The Green Sheet Online Edition
January 1, 2025 • 25:01:02
New Year's resolutions for effective marketing solutions
At the end of 2024, I wrote about how resellers and ISOs can help their merchants turn the calendar to a successful 2025 by implementing effective marketing strategies. So now seems like the perfect time to peek at how resellers and agents can flip the narrative and apply all the same strategies to their own marketing plans.
In 2025, marketing trends for payment ISOs should focus on creating a mix of customer-centric strategies, technological innovations, robust security features and building trust about data privacy, all wrapped up with timely communications. Here are some key tips to help ensure you're not late to the game when it comes to marketing to your merchants.
Create limited-time offers to increase customer loyalty
According to the Consumer Confidence Index, consumer confidence continues to improve. In a special question about concerns and hopes for 2025, consumers across all income and age groups overwhelmingly selected higher prices as their top concern and lower prices as their top wish for the new year.
As a reseller, you can help your merchants make the most of their sales by designing special offers like free setup to new merchants, discounts on bundled services to promote payment orchestration capabilities, or special pricing tiers based on transaction volume to accommodate increased sales during busy seasons.
Offer pre-holiday discounts for businesses that sign up for your payment processing services to ensure they're ready for key shopping dates throughout the year. Or create holiday-themed cashback offers on transactions made through your payments system to encourage higher volumes.
Leverage omnichannel payment solutions
Online shopping continues to grow, with U.S. revenue projected to reach $1.4 billion in 2025. As consumers toggle between online and offline shopping, promote how your integrated solutions provide seamless transactions across all channels. Emphasize the ease of integration with ecommerce and social platforms, and POS systems, and how AI and machine learning tools can enhance and accelerate the online shopping experience.
Many consumers are looking for flexible financing options, especially younger consumers like millennials and Gen Z. Research company eMarketer estimated that over 93.3 million U.S. consumers used buy now, pay later (BNPL) services in 2024, at approximately $16.6 billion in revenue. And the numbers keep growing. Highlight your BNPL or recurring payment features to help your merchants capture the paycheck-to-paycheck consumer.
Promote contactless and mobile payments
Contactless payments have rapidly grown in the United States, evolving from a niche technology to a mainstream payment method, accounting for over 25 percent of all card transactions. Consumers increasingly prefer digital wallets and contactless payments for speed and convenience, with over 53 percent using mobile payments for the 2024 holiday season alone.
Promote how your payment solutions support seamless, secure transactions across Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay or other digital wallets, emphasizing ease of use, both online and in-store.
Offering contactless payment solutions or other eco-conscious solutions like e-billing or e-invoicing helps promote sustainability to merchants that support carbon-neutral transaction processes.
Highlight customer support and enhanced fraud protection
During peak seasons, businesses expect reliable customer service, but offering merchants enhanced, round-the-clock support is essential in today's environment. The best resolution you can keep this year is guaranteed uptime. Highlight the availability of 24/7 customer service to ensure smooth operations and show how your organization safeguards uptime during high-volume transaction periods.
With the surge in online transactions due to alternative payment solutions like real-time payments, fraud concerns continue to grow. Highlight your proactive, advanced fraud detection tools, encryption methods, multi-factor authentication and data security policies in marketing materials. And provide webinars or guides on fraud prevention, positioning your organization as a trusted advisor.
Invest in content marketing and nurture partnerships
Now for the hardest part: promote your services and solutions! You've spent a lot of time and resources crafting a powerful program for the new year, but your merchants won't know about it unless you communicate with them—consistently and strategically.
Personalize communications to target merchants based on their business, using industry-specific messaging, and AI tools.
For example, market solutions and services differently to retail businesses than to hospitality or ecommerce companies, or promote tailored solutions to meet the unique needs of specific industries, like enabling gift card purchases for retailers, booking systems for the hospitality sector, or CRM systems for HVAC professionals.
Likewise, utilize your partnerships with providers and OEMs to create joint marketing efforts or piggyback on promotions that they've already established, saving you additional time and resources.
Leverage content marketing and your digital marketing channels to promote how your payment solutions have helped new and experienced merchants succeed. Publishing case studies, highlighting customer success stories, and sharing merchant testimonials and reviews on your website, blogs, podcasts and social media channels are all powerful methods for self-promotion and building trust with existing and potential merchants.
By aligning your marketing with industry trends, emphasizing security and convenience, and tailoring your messaging to the needs of your merchants, you can create effective campaigns that drive engagement and sales, and foster loyalty that can sustain you through 2025 and beyond. 
As a seasoned marketing professional, Jaki Kackert has contributed to the success of organizations within the payments space and financial services sector and has helped brands, both big and small, create awareness and drive results through effective marketing strategies. Contact her at jbkackert@gmail.com.
Whether you want to upgrade your POS offerings, find a payment gateway partner, bone up on fintech regs or PCI requirements, find an upcoming trade show, read about faster payments, or discover the latest innovations in merchant acquiring, The Green Sheet is the resource for you. Since 1983, we've helped empower and connect payments professionals, starting with the merchant level salespeople who bring tailored payment acceptance and digital commerce tools, along with a host of other business services to merchants across the globe. The Green Sheet Inc. is also a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals.
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