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BHN finds promos using rewards, incentives more effective than discounts

Monday, June 02, 2025 — 15:57:47 (UTC)

PLEASANTON, Calif., June 2, 2025--Businesses use rewards and incentives for one primary reason: they help deliver business results. With the uncertainty almost every business is dealing with today, customer engagement is at a premium and demonstrating results is more important than ever. New research from Blackhawk Network (BHN), a global leader in branded payments and reward solutions, highlights how businesses can intelligently leverage precious marketing dollars using reward and incentive based promotions that outperform discounts.

Across multiple industries and use cases, companies that use promotional rewards and incentives such as gift and prepaid cards or digital incentives report significantly better results across key business metrics. Through a more engaged customer base, these promotions translate to improved business outcomes including better customer experience (CX), higher sales and revenue, greater customer lifetime value (CLV) and more efficient sales pipelines.

“During uncertain economic times, we see businesses increase their focus on three things: retaining the customers they have, effectively competing for precious new customers, and retaining their best employees. This is a very clear formula,” said David Leeds, SVP, Strategy and Sales, BHN. “Our research found that the most forward-thinking businesses are employing reward and incentive based promotions, as opposed to discounting, to boost marketing ROI. In doing so, these companies are also bolstering customer satisfaction and saving money. Happy customers have become a business imperative, and strategic marketing campaigns that offer rewards and incentives smartly position companies to nurture valuable customer relationships.”

According to BHN’s research, top performance advantages for reward- and incentive- based promotions (compared to those that offer discounts) include: ~2x the annual improvement in customer satisfaction (60%) ~1.5x improvement in cross- and up-sell revenue YOY 34% higher growth in customer lifetime value 36% greater improvement in shortening the length of sales cycles 16% higher return on marketing investment 15% higher increase in profit per customer 14% better marketing conversion rate

Promotional rewards and incentives can be used for: Sign-ups, gifts with purchase and rebates Completing demos or submitting quote requests Reviews, referrals and testimonials Loyalty programs Sweepstakes and contests Survey participation Appeasements

More information about BHN’s rewards and incentives offerings can be found at www.BHN.com.

About Blackhawk Network (BHN) Today, through BHN’s single global platform, businesses of all kinds can tap into the world’s largest network of branded payment solutions. BHN helps businesses grow revenue, increase loyalty, motivate and reward their teams, disburse funds and engage consumers. Branded payment solutions include the issuance and distribution of gift cards, eGifts, corporate payouts and rewards, along with the technology to deliver these products in seamless, integrated ways. BHN’s network spans the globe with more than 400,000 consumer touchpoints. Learn more at BHN.com.

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Source: Company press release.

Categories: Reports and research