2007 was a pivotal time in the growth of BSP Rewards and 2008 looks like it could be our major breakout year.
The year started out with a great deal of momentum and it just kept going, and going and going…yes, just like the Duracell Bunny.
We added a great many merchants to our mall and then elevated the platform to the status of the largest, most complete web mall ever. It now contains over 700 national merchants, a discount merchandise catalog of over 200,000 discount items, over 100 gift cards from national merchants, and printable discounts coupons at 7000 neighborhood restaurants. In January we will add thousands of “printable” discount coupons for both local and national merchants. A pretty good running start for 2008!
During the year we also built many new private branded malls for an ever expanding list of clients and added hundreds of thousands of new members. Our list of branded web malls grew continuously with larger and larger companies coming on board. These companies included national companies such as Clipper Magazine (a division of Gannet), Edebit Pay (one of the nation’s premier issuers of debit cards), VBN.TV a virtual TV network), Nation Safe Drivers (a National Roadside assistance company) ….. to name a few. And that is only a small sampling to what we expect in 2008.
The first quarter of “08 looks as if the dam will break and a flood of new clients will start to roll in. We can’t name the companies yet as the paperwork is being finalized, but all I can say is WOW! Not only are they big names, but they their private branded malls should be generating a continuous influx of new members – members that will be shopping in our mall and be available for our cross marketing efforts.
The increased membership this coming year should produce substantially enhanced income. 2008 will be a year of initiatives as we plan on commencing advertising revenue and income generating special promotions.
I won’t outline our expansion plans yet, but keep tuned. The first quarter is upon us and expect it to be an exciting prelude to the months that follow.
Happy New Year!!!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Holiday Party
…A good time was had by all.
Last Friday we held our annual Holiday Party and if I say so myself, it was a lot of fun.
We hold the party every year and each year it gets a little bigger and better the year before. This party was no exception.
Ema and James are to organizers and manage to come up with a different, unique and outstanding theme each time. I don’t know how where all of their ideas come from but they were again at the top of their game.
Ema plans, invites, decorates and in charge of all the food. James is in charge of the games. (Silly as the games are they always provide great entertainment and belly laughs)
We always have the party in our offices. Where other companies normally hold theirs at a restaurant, we find that would be much too cold. We didn’t want an “eat and run” atmosphere that is generated by a restaurant setting -we like the team to stay around for more than just the meal.
BSP Rewards prides itself on a family work place and that goes double when it is time to celebrate. We have a very close knit group of (great) employees that work along, and get along, fabulously as an integrated team. An office get together gives us the opportunity to sit and chat like friends and even play some party games, laugh, and award prizes. It is like attending a game show – with food.
All in all, everyone had a terrific time and we all look forward to an even bigger party next year with and expand team to handle all of the new clients coming on board.
We wish all of you, a Happy Holidays and healthy and prosperous New Year!!!
…More next week
Monday, December 10, 2007
Gift Cards
Gift cards are wonderful for the consumer - and we are in business to please the consumer.
BSP Rewards offers approximately 100 gift cards from a variety of national brands. These include cards from BP Gas Cards to the Gap, Macy’s to Timberland…Office Depot to Best Buy, Target to Sears and Chili’s to Red Lobster – to name a few.
The best of the best are offered because that is what our member expect and deserve.
We sell all of cards at face value (just like other gift card sites do) BUT we give back rebate points (like others DON’T DO). We look at gift cards from a different point of view. We sell a lot of gift cards (a real lot) but never planned to make much money on them.
As I stated, they are for our member’s convenience AND they fit perfectly into our platform and plan. To us, gift cards are a marketing tool.
We have built the largest mall on the web between our on-line merchants, gift cards, restaurants, a 200,000-item discount catalog, and soon thousands of discount coupons; the gift cards fit right in.
Whether of members shop our mall to get the gift cards, or they shop for gift cards to get to the mall…gift cards drive traffic. The results are to same – the more traffic, the more sales (and did I mention that our members love them).
We carry all of the gift cards in inventory so that we can fill all of the orders quickly. We even customize the card so that they can be delivered in the name of each branded site we build – and also carry the member’s special message. The enclosure can even feature items and messages to enhance the shopping experience.
Our member’s suggested that we create a printable “Everything Certificate” so they could print them at home. They wanted to give the recipient the opportunity to pick a card for the merchant of their choice. Of course we complied.
So you can see how the gift cards act as a marketing tool for the web mall and for our client’s ability to communicate to his members – with and end result of providing a world of good will and customer loyalty.
…More next week
Monday, December 3, 2007
Merchant Extra Benefits
Merchants want increased sales.
You don’t have to be a genius to guess that retailers want to stimulate more traffic and lower their cost of acquiring a customer. I guess that is why I figured it out.
Accordingly’ we believe that we have developed a merchant program that will cause a paradigm in the industry.
BSP Rewards work with merchants on 4 levels:
1. E-Commerce
2. Gift Cards
3. In-store Merchant
4. Branded Rewards Program
The first level is easy (E-commerce) …that we why we have acquired over 700 merchants in our web mall. We simply place the merchant in our mall and watch the sales occur. As the merchant only pays for success; his only cost is when a sale is actually consummated.
The differentiating point with the BSP program is that we place that merchant in every mall we build and brand for clients - and that number is north of 50 (as opposed to a single mall). By the way, we with new malls being launched all the time.
Then we cross market them to all the members, in all the malls, through monthly newsletters and other unique marketing programs. For instance, every time the member makes a purchase from the merchant they send a them an email confirmation - and we send one also. Double exposure!
The merchant also sends another email when the item ships, at which time we send one to them awarding their points - again double exposure!
And the beauty for the merchant is there is no cost for this advertising exposure:
1. To be listed in the mall
2. To be highlighted in newsletters
3. For the confirmation email
4. For the point award email
A pretty neat multi-prong advertising campaign - and it is all for FREE. No wonder BSP has the largest mall on the web.
The mall has now reached critical mass. We have come to the point that we turn down merchants every week who apply. Of course we will allow some additional merchants to participate…but only if the meet our criteria.
Next week I outline our strategy relative to gift cards.
You don’t have to be a genius to guess that retailers want to stimulate more traffic and lower their cost of acquiring a customer. I guess that is why I figured it out.
Accordingly’ we believe that we have developed a merchant program that will cause a paradigm in the industry.
BSP Rewards work with merchants on 4 levels:
1. E-Commerce
2. Gift Cards
3. In-store Merchant
4. Branded Rewards Program
The first level is easy (E-commerce) …that we why we have acquired over 700 merchants in our web mall. We simply place the merchant in our mall and watch the sales occur. As the merchant only pays for success; his only cost is when a sale is actually consummated.
The differentiating point with the BSP program is that we place that merchant in every mall we build and brand for clients - and that number is north of 50 (as opposed to a single mall). By the way, we with new malls being launched all the time.
Then we cross market them to all the members, in all the malls, through monthly newsletters and other unique marketing programs. For instance, every time the member makes a purchase from the merchant they send a them an email confirmation - and we send one also. Double exposure!
The merchant also sends another email when the item ships, at which time we send one to them awarding their points - again double exposure!
And the beauty for the merchant is there is no cost for this advertising exposure:
1. To be listed in the mall
2. To be highlighted in newsletters
3. For the confirmation email
4. For the point award email
A pretty neat multi-prong advertising campaign - and it is all for FREE. No wonder BSP has the largest mall on the web.
The mall has now reached critical mass. We have come to the point that we turn down merchants every week who apply. Of course we will allow some additional merchants to participate…but only if the meet our criteria.
Next week I outline our strategy relative to gift cards.
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