How to Successfully Soft Launch a Loyalty Program

Launching a loyalty program can be a game-changer for your business, but getting it right from the start is crucial. 

One of the most effective ways to ensure a successful launch is through a soft launch: a low-risk strategy that allows you to test and refine your program before going full-scale. 

But don’t stop there! To maximise your success, a phased rollout strategy can help you gradually increase awareness, fine-tune your messaging, and resolve any issues before the program reaches your entire audience. 

In this post, we’ll walk you through the steps of a successful soft launch and phased rollout, from defining your goals to fine-tuning your marketing approach.

What is a loyalty program soft launch?

A loyalty program soft launch involves testing the program with a select group of customers before its full public release. 

This allows brands to refine key elements, gather feedback, and make improvements, ensuring a smooth, successful launch. It’s also essential to design the program with scalability in mind, allowing for easy growth as more customers join.

A soft launch helps ensure a seamless experience when the program is introduced to a wider audience.

Soft launch vs. hard launch

A hard launch is a full-scale public rollout where the loyalty program is introduced to all customers at the same time. This approach can generate excitement and immediate adoption, but it carries higher risks if technical issues arise or if the program doesn’t perform as expected.

A soft launch, on the other hand, offers several advantages:

• Early feedback & refinement: Allows businesses to collect valuable insights from initial users and make necessary adjustments before scaling up.
• Reduced risk: Minimises the risk of negative customer experiences and lets you resolve potential glitches before a bigger audience can see it.
• Cost-effective: Helps avoid large-scale marketing expenses until the program is fully optimised.
• Performance testing: Ensures that the program integrates smoothly with existing systems.

For most businesses, a soft launch is the smarter choice as it provides a controlled environment to fine-tune the program before the official release.

How to soft launch a loyalty program in 6 steps

Here’s our quick guide through 6 essential steps to successfully soft launch your loyalty program, helping you refine your strategy, fix any issues, and set the stage for a smooth, full-scale rollout.

Step 1: Define your goals & success metrics

Before launching, establish clear goals for your loyalty program and identify what success looks like for your brand. 

Common objectives include:

• Increasing customer retention
• Boosting purchase frequency
• Encouraging acquisition through referrals
• Enhancing brand engagement
• Growing customer lifetime value

Set measurable KPIs such as sign-up rates, redemption rates, and average customer spend to track the program’s performance with key metrics.

Step 2: Choose a target audience for testing

Rather than rolling out the program to all customers, select a specific segment for the soft launch. Options include:

• Loyal customers: Power users are more forgiving and likely to provide constructive feedback.
• Employees: Internal testing ensures smooth functionality before real customers join.
• A small geographic region: Ideal for businesses with multiple locations.
• Beta testers from your email list: Customers who opt in to test new features.

🎯 Pro tip: Be transparent with your test group: tell them this is a beta experience and their feedback will help shape the program. As a thank you, consider offering bonus points or an exclusive reward as a token of appreciation for their time and input.

Step 3: Test your loyalty program technology

Ensure that the loyalty program integrates seamlessly with your POS system, CRM, and mobile app; consider timelines, available resources, and any business or legal constraints.

Key technical aspects to test:

• Signup process: Is it easy and intuitive?
• Points earning & redemption: Are rewards credited correctly?
• Communication channels: Are customers receiving notifications and updates?
• Mobile-first design: What’s the most common touchpoint for users?

Conduct thorough testing to avoid frustrating users with bugs or glitches.

Step 4: Gather and analyse customer feedback

Encourage participants to share their experience through surveys, direct interviews, and support tickets. Ask:

• Was the sign-up process clear?
• Did they understand how to earn and redeem rewards?
• What improvements would they like to see?
• What rewards did they find most exciting?
• What’s missing, confusing, or underwhelming?

Look for trends in feedback to identify common pain points.

Step 5: Optimise and make improvements

Based on user feedback and data insights, refine the program. Potential adjustments might include:

• Simplifying point structures if customers find them confusing.
• Fixing technical issues or improving the mobile general user experience and flow, to reduce any friction identified.
• Adjusting rewards to make them more attractive.

This step is crucial to ensuring the program is fully optimised before the public launch.

Step 6: Plan your full-scale launch strategy

Once testing is complete and necessary adjustments have been made, it’s time to roll out your loyalty program to a wider audience. Instead of going straight from the soft launch to a full-blown launch, consider implementing a phased rollout strategy.

A phased rollout means gradually increasing the number of users receiving communications about the program. This ensures that if any issues arise during the rollout, you can halt or adjust your marketing efforts before they reach a large audience. Here’s how to do it:

1. Start with a small percentage: Begin by scheduling your communications to reach 1% of your users. This gives you a small, controlled audience to observe initial reactions and feedback.
    
2. Gradually increase the reach: Over the next few weeks, increase your communication reach incrementally.
    
3. Monitor and adjust: As the phased rollout progresses, pay close attention to any issues or feedback that may arise. If something isn’t working as expected, you have the flexibility to pause or tweak communications before reaching a wider audience.
    

It’s important to note that while a soft launch typically involves a select group of users, a phased rollout allows anyone to sign up for the program, but marketing and communications are gradually increased. This allows you to manage user expectations and maintain control over the experience.

Consider email and SMS campaigns to announce the program, in-store and website promotions, social media engagement, and influencer or brand ambassador partnerships.

A well-planned launch ensures strong adoption and customer participation.