Most business-savvy marketing teams know that it’s more profitable to hold onto existing customers than to try to continually attract new ones. That’s why so many brands put an emphasis on earning their customers’ loyalty — to maximize the length of time that those customers will make transactions and boost revenues as a result.
Enter the customer loyalty program, a way to reward customers for their continued patronage and nudge them to make further purchases down the road. This is an important factor in any value management strategy, but not all are created equal. If you want your customer loyalty program to actually yield results, you may want to take heed of some of the following tips.
What Customer Loyalty Programs Are All About
In the simplest terms, a customer loyalty program is a collection of techniques you can use to retain your existing customers. You can argue that customer loyalty goes a bit further than simply holding onto a customer for the occasional purchase they’ll make, however.
If you successfully earn the loyalty of your customers, then they’ll elect to do business with you before your competitors each and every time, simply because they know you’ll treat them well and they’ve had numerous positive experiences to back that trust up.
Your customer loyalty program, then is a system through which you can reward your customers and start earning that loyalty. It forges a relationship with your brand, and, over time, helps to convince consumers that your business offers a better deal than all the rest.
How to Create Great Customer Loyalty Programs
So, how do you create loyalty programs that accomplish your goals? It all starts with identifying the type of loyalty program that will best suit the preferences of your average clients. If you didn’t know already, loyalty programs can come in a range of types:
- Points programs
- Paid programs
- Charity programs
- Tiered ranking programs
- Partner programs
- Subscription programs
Once you decide which type of program you want to focus on, you’ll need to hone in on what sort of customer interactions and behavior you’re trying to incentivize. Do you want your loyalty program to generate more interaction on social media, for instance, or are you trying to push customers into making purchases that are over a certain dollar amount?
Either way, the last piece of the puzzle is deciding how you will reward customers for participating. A discount on purchases is good for starters, but be sure you experiment with other offerings that may help further the connection between customers and your brand. Stay consistent, and you should see retention rates rising and churn falling — the sure signs of a successful customer loyalty campaign.
