In such a competitive market, attracting customers may still be easy, but retaining them has become a challenging task. This is why more and more brands are adopting the concept of loyalty programs to motivate their customers to stay loyal. However, these programs also need to be implemented with proper strategies to maximize the benefits for your brand.
As a brand owner, you need to understand that offering more rewards to your customers is not a loss-making deal for your company, but it will only help you gain more profit if done properly. Let us help you understand how:
Benefits of Loyalty Programs
Loyalty Programs are beneficial for your brand in not just one or two, but many ways as listed below:
- These programs make your business concept stronger and more interesting for the audience.
- Increase customer engagement as they feel valued when rewarded for their loyalty.
- You can build a stronger relationship with existing customers and motivate them to make repeat purchases.
- Loyalty programs also help you boost sales as customers are motivated to spend more to earn more rewards.
- It increases brand awareness as customers unknowingly promote your brand among others when they get rewarded.
1. Offer Loyalty Reward Points
You can run many types of loyalty programs for your customers, such as a point-based program, cashback-based program, subscription-based model, etc. You can customise the programs to align with your brand and incentivise your target audience. One of the most popular loyalty programs is a point-based program.
Under this, customers are offered loyalty points every time they purchase or spend on your brand. These points can later be redeemed against several reward options or to get discounts on future purchases. The point-based loyalty program for customers motivates them to spend more on your brand with repeat purchases. The more they purchase, the higher number of loyalty points they earn.
2. Know the Right Audience
There is a big difference between the customers who want to stay loyal and those who must stay with your brand for some reason. The right audience is the one that is interested in your brand with no intention of switching to another brand for the same products/services. You should target the customers who love your services and offer loyalty programs keeping the same in mind.
Understand what is motivating your customer to spend on your brand and incentivise things accordingly. Don’t make it too hard for your customers to leave if they want to. Provide them with an option to permanently delete their accounts, and don’t make them feel trapped.
3. Additional Rewards for Achieving Milestones
Apart from the regular loyalty points that your customers earn on every purchase, you can offer them additional rewards/gifts for achieving milestones. For example, a brand can offer bonus points or freebies on every 5th order. Another idea is to provide incentives or free gifts for spending a particular amount on your brand.
4. Regular and Engaging Communication
Understanding the right tone of voice is very important to engage better with your audience. Try to make every current event relatable to your brand and send personalised messages to your customers with some offers/deals. For example, you can mention increasing inflation rates in your emails and offer bonus reward points on every purchase within a limited period.
Such engaging messages also make your customers feel valued and build a strong relationship between your brand and the customers. This further develops their interest in participating in your brand’s loyalty programs and making repeat purchases.
5. Referral Incentives
Referral programs can be powerful tools for customer loyalty if used appropriately. You would have participated in referral offers to refer a friend and earn reward points/cashback on their first purchase. For brands, it is one of the easiest ways to gain more customers without spending much on marketing. A similar concept can work for your brand as well.
Offer free gifts or incentives to your customers for referring your brand to a friend. While it helps you gain more customers, it also increases your brand awareness through word of mouth. Your customers may become brand advocates and promote your brand among their friends/relatives.
Every successful referral is going to benefit your customers as well as your brand. They will earn bonus rewards/cashback, and your brand will attract more customers.
6. Take Customer Feedback Seriously
You can get customer feedback via short surveys or polls on social media platforms. Instead of simple Q&A surveys, try to make them interesting for your customers through rewards. If something about your brand’s loyalty programs is disappointing for your customers, you should work on it to improve.
Make Your Loyalty Program Fun
Customer Loyalty programs can help your brand reach another level if you know how they work. Try to make these programs as interesting as you can for your customers, so that they want to participate by their choice.
Reward companies like RewardPort can help you create the best loyalty programs that are valued by your customers. They also provide you with the right strategies to take your business further by attracting more and more repeat customers.
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