What is a loyalty program?

Loyalty rewards program, customer incentives program, customer retention scheme – whatever you want to call them, loyalty programs are systems set up by companies to elevate customer engagement, improve retention and increase customer lifetime value. It is a marketing strategy that aims to develop a stronger relationship between a customer and a brand with the objectives of repeat sales, increasing profits and brand equity.

Who needs one and why?

It’s well known that it costs 5-10x more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. So you could say that every company needs one, right? Not quite true.

There are plenty of retention strategies out there beside loyalty programs. However, not all repeat customers will become your brand advocates. This is what loyalty programs are so great at. If done well, pushing the customer up the loyalty ladder ultimately leads to advocacy, the holy tier of customer loyalty.

Customers that are part of a good loyalty program often become brand advocates as they are delighted and feel valued by getting rewards for what they enjoy doing. In other words, they consider themselves winners for getting more bang for their buck without giving up control over their buying decisions. This is important to remember as too often, brands will push customers to spend more in ways that feel intrusive.

If learning how to achieve that sounds appealing to you, keep on reading.

How to create a loyalty scheme

The very first step in creating a loyalty program is also the most important one. It is the strategic thinking behind what your program’s goals are. Not all loyalty schemes are created equal and that’s because they are made for different brands at different stages of product life cycles. 

The marketing and business needs of a brand change over time. From creating awareness, to driving more sales, to increasing customer lifetime value. Most often, businesses simply crave the increase in sales. Nevertheless, not every business can achieve that in the same way. Think carefully about which goal is most important to your company and what should be the focus of your rewards loyalty program. 

Got it? Great, you’re on the right track then.

Tiered loyalty programs

One of the key benefits of tiered loyalty programs is that they incentivise and reward certain behaviours by moving you up the levels.. Once you establish your loyalty tiers, customers clearly see what they can aspire for as each tier should provide more valuable rewards. Furthermore, tiered rewards programs help with segmentation and consumers feel very comfortable with them.

Want to know more about tiered loyalty programs? Read our dedicated article!

Spend-based loyalty programs

Similarly to points based loyalty programs, members of a spend-based loyalty program are rewarded based on their purchases. However, this type of loyalty scheme is more overtly transactional. Whilst most schemes try not to accentuate how much being a loyal customer is costing their members, spend-based programs do the opposite. Essentially, they are sending a message of “the more you spend, the more we value you and reward you”.

Understandably, this type of program will not work for budget-friendly brands and many wide audience companies. However, there are consumers out there who are proud of their spending and they will expect to be appropriately rewarded. Additionally, phone and utility providers often use arguments of spend in offering more attractive packages to loyal customers. What’s more, reward schemes in B2B are more often than not based on spend. Thus, it is clear there is definitely space for spend-based loyalty programs.

Purpose-driven loyalty programs

More and more businesses are creating distinctive CSR strategies and basing their brand image on purpose-driven or ethical messages. For such companies, choosing a purpose-driven loyalty program can be a real win. Instead of rewarding customers with monetary, physical or discount rewards, brands can offer to make a donation to a dedicated cause or make a charitable action (such as planting a tree) on behalf of the customer. Since customers of such brands are already aligned on their values, such a loyalty initiative is more guaranteed to resonate with the audience. If you think a purpose-driven loyalty program could inspire your customers to shop more frequently, don’t hesitate to implement it.

Hybrid loyalty programs

Many loyalty programs these days don’t seem to fit into any of the above categories but are rather a combination of a few. How come? Simple! Modern customer’s needs change constantly and brands are expected to be agile enough to keep adapting. From gamifications, to timely rewards to different forms of communications. This can pose a real complication if your business chooses an out of the box solution.

Rest assured, this problem is one of the reasons that led to the development of the White Label Loyalty engine. We have created a platform flexible enough to fit any use case or business sector with endless possibilities.. With its modular architecture, you can select the modules you need in order to enhance your  program. If you want to find out more about how the White Label Loyalty platform works, download our white paper or get in touch with one of our loyalty specialists at info@whitelabel-loyalty.com.

Key considerations

There are a few other key considerations necessary for creating an effective loyalty program.

• Having the right loyalty program software.

  It all starts with your loyalty platform. You need to choose a solution that will work with you, not against you. Does it connect easily with the rest of your marketing stack? Is it flexible enough to allow for quick rewards changes? Can you surface data in order to make informed decisions?

• Do you want a loyalty program app?

  Another question to answer right at the start. It’s clear that physical cards are not the way forward in loyalty. They get lost, forgotten and generally create friction. If you are in retail or hospitality, it is likely you might want to opt for a mobile app in order to connect offline with online. Nevertheless, other consumer industries as well as B2B and Brand to Consumer can still benefit from having a dedicated app or microsite for engaging their customers. 

• How are you going to launch and communicate your new program?

  Just like your content marketing needs a content amplification strategy, a loyalty program requires a communication plan. You don’t necessarily need to spend your entire budget campaigning your scheme, the success can lie in the details. Think about the right placement of a promotion on your website, in your checkout process or on social media. Use your database to communicate to your existing customers. Make most of what you have first, then start expanding your reach.

• Be original and targeted.

  One of the easiest mistakes to make is simply replicating an existing loyalty program you think works. By all means, take inspiration and decide which components you would like to employ but make sure your rewards scheme is original. Remember to customise the rewards to the needs and values of your customer base. Use unique names and messages that will create an overall integrated look and feel. It will make all the difference.

In-house development vs. external solution

Creating a worthy loyalty program is no doubt an investment. Nevertheless, the size of the expense as well as its ultimate success vastly depends on the development path you choose. You might consider developing your program in house or use an agency if you feel that it is worth your resources. Alternatively, you may choose to hire experts in creating profitable loyalty programs like White Label Loyalty to speed up the process and to allow you to focus on your core business. Below you will find the pro’s and con’s of each option to help you decide.

Tips on how to make the most of the program

We strongly believe in data-driven loyalty. Hence, our best advice to give you is: collect data, analyse data, use data to improve. First, you need to make sure that you gather the right information about your customers, their behaviour and spending habits. Make sure you can easily integrate your loyalty program with the rest of your tech stack and CRM database. Next, remember what the goal of your loyalty scheme was and continually measure your progress against your KPIs. Once you have enough data, evaluate and improve your program according to any patterns and opportunities identified.

If this seems like a lot of work, you can employ machine learning algorithms, just like our AI module uses. They will identify and highlight business insights for you. This way, you can save money on spend and save time and resources analysing your existing data yourself.