Prepaid cards are an interesting way to have customer loyalty. A customer buying a prepaid card is a statement of their loyalty to your company. They are giving you money today in exchange for goods or services in the future.

Now, there are a number of ways in which prepaid cards can be targetted to improve your marketing efforts. You can give away prepaid cards as promotions. You can offer them to specific groups of people. You can use them to target an ethnic group. You can use them to offer goods to groups of people who normally wouldn't think of using your company. Instead of thinking of the prepaid cards as just what someone would buy, think of them as a way to introduce people to your company or as a way to offer a discount.

The best way to explain all this is to use examples.

For example, a number of places will offer $5 gift cards as promotional gifts. These cards can be given to friendly businesses for them to hand out as promotions. (The actual value to put on the card depends on the average ticket at your place. If the average ticket is $100, then offering a $75 card would make more sense.) A high end spa gave a number of such gift cards to hair solons for them to give to their good customers. In this way, the spa was introduced to quite a number of good customers.

If you want to reach an ethnic group, it is possible to mix a prepaid card with marketing in the specific language and get a better response. Ethnic groups are known for their use of prepaid cards instead of using credit. By offering cards and marketing materials printed in that language, you can better reach them where they are comfortable.

In the business to business area, prepaid cards can be a way for a business to reach the smaller jobber who is growing. By allowing them to buy a prepaid card, they can hire a second crew and use the prepaid card to get supplies. The jobber may not be large enough to offer them a good line of credit, but here is a way they can still grow. This is particularly useful for small "fleet fuel" business.

If you sell the prepaid card at a small discount, you achieve the same effect as offering a discount card, but with far less effort. You also have the money up front.