When you set up a new incentive marketing programme for your organisation, you’re typically faced with two immediate options:
Do you go it alone and manage your own rewards, incentives and gifting campaigns?
Or do you outsource to a third party provider who say they’ll take care of everything for you?
At first glance, it might seem like the obvious choice is to outsource your gifting campaign management. After all, you’re not experts. You might not know where to source the best incentives – at the best price. And you might not understand what gifts your customers want, whereas a dedicated gifting campaign management company will.
But first impressions aren’t always right.
Although a third party provider might sound great on the face of it, they pose a number of challenges. They probably won’t deliver the best value for you. And there are several great reasons why it’s better to manage your own gifting campaign.
1. You can choose your own incentives every time
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, when you manage your own gifting campaigns, you have complete control over the incentives you offer.
You can choose whatever types of gifts you want to reward your customers with. Maybe you’ll decide on the latest tech or some hot new gadgets? Perhaps you’re thinking some homeware will be better suited to your customer demographics? Or maybe you want to run a health and fitness inspired campaign?
The great thing about managing your own gifting campaign is that you can pick whatever types of incentive you’d like – big or small – in any category.
And with the right software, you can give that choice to your customers too. With the right gifting software like Gift & Go, you can pick from several different gift options and let your customers make the final decision themselves.
2. You won’t be tied to the same suppliers
Choice is a powerful thing… But only if it is a real choice. Because while some incentive management companies will let you think you have a choice of gifts to offer your customers, it won’t be a real choice.
They will only work with select suppliers. They’ll get great prices and ‘unmissable offers’ for buying in bulk from their preferred partners. Which means they’ll always have the same kinds of gifts in stock.
For example, you might be able to choose trainers or headphones as your customer rewards, but those gifts will always be Reebok trainers or Sony headphones. If you want to offer the latest Nike trainers or a set of Beats headphones, you’re out of luck.
But when you manage your own gifting campaign, you won’t be tied to the same suppliers. You’ll have the freedom to pick and choose your gifts from wherever you like, taking advantage of any limited time deals or special offers without being tied in.
3. You’ll have greater control over your own budgets
With any gifting campaign, you’ll always want to keep a close eye on your budget to make sure you’re spending wisely on incentives.
When you’re working with a third party company who’s managing your incentives on your behalf, you’ll have to hand them a big portion of your budget. They’ll give you a set price, and then they go away and source all the incentives you’ll need.
Sounds great, but how do you know if you’re getting the very best value?
How do you know if your money is being well spent on the right incentives, when all you get is bottom line figures?
When you’re managing your own gifting campaign, you’ll know exactly how your money is being spent. If you’re using software like Gift & Go, you’ll have full oversight over every single penny. You’ll see how much you’ve spent on incentive categories, how much you’ve assigned to each pricing tier and how much of your budget has gone towards any single gift.
Complete control so you can make sure your budget goes as far as it should.
4. You won’t need to worry about over and under stock issues
One of the biggest budgetary challenges when outsourcing your gifting campaigns is that you might have to buy in bulk.
To get the best deals and secure all the incentives you need, you may be required to order ‘job lots’ of gifts. Thousands of products for your entire campaign.
That’s great if you’re confident you’re going to give all those gifts away… but what if you don’t?
What if you order 500 Instapots for the aspiring chef, but only 300 are claimed? You’re left with lots of excess stock (and wasted budget).
Of course, you could tell the incentive management company you’re working with that you want to be cautious, and don’t want to order more than 300 Instapots. But then what happens if you have 400 customers wanting to claim one?
You’re leaving some people disappointed.
But when you manage your own gifting campaign, you can use smart gifting technology to order precisely the amount of stock you need – when your customers claim it – so you never have to worry about holding too much stock or running out.
5. You can provide a better customer service
When you decide to work with an external provider to manage gifting, rewards and incentive campaigns on your behalf, you typically hand over full control to them.
They manage the gift ordering, the redemption processes and the delivery.
It’s done for you, but you have no control if the process isn’t up to scratch or if something goes wrong.
Everything is out of your hands.
You’re powerless to help your customers if they’re unable to redeem a reward. You don’t know what’s happening with a specific campaign or order. And you can’t help if a gift isn’t delivered.
But if you manage your own gifting campaign – with the right software to support you – you’ll have control over every detail.
You can create that seamless user experience that you know your customers will expect during the redemption process.
You can outsource where it makes sense – like by choosing the world’s largest, most efficient delivery service to help fulfil all your orders.
And when you have a global retail giant like Amazon supporting key parts of your gifting campaign, you’ll have more time to spend managing other areas of your incentive programme.
You’ll have more time to spend helping and supporting your customers and giving them the best possible gifting experience.
Want to learn more about managing your own gifting campaign with the right software?
Book a demo of Gift & Go.