A rewards program is an effective marketing strategy, aimed at not only enticing customers to buy, but to keep them coming back. According to Chris Cottle, Vice President of Marketing and Products at Allegiance, some companies spend more than $2 billion on reward programs in a year alone. Whether you’re a small business owner or a million-dollar company, you need to create effective reward programs to boost your sales. Here is how:
Decide on what to offer
The first step is to decide what incentives you’ll offer your customers. While offering gift cards, discounts, free services or a combination of all three, ensure that your rewards program matches your customer’s needs.
Communicate your rewards program
You may have a great rewards system, but if your clients are unaware about it, it’s of no use. The way to make the best out of your rewards program is to communicate thoroughly with your customers. Let them know that you run a rewards program and explain how it will benefit them. You can communicate with them by word-of-mouth, through e-mail newsletters, text messages, social media platforms and so on.
Incorporate the program to your brand
To create an excellent rewards program, you need to incorporate it into your brand. In other words, you need to create incentives in the loyalty program that match your core values. An example of a company that does this is Walgreens. Walgreens brands itself as being ‘at the corner of happy and healthy’ and offers loyalty members additional points for making healthy choices like running, tracking blood pressure or quitting smoking. With this, ‘they’re aligning wellness and health with the brand and with the loyalty program,’ says Yory Wurmser, retail analyst at eMarketer.
Go beyond offering discounts
One of the common rewards program businesses use is to give out discounted prices to customers. This is a strategy that has been implemented for many years. However, you don’t have to limit yourself to only this system; you can go beyond that. Billion dollar companies like Amazon and Rent the Runway offer creative rewards program like cheap shipping and other benefits in exchange for subscriptions. You can create a unique rewards program too and see a rise in your sales.
Harness social media
You can also harness social media by using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. to engage, communicate and spread your latest rewards program to your fan base. Zicam, the cold remedy manufacturer, for example, has used Twitter to send coupons to people who mentioned their products on their timelines.
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