Starting a customer loyalty program is all about building an awesome customer experience. As loyalty and rewards programs are an emotional transaction, it’s important to put customer relationships first. Knowing what your customers want from the get-go helps you serve them better.
Loyalty programs for small businesses
Consumers can see through the veil of marketing if your goal is to make them spend more. Customer loyalty programs are the pinnacle of relationship marketing, which is one of the most sustainable ways for small businesses to grow.
Let’s look into the facts about loyalty program
- Retention costs less than acquisition
- The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% higher
- Loyalty and Reward Programs help you boost sales from your existing customer base
- Customer loyalty programs can offset the cart abandonment rate
- Customers love diversified rewards and loyalty programs.
Make a lasting impression with the right launch strategy. We present to you the steps to create an irresistible Loyalty and Reward program for your online store.
Importance of naming in a customer loyalty program
Naming your Customer loyalty program is an initiation tool and a part of the experience, and it needs to disrupt the established order, create excitement, and get the name right. You must also work on naming your members and tiered groups.
Your name is the conversation starter influencing the customer's decision to sign up. Make it memorable and unique to your brand. Emotionally align your name with your brand and the products you sell. If done carelessly, it will not be convincing enough. Anything generic can alienate your customers with not much effort. The internet is becoming impersonal, so you want to make an undeniable personal connection.
Case Study: Anthropologie
Loyalty Program: AnthroPerks
Anthropologie's dedicated customer loyalty program is highly compelling, and it communicates its perks clearly and reminds the customers why they love the brand. As you can see, the name is a derivative of the brand, and Anthroperks manages to keep things concise and on point.
Grouping Customer
Pushing the customers to display unceasing loyalty takes effort. For loyalty programs, make it about the customers. Take your customer loyalty program to the next level, identify high-value customers and prompt them to become part of your brand.
It is best to avoid a cookie-cutter approach when profiling your customers. Segmentation and tiered Loyalty programs not only amplify brand affinity but also help strengthen the relationship with customers who want to stick with you. It is all about Exclusivity! Customers get benefits, and high-value customers get even more benefits through customer loyalty programs. You can brand each tier level to encourage one-upping and to spur more positive user actions.
When customers feel validated, they become emotionally vested in your brand. In the same way, it’s important to modify promotional content into meaningful messages. Also, maintaining consistency between the language used and the quality of the service is vital because, for any healthy relationship, moreover, communication has to stay two-way.
Rewarding Actions
One question that floats around while launching a Customer loyalty program is to know what actions qualify for a reward?
Your reward strategy can include:
-Any action that positively impacts your business and
-Any action that you want to encourage
Recognize growth-promoting actions and shower rewards for each of them. Most plugins offer customizable Reward eligibility criteria. You can pre-define reward conditions that are most feasible for your online store.
Most Rewarded Actions
Purchase
Reward customers for shopping with your store. You can do that based on total cart value or once they hit a specified number of orders.
Sign up
Greet new customers with rewards, and make them feel welcomed.
Product Review
If your customers love you, you have to get them to show it. Rewarding product reviews makes customers feel valued for their time and feedback.
Social Media Shares
If your customers are willing to share the spotlight with you on social media, why not thank them with rewards.
Referrals
Generate WOM sales, and reward your customers for being your advocate. Referral programs will help you acquire new customers.
User-generated content
Motivate customers to contribute content. It's a bonus that you can use UGC as marketing material.
Survey
Get to know what your customers think about your brand first-hand.
Special occasions like Birthdays
Make your customers feel special, Reward them when they least expect it.
Deliver Added Value
Rewards are the icing on the cake, and incentives are crucial to success. Loyalty Rewards Program work better when rewards are endlessly creative. You can win over customers by offering multiple ways to redeem rewards.
Make them go for it
Pay more attention to the diversity of your rewards when debating reward structure. Top-performing Loyalty programs seek to delight customers by delivering value, and the appeal remains consistent.
Reward Types
- Redeemable points: Customers earn points that they can redeem at checkout.
- Percentage Discount: Offer a Percentage discount to encourage customers to make the next order.
- Fixed Discount: Offer redeemable Preset discounts.
- Free Shipping: Customers love Free Shipping. They will shop more to avoid shipping charges.
- Freebies: Giving away freebies helps increase brand exposure
- Gift cards: Customers can share their gift cards with friends and family
Case Study: Starbucks
Starbucks runs one of the most effective Customer loyalty programs out there. The coffee mogul uses 'Star Level' to prompt customers to be active players.
When customers reach a specific star level, they are free to choose where they want to spend their rewards. Starbucks tracks customer habits to provide them with relevant rewards and perks.
Make it Accessible
You've created a loyalty program, but have you made it accessible? If it's not within hands-reach, it's not worth the time. At least that's what your customers think. Delivering value to your customers includes ease of access to rewards, and your VIPs and customers will expect readily accessible discounts and perks. It is convoluting when customers have to spend time searching for rewards they earned.
Ways to bridge customers and their rewards:
- Auto-apply discounts during checkout
- Use notifications to display rewards
- Send Emails to promote unused rewards and perks
- Schedule Expiry alerts
- Target customers based on activity
- Gamification to add excitement to unlock offers
Community Management
Inspiring customer loyalty is one thing; building a close-knit brand community is another. Sometimes customers continue to engage with you for reasons beyond making a purchase. Get customers to spend more. Turn it into a tool to boost social-proof, social media engagement, and user-generated content.
How does a loyalty program make money?
Find new ways to interact and engage with your customers that will boost your sales and revenue. Cut through the noise and invoke a sense of belonging in your customers. Basically, humanize your Customer Loyalty Program, and provide an immersive experience. Community Building is the future of internet marketing. It becomes your responsibility to serve this community. An active community of customers who stand by you is your best asset. When you roll the clock forward, your business can run even without ads if you have an unbending community.
Case Study: The Ordinary
The Ordinary helps customers connect with each other, building a skin-to-skin community of passionate shoppers. The Ordinary's brand community frequently discusses each other's purchases, product results, and offers.
Here's what The Ordinary did right:
-Educating Customers
-Generating content through top customers
-Incentivizing customers to post content and engage with them on social media
-Incentivizing customers who recommend them to other shoppers.
-Helping customers connect with each other
-Rewarding fans with social contests
The popularity of The Ordinary is a testament to the command of the community. The ordinary has spent very little on paid advertisements.
Choosing a Loyalty Plugin
Finding a dedicated Loyalty marketing plugin needs time and research. Narrow down your search - Here are things to consider before choosing a Loyalty and Rewards Plugin.
- Site Compatibility and Installation
- Cross-channel promotion features
- Near Future Requirements
- Support and Updates & Security
- User Reviews
Features to Look For in a Loyalty Plugin:
- Diversified Rewards
- Referrals
- Tiered Loyalty
- Fully Customizable Interface
Wrapping it up
Once you've launched your loyalty rewards program, you have to find ways to promote it to your customers. Show your customers what's in it for them and why they should join. You can use welcome emails and exit-intent popups to do the work for you. Before reaching out to your customers, make sure to keep the landing page of your Loyalty Program visual and engaging. It has to address all customer queries, and adding an FAQ section will cushion customer inhibition. Hope it works for your business, and you see your sales graph going upward!
