Use your receipt as a message to your customers.

Most of your customers receive a receipt with every purchase. You should be using that receipt to bring that customer back into your store.

Obviously, your receipt should contain your store name. Better yet, you should make sure that your receipts contain your name, address, telephone number and website address.

CRE and RPE allow you to add a 10 line message at the end of your receipt. Use this message space to get customers back into your store. Be creative!!!

Offer your customers 50% off on their next purchase. That will surely get them back into your store. OK. That may be a little over the top. That's what I mean by being creative. If you feel that 50% off on a next purchase is over the top, offer 10% off on any purchase made on Wednesdays. Offer 20% offer on any Tuesday purchase in January (or some month in the future).

Your goal is to get your customers back into the store. Add something to the receipt that will accomplish that. You can offer a free screw driver in a hardware store with any purchase over $10. You can offer a free newspaper in a gas station with 10 gallons of gas. You can offer free coffee in a clothing store. You can offer a free bag of peanuts or popcorn in a restaurant.

Be creative!!! Have your staff participate. What is it that you can say on your receipt to get your customer to come back for more? Announce some type of store event. It could be a sale. It could be an upcoming celebrity appearance. Invite a local politician to greet customers. Add some coffee and cake.

Give out FREE movie tickets or gas cards with a purchase. Make arrangements with a local gas station or movie theatre and purchase movie or gas gift cards at a discount. Be creative!!! Maybe your customer needs 5 receipts to earn a FREE movie ticket. Maybe your customer needs $50 in receipts to earn a FREE movie ticket.

Maybe your local gas station or movie theatre will allow you to advertise your products in exchange for your efforts to promote their gas station or movie theatre.

Restaurants can exchange receipt promotions with retail stores. Your restaurant may advertise 20% off in a clothing store. The clothing store may advertise 20% off at the restaurant. Be creative!!!

Who knows? Maybe you can even sell your receipt space. Charge Joe the Plumber $100 per month to add his advertisement on your receipt. That's $1,200 extra income per year.

Advertise your own Webring. What's a Webring? A Webring is a collection of websites that are joined together by something they have in common. So, for example, John's Hardware Store, Burger King, Bill's Exxon and Henry's Suits and Jeans all have something in common. Perhaps they are all within a short distance of each other or all are in the same town. They may all advertise one website that they have in common. Perhaps the website is called SmallsvilleWebring.com. All four of the associated stores advertise the SmallsvilleWebring.com. On that site, you may have coupons or links to each store's website which may also have links to all other stores within the Webring.

You get the idea. Now you have an association of four stores all advertising for each other on your register receipts. Or, if you don't want to get involved with websites, just jointly make available a small advertisement with offers related to collecting your register receipts.

Here's another creative idea. Have two dice available in your store for a contest. Let your customers roll the dice the next time they make a purchase. You can even advertise it on your receipts. Perhaps give a free lunch when the number 2 comes up. Give nothing for a 7. Give 10% off for an 8. Give a screwdriver out for a 9. Be creative!!!

For those of you who don't know the mathematics of dice, the #2 and the #12 come out the least often (about 3% of the time). The number 7 comes up 16% of the time. The #3 and the #11 come out about 6% of the time. The #4 and the #10 come out 8% of the time. The #5 and the #9 come out 11% of the time. The #6 and the #8 come out 14% of the time. Therefore, 2 and 12 are pretty rare.

There are lots of ways to use your receipts. It doesn't have to be 50% off. It can be a contest, free lottery ticket, cross marketing with other stores, advertisements for specific products. Use the receipt to keep your customers coming back or as a tool to visit your website.

Don't forget to get all of your employees involved. Most people just stick the receipt into their pocket and throw it away later. Get your employees involved. Figure out ways to make retaining the receipt more important. If you make a purchase at CVS, you will likely get a receipt that states that you will get $2 off on your next purchase of $20 made before some specific date. I frequently retain my CVS receipts and use them on subsequent purchases.

Visit Staples or a 99 cent store and pick up some freebies that you can offer to your customers. Keep those customers coming back.

Read more in an article called 5 Ways Your Point of Sale Receipt Printer is a Marketing Tool at:

http://blog.myposprinter.com/?p=39