In a world where convenience is king, more and more businesses need flexible gift card email delivery options. Sending rewards and incentives via email is one of the quickest and easiest ways to improve customer satisfaction, boost sales, and streamline operations, all at once.
📝 Key takeaways and action items
Email‑delivered gift cards offer an instant, lower‑cost way to reward customers or staff while giving you data to fine‑tune future campaigns. To do it right:
✅ Pick the right platform: Look for bulk‑send capacity, brandable templates, global catalog, API/Zapier hooks, and built‑in analytics so you can scale without extra dev work.
✅ Set up reusable templates & triggers: Prepare branded emails and automate sends for events like referrals, anniversaries, or surveys.
✅ Track opens and redemptions: Use the platform’s real‑time data to see which brands and values convert, then adjust offers or timing to lift ROI.
✅ Guard deliverability: Write clear, benefit‑led subject lines, personalize with names, and choose a vendor that monitors bounces and supports easy redemption.
Good email options allow businesses to send rewards directly to recipients without the added delays and costs of physical mail. Personalization and tracking features add even more ways to engage with customers on a deeper level.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of gift card email delivery for rewards and incentive programs. We’ll also provide easy, actionable ways to implement email delivery in your business operations.
Whether you're aiming to reward loyal customers, incentivize referrals, keep research participants engaged, or virtually any other rewards use case under the sun, you’ll learn how to use emailed gift cards to drive growth and delight your recipients.
Incorporating email delivery into your gift card program offers a variety of advantages specifically designed to enhance your business operations and customer relationships.
First and perhaps most important, emailed gift cards provide instant gratification.
Assuming you work with a robust digital gift card provider, you'll be able to:
Plus, we know from repeated academic research that instant rewards have a bigger emotional impact than delayed rewards (i.e. they pack a muchbigger punch👊)
Second and also very critical, switching from physical to digital gift cards can lead to substantial cost savings. Digital cards eliminate all those dated, unnecessary expenses, like printing, packaging, and shipping.
Consider that it can cost anywhere from 65 cents to $1.25 to manufacture, encode, and ship a plastic gift card. For a simple $5 gift card, that represents anywhere from 13-25% of your total costs.
Of course, going digital not only saves money. It also dramatically reduces administrative workload in the process.
For example, Prime46 Project Manager Greg Augustine saved 25% of his time when he integrated automatic rewards into his research workflow.
Related: Gift Cards Vs. Cash—How To Choose The Right Option For Business Incentives
Meanwhile, emailed gift cards also open up new avenues for connecting with your customers on a more personal level.
Specifically, they let you offer:
Customized messaging—add your recipient's name and a personalized messages to ensure they understand how much you value them.
Brand consistency—incorporate your brand's logo, colors, and style into your email gift card design.
Another one of the standout benefits of digital delivery is the ability to monitor and analyze customer engagement.
Namely, email open tracking lets you see who opens your emails and when, giving you insights into the best ways and times to reach your audience.
And redemption data lets you track your order history to see which gift cards and brands are actually redeemed.
So assuming your gift card platform offers detailed tracking and reporting, you’ll have real-time data you can use to refine your marketing strategies, improve future campaigns, and ultimately increase ROI.
Finally, going digital isn't just good for business—it's good for the planet, too.
Emailing and texting gift cards are a modern, eco-friendly option for rewards programs, helping to reduce paper waste and the environmental footprint associated with producing and shipping physical cards.
Ultimately, leveraging gift card delivery will streamline your operations, reduce waste and costs, and create a more engaging and satisfying experience for your recipients.
We’ll cover exactly how to start using them next.
It our post-pandemic, remote-friendly world, even the smallest companies can have global audiences they need to engage. And global audiences typically demand email gift card delivery.
It's important to use email to deliver rewards to international employees and other audiences for all the reasons outlined above—especially to cut down on international shipping costs.
But there are other benefits, too.
Namely, assuming you work with a gift card distributor with a robust global catalog, you'll be able to give your international recipients relevant rewards they actually want.
For example, Giftbit's catalog includes gift cards to popular retailers and restaurants from around the globe, plus charity options. You also have options to send in USD, or to take advantage of currency conversion.
Implementing emailed gift cards into your operations is simpler than you might think.
Here are three easy steps to get started.
1.
First and most important, choose a gift card distributor with flexible delivery options.
When evaluating platforms, consider:
Ease of use—look for a user-friendly interface that makes sending gift cards quick and straightforward.
Customization options, noting that some platforms charge extra for customized email templates.
An extensive reward catalog and wide variety of global brands—having access to a wide selection of gift card brands and retailers makes it easier to cater to different recipient preferences, no matter where your audience is located.
Bulk sending capabilities: If you plan to send gift cards to multiple recipients, scalable options for bulk gift card distribution can save you time, effort, and money.
Tracking and analytics: Look for tools that allow you to monitor email opens, redemptions, and other engagement metrics.
Note, too, that part of being ‘flexible’ is being able to integrate with your existing processes.
So it should be easy to automate gift card fulfillment and integrate with your existing workflows, whether that’s through a quick, no-code option like Zapier or through an API (which we’ll explore below).
2.
Second, set up your email templates, set any triggers you need, and start sending (yes, it's that easy 🙌).
Creating professional and engaging email templates is key to making a strong impression without added legwork. Having templates ready will streamline the sending process, especially for recurring campaigns.
Now is when you also get to decide what types of rewards you want to send. For example, when Molly Quinn, Managing Director of Marketing & Communications at Distinctive Schools, wants to encourage her teachers to get a coffee before an online meeting, she'll send them a coffee gift card with a smaller value, maybe $10.
But for things like referrals and recruitment, she might give her recipients access to the full catalog instead.
Once you know what you'll be sending, set any appropriate triggers and you're ready to go. For example, df you want to send employee anniversary rewards? Or send review incentives?
Not sure how to get started, or what options will work best for your budget and goals? Schedule a pressure-free consultation with our team to ask all your questions.
3.
Leverage tracking and analytics.
Understanding how your recipients interact with your gift cards can provide valuable insights you can use to make your programs better.
So keep tabs on which gift cards are redeemed by who to gauge the overall effectiveness of your incentives.
Then use this data to refine future campaigns, improving ROI and recipient satisfaction.
If you're looking to distribute gift cards to a large number of recipients, bulk distribution is typically the way to go. Instead of sending/emailing gift cards individually—which can be tedious and time-consuming—you can send them all at once, or set triggers to send when appropriate. This efficiency allows you to focus on other important aspects of your business.
Please reach out if you'd like to learn more about bulk discounts and revenue sharing at Giftbit.
Of course, email isn’t the only effective way to deliver digital rewards to your audience.
For example, depending on the size and/or needs of your program, you may want to use a gift card APIs to streamline the process and offer a fully branded, customized experience for your recipients, directly into your existing app or software.
In as little as a few hours, your developer can use the Giftbit API to integrate gift cards into your existing processes, which can significantly reduce manual workload and improve accuracy.