.
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
Comparing Ferret Card Specials to Advertising on Google or Facebook
by Matthew Ting
As anyone who has tried an online advertising campaign can tell you, it's hard work with no guarantee of success. Huge amounts of marketing money can be thrown at the problem in a trial and error process, hoping that you will hit your target: a shiny new paying customer.
Google
Advertising on Google requires the advertiser to place bids on certain search terms. Whenever somebody searches on Google using those search terms, the highest bidding ad will appear on the side of the Google search results.
Strengths: The great thing about advertising on Google is that you can assume the person doing the search has some interest in what you have to offer. This means the people who see your ad on Google are already self-selected to be potential customers.
Weaknesses: Google doesn't actually know who you are. As an advertiser, you can only guess that the people seeing your ad are potential customers.
Additionally, it is difficult to expose your business to people who are not specifically looking for your products. For example, your company sells the best and freshest goat milk in your city. How do you expand your reach to people who don't know about goat milk? On the internet, this is called the difference between "search" and "discovery".
Follow-Through: Once a potential customer has clicked on a Google ad, the assumption is that the ad will lead the customer to a website which will then convince the customer of the awesomeness of your product, and hopefully result in a sale.
This requires several things: an enticing website (which many small businesses don't have), plus a great "call to action". If you sell goods and services on your website, the call to action will be to lead a customer through the online checkout. If you require the customer to come to your location (say for a restaurant) the challenge is even greater. Getting someone to click on your Google ad was only part 1 of your struggle!
Facebook
Facebook advertising is very much the opposite of Google advertising. It is similar to Google in that it also requires the advertiser to place bids, but this time on particular demographics of people. Facebook knows who their target it, but doesn't know what they want!
Strengths: With Facebook you know you are hitting precisely your target market. If your store is mostly frequented by women aged 18-25, who live in your city, Facebook can target its ads only to those exact people.
Weaknesses: Just because someone falls into your target demographic doesn't mean they actually want your product.
Follow-Through: Facebook advertising faces exactly the same problem as Google advertising in this regard.
Other Ad Networks
Of course, Google and Facebook are not the only ways to advertise on the internet. Many other advertising networks exist, placing your ads onto websites all over the internet. These are mostly banner ads, which we've all come to know and love.
Many ad networks use advanced targeting software to try to predict what kinds of ads will get the best results for the advertisers. These tactics can include simply showing ads with a similar topic to the website you are viewing, or even tracking your movements across the internet to predict what you might be interested in. Of course, all these methods can never be 100% accurate, as they are simply doing the best they can with the limited information made available to them.
What Makes Ferret Card Different
Ferret Card is able to precisely target specials in ways that nobody else can, by combining REAL social information with REAL shopping history. Additionally, Ferret Card gives extra priority to small businesses, and to businesses reaching out to existing customers.
Real Demographics: Thanks to Ferret Card's integration with Facebook, specials can be targeted by demographic using exactly the same information available to Facebook.
Example: Want to target 18-25 year old women in your city? No problem!
Real Customers: As a merchant, every time you give out Gold Stamps to Ferret Card members via Ferret Card Rewards, you are improving your own ability to reach out to those specific customers with your specials in future. Ferret Card knows precisely who your customers are, which ones are regular customers, and which ones you haven't seen in a while. This information allows merchants to tailor their specials to target specific groups of customers.
Example: Want to target to customers you haven't seen for 2 months, as a little reminder to come back to your business? Ferret Card can do that!
This is information that Google and Facebook both wish they had access to! Remember, the more of your customers use Ferret Card, the greater the tool it becomes.
Real Demand: As Ferret Card is capturing information based on actual purchases made at actual merchants, Ferret Card gets a better idea of what customers actually like. This further helps improve targeting of specials.
Example: You are just about to open a new Japanese restaurant, and you want to reach out to people who like Japanese food in your area. Ferret Card knows which users have visited Japanese restaurants, and how often. You can target your special to just those potential customers.
Real Follow-Through: When a user grabs a special on Ferret Card, they have an intention to actually REDEEM that special at your business. There is a real call-to-action on all Ferret Card specials. If you targeted your special well, there is a very REAL chance that the user will actually make use of that special.
Real Discovery: On Ferret Card, users can discover your store through the most powerful marketing medium of all: WORD OF MOUTH. There are several ways to take advantage of word of mouth discovery on Ferret Card:
Give out Ferret Card Gold Stamps: Whenever you give out Gold Stamps to your customers, up to 5 of their Facebook friends will also earn Silver Stamps, and will be alerted to your business.
Example: John just visited that new bakery, and I earned 15 Silver Stamps from that. Maybe I should ask him what he thought of that shop.
Give Great Service: If your customers love your business, they'll leave glowing reviews on Ferret Card to be read by their friends and any other potential customers.
Example: Sarah said that this Italian restaurant had great lasagne, might be worth a visit!
Give Great Specials: Whenever a Ferret Card member grabs your special, their friends will see that.
Example: Brad just grabbed a special from the trendy bar I always wanted to check out. Maybe I should ask him when he's going there and we can make a night of it!
Small Business Advantage: Are you a small business with only 1 store? 1 in 3 specials displayed on Ferret Card are reserved only for small businesses. That means that your bids to place specials are not competing with the larger budget of more established businesses.
As a Ferret Card user, that means a higher chance of discovering new small businesses who want you as a customer.
Repeat Customer Advantage: A further 1 in 3 specials displayed on Ferret Card are reserved only for businesses where the Ferret Card user has actually been to before. Ferret Card makes it easier for businesses to reach out to existing customers.
As a Ferret Card user, this means that there is a higher chance that the specials I see are from businesses I actually might want to visit again.
Article written by: Matthew Ting (Founder and International CEO of Ferret Card)
