🖊️ Written by Sarah Mitchell
Updated about 2 months ago
Every retailer using StampEzee can reach customers through push notifications, WhatsApp, SMS and email, but sending the same message everywhere wastes budget and trains customers to ignore you. Each channel has its own strengths, costs and etiquette.
This guide breaks down when to use which channel for lapsed win-backs, birthday campaigns, Refer & Earn, Scratch & Win, proximity alerts and manual announcements, so every message earns its place in a customer's inbox.
Push notifications are the cheapest tool in your kit: they cost nothing extra to send and arrive instantly inside the StampEzee customer app. That makes them ideal for lightweight, frequent nudges — a reminder that a reward is one stamp away, a proximity alert when a member walks near your branch, or a quick heads-up about a Scratch & Win game going live.
The tradeoff is reach. Push only lands with customers who have the app installed and notifications enabled, so it works best alongside another channel rather than alone for high-stakes campaigns like lapsed win-backs.
WhatsApp consistently delivers the highest open rates of any channel because customers already check it throughout the day. It also supports images, so a birthday campaign can show the actual reward, and a lapsed win-back message can include a direct link back to the customer's stamp or point card.
Because each WhatsApp message carries a cost and requires customer opt-in, save it for campaigns where the extra reach and rich media genuinely move the needle: birthday and anniversary offers, lapsed-customer win-backs, and Refer & Earn invitations that benefit from a friendly, personal tone.
SMS reaches every phone, even without an internet connection or the StampEzee app installed, which makes it the most reliable channel when a message absolutely has to land. It works well for short, time-boxed nudges: a Scratch & Win game expiring in hours, or a reminder that a reward is about to be forfeited.
SMS carries a per-message cost similar to or higher than WhatsApp and offers no room for rich media, so keep the copy short and the call to action obvious. Use it sparingly and only when timing genuinely matters, so customers keep paying attention when it arrives.
Email is the right place for anything that needs space: a monthly newsletter recapping new rewards, a detailed explanation of how a points program works, or a receipt-style confirmation after a redemption. It is inexpensive to send at scale and lets customers revisit the message whenever it suits them, rather than demanding instant attention.
Because inboxes are noisy and open rates lag behind WhatsApp and SMS, email suits campaigns without a tight deadline: general announcements, birthday campaigns paired with a warmer channel, and post-visit summaries. It is also the natural home for the general campaign emails already built on StampEzee's shared campaign design.
The strongest campaigns rarely rely on a single channel. A lapsed win-back might open with a push notification, escalate to WhatsApp if there is no response, and close with an SMS only for customers close to losing their reward. A birthday campaign can pair a warm WhatsApp message with a follow-up email containing the full offer details.
The key is restraint: sending every message on every channel trains customers to ignore all of them. Use the analytics dashboard to compare open and redemption rates by channel and campaign, then adjust the mix toward whatever is actually bringing people back through the door, retiring channels or campaigns that underperform.
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