Welcome to the next part of our guide to creating a kickass loyalty program. In the first part we discussed in detail the need for a loyalty program. These programs are designed to offer discounts or rewards to boost repeat business and build brand loyalty.
In today’s installment, we are going to discuss the viral components of a loyalty program. Time for you to get something back. Give more to your customers whilst building your customer base. Simple.
Lets get right to the point. Giving away discounts to your customers is one thing, but in reality you don’t want to be giving and getting nothing in return. This is why we aim to get a loyalty program viral. Without realizing it, your customers will be able to share the love of your generosity to their friends and family, helping you grow your customer base.
Viral Components of a Loyalty Program
In the previous section we learnt about the benefits of having a loyalty program and the process you need to go through to create one. Now let’s talk about some of the main components that you should incorporate.
Allow for mobile referrals
We use our mobile devices more than our computers to go online. To be exact people use mobile devices 71% of the time in the US and 61% in the UK. So you guessed it – your loyalty program absolutely has to have a mobile element to it.
You can allow for your users to refer their friends via SMS or a QR code. You could build a mobile app just for the loyalty program. Or you can use an already existing app. Find one through your e-commerce provider.
Points and gamification
People love to get points and go up levels. It’s just part of our human psyche. A study by eMarketer found out that 68% of millenials said that they would shop more at a specific business if they would get more loyalty program rewards. That means you have to incorporate an incremental rewards system – the more referrals each person puts into the system the more points and rewards they get.
Push messages are absolute genius
This one is self explanatory. Push messages on our phones make us look, they disrupt our daily rhythm and we reach for our phones with excitement when we get one. You can make push notifications even more exclusive.
A great example of this is Starbucks, that rewards its most loyal customers by sending them push notifications of the biggest sales first. They get to hear about the biggest sales and the newest products first. That’s just cool.
In the final part of our loyalty program guide we are going to be showing you examples of loyalty emails that work. Make sure you log on.
