Has your business been rewarding your customers? Offering a customer loyalty program as part of your marketing efforts is a great way to draw in new customers, while also making sure you keep the ones you have. Winning over a customer’s long-term loyalty can really pay off for you and your business, so it’s important that you build a customer loyalty program that draws people in and keeps them coming back. Here are 3 great ideas to get you started.
Start a points system + add starter points
Allowing frequent customers to earn points on all their purchases is one of the best ways to build a successful customer loyalty program. Many retail stores offer a certain percentage off purchases once a customer reaches a specific number of points. You can also use these points to create a tier system, where customers can move up the loyalty ladder and achieve better rewards. A lot of airlines use this type of customer loyalty program because it keeps their customers flying with them in order to gain more points.
Another really good tip is to give customers immediate starter points just for signing up. According to Help Scout, “even artificial progress has an impact on consumer motivation because it gives customers the feeling that they have already surpassed the most challenging aspect—getting started.” People are much more likely to participate in a loyalty program that awards them immediately because they’ve already seen results just from signing up.
Offer time-sensitive promotions
If you want your loyalty program to encourage customers to consistently purchase from you, consider offering time-sensitive promotions to create urgency. For example, offer to double your customers reward points if they purchase from you during a certain time. This call-to-action will give your customers a big incentive to purchase from you because they’ll know it’s only available for a specific amount of time. If you get people excited about earning their next reward, and you give them time-sensitive opportunities to get more points, you’ll keep them hooked on your customer loyalty program. Use time-sensitive promotions to get your customers buying from you again and again.
Buy certain amount, get one free
Instead of using the points system, you can also use the buy certain amount, get certain amount free model. This is when you give your customers a punch card that they must complete before getting an item free. You’ll see this customer loyalty model at a lot of food places. For example, buy nine sandwiches, get the 10th one free. This is so effective because it gives your customers a huge incentive to keep buying from you instead of your competitors. If a customer has already earned several punches on their card, they’ll going to be more likely to keep coming back to finish up their card. This is another model where you should include a couple free punches to get them started because it will make them feel like they’ve already made progress toward the free item.
Loyalty programs will give your customers incentive to keep purchasing from you, especially if you offer worth-while rewards. Has your company started a customer loyalty program? What has been working for you? Share with us in the comments!
Image Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net