4 ways a loyalty scheme will add value to your marketing

A well structured, engaging and exciting loyalty program will make a big difference at the way you drive customer engagement and the overall customer experience you provide. Increasing your customer loyalty is mainly up to you and you know how to do it better than anyone else!

Loyalty programs are a very useful tool to help you get there and here are 4 ways they can instantly add value:  

#1 they encourage repeat purchase

People love to be recognised and they love to be rewarded. They also like free stuff. So it’s as simple as that: if you can recognise your customer (by their name or their buying habits) when they come into your store and if you can also reward them for being loyal to your brand, you are actually giving them a very good reason to keep coming back to you, aren’t you?

#2 they differentiate you from competition

How do you stand out from the crowd today? What makes you different than your competitors? Why should someone purchase something from you instead of the store next door?

A competitor can match your prices. They can even match your discounts. But it’s extremely hard for them to match your loyalty program, because with your loyalty program you are providing a unique customer experience that can’t be copied.

#3 they help you understand your end customers

The best in class loyalty programs are all about helping businesses understand their customers and then utilizing this insight to deliver a fantastic customer experience which then leads to incremental sales.

By implementing a loyalty program you will establish a solid process to acquire and manage quality data,you will be able to utilize extended industry knowledge on interpreting data to business knowledge and , with the right vendor, you will use state of the art technology to analyze data, run targeted campaigns and monitor results.

#4 they create a word of mouth effect

Your end customers are people and people talk about their experiences with each other.

Your loyalty program incentives are going to be making the rounds before you know it. People will be talking about their experiences and sharing it all over social media. You are giving them one more good reason to talk about you, your products and your services!

The issue of loyalty is becoming more and more important to retailers. Businesses that have developed a mechanism to understand their customers are already enjoying the main benefits of a loyalty program and are one step ahead. Right now they are engaging into conversations with their end customers and they are communicating with them, without their competitors finding out.

A “best in class” customer loyalty program can become your main sales and marketing tool.

Here are some more tips on how to get started:  

3 steps to a successful loyalty scheme  

5 “basics” to boost your customer engagement

7 questions you need to be asking about customer loyalty

Your vision. Your strategy. What about consistency?

Your personal vision of your brand's story is your starting point. Your vision becomes your strategy and your strategy becomes your day to day activities; So you've defined your target market, developed compelling positioning, established a competitive analysis and advantage, and packaged your products in a clear and relevant way.

Now it's time to get your message to the world out there; direct mail, email, sms, micro sites, e-surveys, push notifications, social media and all the fun stuff you've decided are the best fit for you.

But what if you belong to the 84% of marketers who have no time to run this or who actually have the time but need guaranteed consistency on the execution of the plan?

There is always a great option to consult a team of experts to run this for you and to share their expertise and experience with your team.

We call it Micro Selling.

 Micro Selling is a simple, smart and effective way to achieve incremental sales and maximize marketing R.O.I.

 With micro selling you will be able to:

• Sharpen your marketing strategy

• Engage with your customers, real time

• Utilize multiple communication channels

• Suggest powerful calls to action

• Become more proactive and effective

• Personalize your messages

• Consistently execute your annual marketing plan

• Adjust your marketing strategy and efforts

• Efficiently use your marketing budget

• Sell. Over and over again!

Combine Micro Selling with powerful marketing analytics such as RFM or Multivariate to achieve even better bottom line results.

Start now!

7 questions you need to be asking about customer loyalty

This is a practical guide and a great place to start for marketers who have “Customer Loyalty” on the top of their list and are already facing an information overload.

Our team of Customer Intelligence Experts has come up with the top 7 questions you should be asking yourselves, in order to isolate the most important material and keep your eye on the critical things.    

1. Which type of loyalty scheme best suits my company’s needs?

2. How much will a loyalty scheme cost my department?

3. How can I make my existing loyalty scheme more effective?

4. How can I track my customers’ buying behavior?

5. How do I increase my overall customer engagement?

6. How will I achieve a 360 customer approach?  

7. How do I measure incremental sales and overall R.O.M.I.?

You can get started with some answers here, here and here.

If you want to dig deeper, feel free to get in touch with our team of Customer Intelligence Experts.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

5 “basics” to boost your customer engagement

It’s all about putting the right message in front of the right people at just the right time and these are 5 “basics” that will help you get there. 

1. Get to know your customers

Getting to know your customers is essential in order to reach out to them with the right message. Build their complete profile; their buying habits, when and how often they come into your stores, how much money they actually spend with you, which time of the year they prefer to come in and which of your products they love. In this way you will be able to communicate with them, in a fully relevant, personalized, targeted way.

2. Reward the most loyal customers

Decide which customers or which customer groups are actually the most loyal to your brand. Then reward them for their loyalty. Experience has proven that people like to be rewarded –even with small things. Reward them and they will remember. 

3. Give them good reasons to keep coming back

Give your customers good reasons to keep coming back into your stores. Send them the appropriate message and keep them alert with new product launches, new offerings, new games, lotteries, new store openings...or even with something you make up just for them! 

4. Ask for their feedback

Ask your customers for feedback – engage your people on site (sales reps, cashiers) to ask for feedback and use powerful online tools such as your newsletters, your direct marketing campaigns, online surveys, your website and your social media pages. If you don’t ask, you will never find out! 

5. Constantly measure your results and fine tune

This is critical in order to achieve the best outcome from your efforts. Measure your response rate and your customer feedback on a steady basis and fine tune your efforts to keep your customers happy. 

 In the end of the day, it’s always about what your customer really wants!

If you need tools or tips or if you simply need someone to let you know if you are on the right track, our Customer Intelligence Experts are here to listen to you!

3 steps to a successful loyalty scheme

Whether it’s restructuring an existing customer loyalty scheme or if you are looking to build a new one from scratch, there are 3 steps to success. 
 

Step 1: Talk to the experts

Experts are teams that have already implemented customer loyalty schemes, but most importantly have a thorough understanding of both the marketing and technology side of things.

Especially teams with diversity (marketing executives, software developers, business consultants) who will listen to your teams’ requirements and who will have a 360view of your needs. 

Step 2: Construct a business plan

Drafting a business plan is the most important step for any marketing action you undertake. This will especially save you precious time and money in the future. 

Invest time and people in constructing a complete, solid business plan for your customer loyalty scheme in order to achieve the ideal return on investment and the highest incremental sales.

Ideally, consult a team of customer loyalty experts to create your own loyalty scheme vision, your quantitative and qualitative loyalty scheme targets, to identify and construct a loyalty model that best suits your company’s needs and to compare your own loyalty scheme with the industry’s existing schemes to achieve the best results. 

Step 3:  Calculate your project’s R.O.I., its payback period and compare

Being able to have a clear view of the project payback period as well as the return on the total investment, is a critical “go” or “no go” factor for your loyalty business plan.

Success factors such as the average basket value, the visits frequency and how to reward the most loyal group of customers are just a few of the indicators that need to be quantified.

Let us know what you are looking for! Contact our team here.

What are the costs of a loyalty programme’s implementation and operation?

It is really important to understand the parameters of the costs relating to the design of a loyalty programme. The cost of a complete loyalty programme is affected by:

• The percentage of the customer reward.
• The design and implementation of services.
• The supporting marketing material that will accompany the programme.
• The required technology that will support the programme.
• The human resources for its daily operation.

CloudBiz is a pioneer in motivating and accelerating customer loyalty. For us, loyalty is not a mere bunch of cards and points but rather a vehicle of profitability.

We have the competence to make money for our customers.

At CloudBiz, what we suggest as the first step is a complete commercial design (a business plan for the programme). At this stage, we define the objectives of your company and analyse the best practices, choosing the format that is most suitable for each sector. We design the process (registration, rewarding, redemption, customer service), evaluate the programme and calculate the estimated ROI.

Loyalty Start-up?		Loyalty Check-up?
Get started with the first step of the implementation of your own loyalty programme with our tailor-made business-planning according to your needs. Just click and contact us!		If you already have your own loyalty programme, we can improve it and you can receive maximum benefits with our loyalty intelligence platform. Just click and contact us!

How will a loyalty programme increase sales?

Our tailor-made loyalty programmes are designed to increase your sales. Better still, they are proven by measurable results. Our loyalty programmes are used as a means of support and development for your existing clientele. Thus, in order to be an effective sales-generating force, companies should aim to promote customer loyalty through rewards and build long-term customer relationships.

We, at CloudBiz, facilitate the design of your strategy by automating customer segmentation. Then, we implement this strategy by efficient customer targeting. Finally, we evaluate and adjust it by assessing the long-term impact of our marketing actions.

We call it a micro-selling strategy and we offer it to you consistently.

Request a demo.

Our loyalty experts will show you how you can get to know your customers better and increase your sales.

What are the benefits of implementing a loyalty programme?

Knowledge is power. Our loyalty programmes can help you gain useful knowledge about your customers. We help you to explore:

1. The categories your current customers belong to.
2. The value of each group of customers.
3. The development potential of your groups of customers.
4. The behaviour of your customers and the kinds of customers you would like to attract.

Each of our loyalty and incentive programmes forms the basis for a long-term commitment and the development of a strategic alliance with your key partners. We help you to use strategic loyalty programmes to invite your customers to become a part of an ongoing programme, to get to know them, and to understand their demographics and their buying behaviour. We can provide analytics for your customers’ purchasing habits and identify new entrants and any high-value arising from their consuming behaviour.

Knowing who is your most important and your least important customer means that you can focus on generating more revenues and profits.

Loyalty Start-up?		Loyalty Check-up?
Would you like to start your own loyalty programme? Contact us now and one of our loyalty experts will assist you.		If you have your own loyalty programme already, you can call us and our experts will assist you on how to improve it and receive maximum ROI.

How does a loyalty programme work?

According to marketing research, it costs about 5-10 times more to acquire a new customer than to sell to an existing one. Also, the existing customer spends, on average, 67% more than a new one. One of the key challenges that customer-oriented enterprises face is the adoption of effective marketing methods that will prevent the loss of existing customers while acquiring new ones. This creates the need for tools that can improve understanding of customers’ behaviour and buying habits.

With consistent profile management and efficient tailor-made promotional actions, you can reduce customer retention costs, increase sales profits and gain long-term customer loyalty. Loyalty and bonus programmes in CloudBiz are designed to reward the transactions and behaviours of your valuable existing customers as well as to attract new ones.

More Information? Call us.

You can call us and ask for a loyalty briefing from one of our experts. We will answer any questions you might have.