How to Personalise Your Loyalty Program - 6 Great Examples

Loyalty programs - there’s no one-size-fits-all all formula. In fact, 90% of leading marketers say loyalty program personalisation significantly contributes to business profitability. 

This is why our loyalty platform has been built in a way to allow for maximum flexibility. “But in which ways can I personalise a loyalty program?”, you might wonder. Well, there are a number of ways you can create a personalised loyalty program.

What is personalization in loyalty?

Personalization within loyalty programs revolutionizes customer engagement by leveraging advanced data analysis tools to comprehend individual preferences and behaviours.

It empowers businesses to intricately understand their customers' buying patterns, preferences, and motivations in real time. 

This deep insight allows for the precise customization of rewards and incentives, ensuring a tailored and compelling experience that resonates with each customer on a personal level, and fostering stronger brand loyalty and satisfaction.

Why is personalization important in loyalty programs?

Personalization stands as the cornerstone of successful loyalty programs, delivering tailored experiences that resonate profoundly with customers. 

By understanding individual preferences, behaviours, and purchase histories, personalized loyalty initiatives foster stronger emotional connections. 

This connection leads to enhanced customer engagement, increased retention rates, and a significant boost in conversions. 

Implementing personalized strategies, such as tailored offers, exclusive rewards, and individualized communications, not only elevates customer satisfaction but also cultivates a sense of appreciation and loyalty, ultimately driving sustainable business growth.

Now, let’s take a closer look and examine some examples of personalised loyalty programs.

Unique Loyalty Program Name

First, let’s start with something simple - a name for your loyalty program. It might seem straightforward but loyalty program names can really help when it comes to loyalty program personalisation.

Things to consider when choosing a loyalty program name:

• Is your brand recognisable? It’s great to create a truly unique program name but don’t get carried away. Remember that your customers still must recognise that your program belongs to your brand just from its name.
• Does it reflect your brand personality? If you are a serious financial institution with a rich history, you might not want to call your new loyalty scheme something funky. However, for many consumer and contemporary brands, having a unique loyalty program name can contribute to the appeal to the end-users.

Top example: Kingdom Rewards Burger King

Burger King EMEA has created Kingdom Rewards, in which users collect crowns instead of points. Simple yet clever way to personalise a program whilst connecting to well-recognised brand characteristics.

Original tiers

If you’re planning to introduce tiers into your loyalty program, be creative with how you brand them. The classic Bronze, Silver, Gold system works but doesn’t impress, and there are better ways to build a loyalty program around personalisation.

If you want to add the extra oomph, don’t stop at branding the name of the program and its currency but make sure that your brand comes through at every single step of the customer experience. This is what is going to elevate your program to the next level.

Top example: e.l.f. cosmetics

e.l.f. cosmetics have a very strong and loyal customer base. This is partly because of the strength of their brand, partly because of how well they personalised their loyalty program, and partly because their engagement is high. 

When it comes to their tiers, e.l.f. managed to elevate the classic three-tier system by giving each tier a name with a character. This evokes emotions in their users, leading to higher appeal & engagement. Absolute win!

Rewards

When creating a personalised loyalty program, you must not forget this key part - rewards. As explained in our Loyalty Programs 101 guide, the rewards you offer need to correspond with your target audience. 

Address your audience’s needs and wants by offering them rewards that they actually want. Then, ask why you have chosen these reward options to make sure you are clear about your strategy.

Top Example: Sephora Beauty Insider

Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program is well-known and often praised. Notice that every piece of the strategies is thought through, including original tier names & unique personalised rewards. Sephora has understood that because their audience are beauty fanatics, they are not driven by discounts (only). 

Instead, they are interested in being part of the magical world of Sephora, full of insider tips, events & experiences. Hence, being part of their loyalty program offers customers access to an exclusive community, first access to new products and more.

Personalised offers

Once your program is up and running, start thinking about how to engage the users and how personalising a loyalty program can help with engagement.

If you’re anything like us, you’re going to want to keep a data-driven approach. That means that segmentation and targeted, personalised offers are your best friend. If you have an event-based loyalty system, you can reward any customer action. 

That means you can create segments of customers based on what actions they have taken, what their demographics are or which products they buy. Take this insight & turn it into smart data-driven campaigns.

You can trigger a notification when users’ points balance is about to expire or when they are close to reaching a new loyalty tier. All this can contribute to an increase in repeat purchases and drive desired customer behaviour.

Top Example: Kiehl’s

Kiehl’s, along with many other brands, provides a welcome offer upon registration of customer details. This means they have identified a distinct segment - new customers - and rewarded it with something of value to them.

Gamification

Loyalty gamification is a fantastic addition to any loyalty program, and it greatly helps with personalisation.

It boosts customer engagement, which is a key driver of customer loyalty. Due to the nature of gamification, it makes your program instantly stand out in the crowd, leading to a personalised feel.

Top Example: Nectar

With the Nectar loyalty app, you get a chance to win bonus loyalty points each time you shop at Sainsbury’s. When you use your Nectar card in-store or online with Sainsbury’s, you instantly receive a push notification to “scratch and win”. 

Other common examples of simple gamification include “fill out a questionnaire for a chance to win” or “write a review to be in with a chance of winning”.

Ways to earn points and rewards

Finally, the loyalty logic of your program should also be customised. This means you can personalise the ways to earn points and rewards within your loyalty program. 

Profit from your business partnerships and reward your customers for shopping with your partners. Use receipt scanning and award points based on how much your customers spend on your products, no matter in which third-party retailer. If you’re trying to grow your brand, you can drive social media following by rewarding loyalty program members for liking your page. 

Alternatively, you can turn bank cards into loyalty cards with our card-linking solution - ideal for the financial sector and hospitality. The possibilities are endless!

Top Example: Oliver Bonas

Oliver Bonas has decided that more personal information in their database is so important they are willing to pay for it - with a gift! Incentivising your customers to share more personal data with you is a fantastic strategy that will pay back in the long term.

You can never have enough customer insight!