What higher solution to show customers how much you value them than to send them a customer appreciation gift? Your competitors might attempt to win over customers with generic thanks emails. You, on the other hand, will go the extra mile. You’ll send them gifts that may leave a lasting impression and assist in customer retention.
Implementing
Considered one of many great things about gifts with purchase is that there are so many creative and inexpensive options on the market. Take a look at these 30 awesome customer gift ideas that may add a special touch to your customers’ shopping experiences!
Inexpensive Free Gift Ideas for Your Customers
Exploring these customer gift ideas will provide help to come up with creative ways to surprise and delight customers after they make a purchase from you without breaking the bank.
Offer a Treat
Cookies, chocolates, and candy — sweet, customizable, and widely loved treats make for a improbable customer
The one thing you’ve to look out for is food allergies. Attempt to avoid treats with common allergens, corresponding to peanuts.
Write Personalized Thank-You Notes
A popular and extremely inexpensive gift option is to simply send a handwritten note to your customers. Make the message unique, personalized, and, most significantly, authentic. Use pen and paper, not a printed message. In today’s digital age, a handwritten note stands out.
Handwritten cards show your real appreciation for your customer’s business, and each card will be easily personalized with the customer’s name and a unique message. Apart from your time, it costs next to nothing.
Customers might share a review if you add a handwritten note to the order (Image source: ByStephanieTara/Etsy)
Share Exclusive Discount Codes
Offering special discounts on future orders is an effective technique to foster repeat orders and gently guide customers toward becoming returning buyers. By incentivizing them with exclusive savings and rewards, you not only encourage their loyalty but additionally create a sense of anticipation and excitement for their next purchase.
This approach not only strengthens customer relationships but additionally boosts customer satisfaction and ultimately contributes to the
Send Free Samples
Who doesn’t love freebies? Offer samples of your other products as a bonus for purchasing out of your store. That is especially effective for cosmetics, fragrances, or food businesses seeking to entice future purchases and provide clients with the opportunity to test more of your products.
Kissed By A Bee Organics offers customers to select two samples as a gift with a purchase
Give Away Free Swag
Branded merchandise, corresponding to
You will have the choice to add your unique logo to your merch, which may help strengthen your brand identity and create a lasting impression on your audience. Alternatively, you could select to not include a logo, allowing the design to speak for itself and appeal to a broader range of individuals. The choice is yours to make based on your brand strategy and goal market.
Give Away a Free Product From Your Catalog
A surprise bonus product will excite your customers with an unexpected gift. Plus, it’s a
One popular strategy is to give away an inexpensive but useful product out of your product catalog. This product ought to be
Free products also help introduce a latest product or upsell. They encourage customers to explore other products in your catalog, increasing the likelihood of future purchases.
Sephora sends free products with certain orders
Offer Surprise Upgrades
Win over customers by offering them a free upgrade to their existing purchase. This works particularly well if the upgrade is similar but higher than their current purchase. Just make sure that you ask customers before making the upgrade — some might specifically desire a
Send Coupons to Local Businesses
Sending customers coupons to local businesses shows customers that you simply care about small businesses and demonstrates that you simply’re willing to personalize gifts for each customer.
Discover a local business that may offer something related (but not competitive!) to your brand. Work out a cope with them where your customers can get a discount on future purchases.
Send a Birthday Gift
Sending customers gifts on special occasions corresponding to birthdays and anniversaries can provide help to win customer loyalty and show that you simply appreciate your customers and remember them.
Do not forget that once you begin sending birthday gifts, customers might expect them yearly. So, pick something that’s inexpensive enough for repeat gifting.
Starbucks offers birthday treats to its customers
Offer a Free Consultation
Beneficial advice will be a customer gift idea as well, especially in industries known to be difficult to approach. If you sell clothes, for instance, you’ll be able to offer a free style consultation. If you sell fitness equipment, you’ll be able to offer a custom weight loss program plan and workout routine. Reduce the hesitation of making the purchase by offering help using your product or service.
Unusual Gift With Purchase Ideas
Why not surprise your customers with
Share a Curated Playlist
Design a playlist that reflects your brand’s personality and adds value for the customer. Share the playlist as a QR code on a note attached to the order.
Music has the power to evoke strong emotional connections and create brand associations. By rigorously choosing songs that align together with your brand’s values, messaging, and desired customer perception, you’ll be able to create a playlist that not only entertains but additionally enhances the overall brand journey, leaving a memorable and positive impression on your customers.
This feature works great not just for businesses in the music industry (obviously) but for other niches, too. For instance, coffee shops, gyms, or clothes shops — customers can hearken to the playlist while having fun with the product.
Users of the Nike Run Club App get access to their workout playlist
Gift an Experience
An experience — a spa package, tickets to a local event, etc. — is a great solution to make yourself memorable. Make sure that the experience aligns together with your brand and customer profile. So, when giving tickets to a metal concert to your
Also, pick an experience that’s easy to reach, has broad appeal, and doesn’t cost an excessive amount of to dent your profitability.
Send a Custom Digital Art
Partner with a local artist to design digital art, wallpapers, or coloring pages that customers can download for free. This collaboration may also enhance your brand’s status.
The digital art could possibly be inspired by your brand or products, showcasing an element of creativity and exclusivity that may only be found inside your enterprise. This customer gift idea is perfect for businesses in the fashion, beauty, or home decor industries.
Share Hand-Picked Recipes
If your enterprise deals with food or wellness products, share your favorite recipes to exhibit how customers can use your products in their on a regular basis lives. This gift with purchase adds value to the customer’s shopping experience and promotes your products in a subtle yet effective way.
You’ll be able to include the recipes as a small booklet or recipe cards or send them digitally via email.
Send Flowers
Although perishable, flowers are a universally liked gift item. They’re also mostly brand agnostic, i.e., you don’t should worry whether or not they align together with your brand. Plus, the visual spectacle of a bunch of free flowers makes for a good photo opportunity and the social shares that go with it.
Giving flowers to every customer is expensive, but when you choose the recipients (essentially the most loyal customers, those with huge follower bases on social media) and the occasion (birthday, Women’s Day), flowers can do magic. But remember to pick
Make One Customer Feel Special
As an alternative of sending an odd gift to every customer; you’ll be able to get a lot of social media mileage from making a single customer feel truly special. Pick a customer who has been exceptionally loyal to your brand, then make a gesture that goes far beyond a standard gift.
For instance, Honda discovered that one among its customers was about to hit 1 million miles in one among its cars. To make the customer feel special about this major milestone, Honda gave him a free latest automotive and made a video about it.
Help Customers Learn Something
Considered one of the best gifts you’ll be able to give customers is the gift of learning. Perhaps you’ll be able to put together a series of lessons to help them make the most of the purchase (corresponding to a guitar store giving free music lesson CDs). Or perhaps you’ll be able to offer them courses on topics that complement the purchase (corresponding to a handicrafts store offering a free pottery class).
Gift a Low-Maintenance Potted Plant
A small potted plant makes for a great gift. Something low maintenance and
Alternatively, send customers plant seeds or even small DIY growing kits (with seeds, soil, and a pot).
Customer Gift Ideas To Enhance Your Brand Voice
While you consider
Offer E-books
Educational content showcases your expertise and provides something of value to your customers.
Moreover, books have a brand of their very own. Sending a
Send a Helpful Guide
A guide, other than being a helpful gift, also positions your enterprise as an industry leader. That is one other sort of educational content that gives value to customers and reinforces your brand’s expertise.
Consider creating guides on topics related to your products or services that may help customers make the most of their purchases. This can not only show them that you simply care about their experience but additionally solidify their perception of your enterprise as a precious resource.
Share Access to Webinars or Workshops
Exclusive access to webinars or online workshops magnifies your customers’ experience, engaging them long after their purchase. This client gift idea works well for businesses in the education or consulting industries, where customers can profit from additional knowledge or skills related to your products or services.
You may also collaborate with industry experts to
Create DIY Kits
Develop inexpensive DIY project kits to accompany your products, providing customers a fun and creative experience. This customer gift idea is perfect for businesses in the arts and crafts or home decor industries. It also adds value to your product and can encourage customers to make repeat purchases in order to complete their DIY project collection.
Even packaging can function a DIY kit — take it from Samsung. They introduced packaging that will be repurposed as cat furniture, shelves, and other common home goods.
Samsung’s reusable packaging serves as a DIY kit
Share Local Products
Gifting customers local products (corresponding to a locally sourced food item) works splendidly well for two reasons:
- It portrays your enterprise as a friend to other local small businesses, thus improving your brand perception.
- It shows customers that you simply care enough about them to personalize the gift per their location.
Partner up with a local business to offer these products. Your customers will appreciate them, as will local businesses.
Give Charitable Gifts
Invite customers to take part sponsoring a cause they care about, enhancing your brand’s social impact.
Making a charitable donation on behalf of the customer can work well as a client gift idea, especially if your customers are
Client Gift Ideas to Cultivate Long-Term Relationships
The next gifts with purchase express your appreciation, help construct lasting relationships, and give customers a reason to return.
Add a Customer to a Loyalty Program
Reward customers for their loyalty by making a
Listed here are another ideas for effective loyalty programs to drive repeat purchases.
You may also heighten customer satisfaction by offering early access to latest products or sales through exclusive loyalty programs.
Barnes & Noble have various perks for loyalty program members, including a free ebook every month
Throw a Party for Loyal Customers
One other solution to make customers feel special is to throw a party or host a meetup. This works best if you’ve a lot of customers in the same location.
It is perhaps expensive, but it surely will likely be an experience your customers won’t forget. Plus, all of the social media updates from it will do wonders for your word of mouth.
Offer Collaboration Opportunities
Collaborate with customers on designing, naming, or improving your products or services. This provides them a sense of ownership and fosters loyalty. It also provides precious insights and feedback that may help improve your enterprise.
The sort of collaboration will be done through sending gifts in exchange for participating in surveys, focus groups, or even social media polls. For instance, add a note with a QR code to a customer’s order. After they fill in a survey or poll, send them a digital product as a reward for their time.
Feature Customers on Social Media
Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame, and your customers are not any different. If you’ve a popular social channel, featuring your customers or their projects will be a great client gift idea. This tactic works best if the customer has uploaded a picture of your product or has already interacted with you on social media. It tells them — and your social media audience — that you simply’re listening.
Offer Referral Bonuses
Offer incentives for customers who refer their friends and family to your online store. This amplifies customer value inside your enterprise. You’ll be able to offer discounts, free products, or even store credit to motivate customers to spread the word about your brand.
Referral bonuses not only usher in latest customers but additionally strengthen customer loyalty as they feel like valued members of your brand’s community.
Jimmy Joy’s referral program
Create an Exclusive Group
How will you make your customers feel special? Easy: by creating an exclusive,
Find out how to Select Customer Thank-You Gifts
The difficulty with
A gift with purchase is normally something physical (in case you sell physical products), useful, and related to your enterprise in some capability. It has a easy purpose: to thank customers for their orders. Whether the gift elicits a wow or eh will rely on the quality of the
The Nordstrom site has a dedicated page that lists all gifts with purchase customers can get
There are a variety of rules you have to follow when choosing a free gift for a customer:
Gifts with Purchase Should Have Perceived Value
Above every part else, the gift should have perceived value. Even when it is inexpensive, it must fulfill a need or appear precious to the customer.
Customer Gifts Should Be Useful
A good gift with purchase is normally one which serves some practical purpose. Souvenirs and trinkets that only take up space are easily forgotten. A useful
Client Gifts Should Be Related to Your Business
A perfect client gift idea is related to the business in a way so that it reminds the customer of you. If you run a fashion store, select a fashion accessory, not a book on macroeconomics.
Free Gifts Should Fit Your Goal Audience
When choosing gifts with purchase, keep your customer personas in mind. Ask yourself: what would someone from this demographic enjoy? For example, if your goal customers make over $200,000/12 months and live in a wealthy suburb, a low-cost gift card to a discount store wouldn’t work.
Make demographics the centerpiece of your client gift idea selection process, and you’ll never go incorrect.
Customer Gifts Should Be Easy to Store and Transport
No customer desires to cope with an unwanted gift that takes up an excessive amount of cupboard space. Neither do you should worry concerning the hassle of transporting a large gift. All the time pick something that’s small and easy to transport. Or, just go with digital products!
Gifts with Purchase Should Be Harmless
Lastly, a free gift shouldn’t trigger allergies, have dangerous, sharp edges, or pose a choking hazard to children. Can this client gift idea cause problems for anyone in my customer’s household (especially old people and children)? If the answer is yes, it’s higher to pick something else.
Find out how to Use Thank-You Gifts for Marketing
While the explicit purpose of a customer gift is to show that you simply care, it also has one other motive: to market your online store. You actually want customers to feel completely happy and appreciated, but it surely would even be nice if they were to recommend your store to their friends or share a word on social media.
Jo Malone London offers complimentary gift wrap as an added incentive
To use customer appreciation gifts as a marketing tactic, you should keep a variety of things in mind.
Gifts vs. Discounts
Using discounts and offers to maximize sales is an old hat in ecommerce. The query to ask is: how does a discount compare against a gift in terms of marketing impact?
To answer this query, you’ll should consider two things:
- How often you offer discounts: The perceived value of a discount depends upon how steadily you offer it. If you’ve frequent sales and offers, customers won’t be too passionate about one more discount, no matter how advantageous it is.
- Discount value and conditions: A large discount with liberal terms might find yourself costing you greater than a free gift. On the other hand, if the discount is too low with strict terms, customers won’t be interested.
Interestingly, research in consumer psychology indicates that people prefer to get more fairly than spend less. A free gift might need a higher perceived value because it gives them more.
Of course, this only applies if you’re actually telling customers that you simply’re giving them a gift. This brings us to the next point.
Explicit vs. Secret Gifts
Must you tell customers concerning the gift, or must you just send them a surprise?
There are pros and cons to each approach. Telling customers upfront might persuade them to make a purchase, especially if they see the gift as a deal. At the same time, it robs you of the customer delight that comes with a surprise gift.
What approach you employ will rely on what you hope to achieve with the gift. If your goal is to delight customers, construct loyalty, and increase word of mouth (including social media), select a surprise gift.
On the other hand, if you should use gifts as an incentive to buy more, tell customers about it upfront. This approach is perfect for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
Therapy Notebooks uses Buy Two, Get One Free promo for Black Friday
Gifting to Some vs. Gifting to All Customers
One other dilemma is determining who to gift — some customers or all of them.
Gifting everyone has the obvious cost drawback. You may also not profit as much from gifting to people who find themselves inactive on social media or unlikely to recommend you to friends.
At the same time, gifting only a few customers might make them feel special — at the cost of other customers. Customer B might wonder why Customer A got a free gift and they didn’t. This may create resentment for your brand — the exact opposite purpose of gifting.
A higher approach is to use the Pareto Principle and goal your top 20% best customers. These are either customers who’re lively on social media or correspond to your ideal customer profile. Since you wish more such customers, targeting them can yield higher results.
Maximize the Impact of Gifting
To get the most out of your free
- Customers buy more when there’s a mystery involved in the purchase, as one University of Miami study discovered. Keeping the gift a secret may help in this regard.
- Customers who receive something free and unexpected are driven to shop more, based on one study. Thus, it is perhaps value it to lose money upfront on a sale by giving a free gift. You’ll be able to make up for it with repeat purchases.
- Giving freely a freebie creates immediate word of mouth, based on the article in the Journal of Marketing. That’s very true if the gift is the customer’s first experience together with your brand. Thus, besides your top customers, you can too goal
first-time buyers when gifting away free gifts with purchases to create a positive first impression. - Give attention to gifting customers who’re lively on social media or have a history of sharing your stuff. Prompt them — gently — to upload pictures with their gifts on their favorite social network.
- Consider donating to charity on behalf of the customer as a substitute of gifting away a gift. Research suggests that charity donations work higher than a practical gift, especially when the original purchase is frivolous in nature.
So there you’ve it
