Loyal customers have always been a permanent gold mine, but also a group to which businesses should be immensely dedicated and which should be rewarded constantly.
They need to know that you care for them and that you see them not only as a source of income but also as people with emotions and needs.
Today, there are ways to retain loyal customers and satisfy them, and the programs used serve as a ”thank you” to all those who have chosen your business over your competitors.
What is a loyalty program?
Customer loyalty programs reward customers who demonstrate consistent and continuous interaction with a business or brand. They are a means to persuade customers to keep purchasing from and engaging with the brand as opposed to shopping somewhere else. And they do this through incentivisation – the more the customer shops with the brand, the more rewards they earn.
Using a loyalty program, businesses reward customers with points every time they purchase from them. These points can then be used to redeem rewards such as vouchers, discounts, free products, or exclusive deals/sales. At the heart of loyalty programs, there is a drive to bring about repeat purchases and establish a relationship between customers and the brand that is meaningful and gives them a reason to engage.
Why do loyalty programs need regular attention?
Setting your loyalty program up once and never looking at it again is a bad idea. Businesses can’t simply do this and hope to retain customer loyalty. It’s a good idea to regularly cast your eye upon your brand’s loyalty program so that you’re always finding new ways to improve and bring in more customers and keep current customers forever and ever, amen. Here’s why:
They are a bridge of connection between brands and customers
If you’re looking to drive sales and boost your customer lifetime value (and let’s be honest, who isn’t), loyalty programmes are a perfect and effective way to do just that. It may seem like all loyalty programmes do to achieve this is through rewarding customers, but underneath all that, there is a connection being forged between brand and customer that builds commitment through repeat behaviour. It also reinforces a strong sense of value on your part, by treating your customers in a way that makes them feel special and important to you.
More loyalty = more sales
It’s a simple formula. The happier your customers are, the more they’re likely to spend money on you. And what makes loyalty programs so great in this regard, is that they give reason for customers to spend money on you. When you present them with amazing deals, offers, and discounts, they can’t help but accept them because they see the value in investing in your brand. It’s also a cost-effective approach to driving sales. Building a relevant, engaging reward programme means you can designate fewer resources to traditional advertising efforts and spend more time building valuable, long-term relationships with existing customers, who according to research, are 50% more likely to try a new product and spend 31% more per purchase than new customers.
Speaking of new customers…
Loyalty programmes are your ticket to getting them! Loyal, satisfied customers are one of your most powerful marketing tools. After all, which is more believable than the words of customers who have already tried a certain product and are happy with it as well? When your loyal customers recommend some of your products to their friends, family and social networks, a circle of interested consumers who can become part of your permanent income automatically develops. Beyond word-of-mouth, with a well-designed loyalty programme, you can incentivise referrals, rewarding customers who invite new shoppers. Either way, a loyalty program is a great way to unlock the door to a flood of new customers.
They yield invaluable customer data
Not only should loyalty programmes be designed to offer maximum benefit to your customers, but also to your brand. Using a loyalty platform like LoyaltyLion, you can view real-time data about how your customers engage with your programme as well as your business. Access to this information enables you to develop innovative and effective strategies for improving your loyalty programme and you can also feed this information into your business and use it to find ways to take your brand to new heights. Things like experimenting with various rewards, pinpointing the rewards that specific customers are most interested in, doing away with those that yield little engagement, and personalising your view of customer buying habits all help you build detailed customer profiles and understand nuances within your own target market that might otherwise fly beneath the radar.
It’s never been easier to build a loyalty program that does what you need it to
If your goal is to build a system using anything more advanced than physical loyalty cards, getting started can be daunting. These days, the majority of loyalty programme members currently access their rewards using an app. If you want the attention of modern shoppers and access to many of the benefits that come with a loyalty program, a digital loyalty solution is going to be what you need. And that’s where LoyaltyLion comes in.
What is LoyaltyLion?
LoyaltyLion is a data-driven loyalty and rewards platform that powers ecommerce growth. Using this app, your online store can merge with a specialised loyalty program that incorporates real-time insights to help you create memorable experiences for your customers that keep them coming back. This doesn’t only have to be confined to your loyalty program alone, but can extend over into all your marketing activities and be used to further personalise customers’ journeys with your brand.
Using this robust platform, you can create a loyalty program that rewards customers by way of tiers. Every time customers reach new levels, they unlock greater rewards. This type of program provides customers with an incentive to continue shopping with you and in doing so, propels your store’s revenue flow. You can also take advantage of LoyaltyLion’s comprehensive features to design numerous program ideas using A/B testing in creating unique and engaging experiences for your buyers. Proven to increase retention and spend, LoyaltyLion is trusted by thousands of fast-growth ecommerce merchants worldwide.
What does it integrate with?
If you want to supercharge your personalisation and really retain those customers, LoyaltyLion has a best-in-class integration with ESPs such as Ometria, Omnisend, Dotdigital, Zaius and many more. And while these integrations will really help you maximise your loyalty program potential, the best-in-class integration they have to offer is the one with Klaviyo. This integration allows you to use your loyalty data to serve up personalised loyalty emails that will encourage customers to return to your store by:
- Keeping customers engaged between purchases by sending regular loyalty emails, such as point and reward reminder emails. These encourage the next purchase and will even lure in hesitant shoppers
- Turning loyal customers into brand advocates by encouraging them to refer friends with unique URLs delivered via email and incentivising these emails
- Segmenting your audience using loyalty insights according to whether they are loyal, at-risk or in need of winning back.
Email personalization can be deepened and automated with LoyaltyLion’s integration with Klaviyo. This integration allows you to set up trigger-based emails to respond to customer actions.
Tailoring every individual message is impractical, which is why customer loyalty segmentation can be a vital solution. You can use segmentation to set up unique campaigns for when a customer’s loyalty status changes.
For example, with Klaviyo, you can set up a trigger that allows you to send automated emails when a customer’s loyalty status changes to ‘Loyal’, ‘At Risk’, or ‘Win Back’. Owning your customer loyalty segmentation will allow you to create emails that encourage repeat purchases, increase your reward redemption and build a stronger relationship with your customers. That’s why it’s so important to regularly return to your email flows in Klaviyo and make sure you’re sending the right messages at the right time to the right customers.
Blend x LoyaltyLion
As Klaviyo Experts and long term partners with LoyaltyLion, Blend is uniquely qualified to help businesses further their email marketing, with a focus on Customer Experience, Customer Loyalty, and personalisation.
If you're ready to take the first step into powering your email through loyalty, get in touch with us today.
