8 wAYS TO pROMOTE a lOYALTY pROGRAM
Introduction Creating a loyalty program is an important step toward securing a better understanding of your customers and demonstrating value for their ongoing interaction with your brand. Yet just building such an initiative isn’t enough. You need to promote it and encourage participation. A loyalty program is only effective if customers and future shoppers are aware it exists and remain active in it. To achieve success, it’s essential to promote your program across multiple channels and touchpoints to increase visibility and enrollment.
Getting the word out about a loyalty offering involves far more than adding a banner to a website. It requires integrating the program into every facet of your business. We’ve assembled eight strategies you can implement to create awareness and keep your loyalty program top of mind.
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Activate Front-Line Employees to Promote Your Program
When it comes to promoting a loyalty program, you have one of the most important marketing tools at your disposal—your employees. If you operate a brick-and-mortar store, employees can act as an extension of your brand and help you further support your program’s success. It’s important to arm team members who have the most customer interaction with the right tools to inform them about the program and the processes. This includes front-line employees, salespeople, and any customer service staff who may have a direct interaction with your customer base. If customers have questions about your loyalty program, you should provide them with quick answers and service. Walgreens, for example, launched a multi-week rollout to employees to ensure they were trained and familiar with the brand’s Balance Rewards program before launching it to the public. It’s important to identify the technology, tools, and processes you might need well in advance that will enable employees to resolve issues quickly and personalize the customer experience. The focus on customer service will be appreciated and long remembered by your members.
Walgreens provided a training program to store employees to aid customer inquiries about the Balance Rewards loyalty program.
Loyalty programs need ongoing support, especially from store employees or your customer service department. By properly informing your customer-facing teams about your loyalty initiative, you can maximize your marketing efforts and improve customer service at the same time. - Dennis Tze, Chief Revenue Officer, CrowdTwist
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Build Buzz, Buy-In, and Backers With Your Most Valuable Customers
There’s nothing like rewarding your most valuable customers. They know your brand, and they are eager to explore new ways to engage with you. To keep the relationship going, it’s important to let your best customers be part of something exclusive. Consider extending a special invite to join your new loyalty program or the re-launch of your existing program before the public launch to build up hype. Get your biggest fans to buy in and become your ambassadors by enrolling early. The ability to create excitement around your loyalty program is essential to the early stages of success. UFC, for example, invited 10,000 fans who bought tickets to past events or signed up to receive email communications to “be among the first” to join UFC Rewards, the brand’s new loyalty and engagement program. What’s more, members automatically receive 1,000 bonus points, which can be used toward one-ofa-kind UFC rewards. This exclusive invitation makes customers feel valued and included in something unique, piquing their curiosity to join and participate in the loyalty offering.
UFC creates early buzz around UFC Rewards with an early sign-up campaign before the program’s official launch. 4
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Integrate the Value of Your Loyalty Program Into Your Browsing Process
While online advertising has its benefits, you can’t rely solely on it to promote your loyalty program. Consumers, especially ones who like to shop around online, need a constant reminder about your loyalty offering. That’s why it’s essential to find creative ways to plug your program throughout your site, such as on product pages, and inform shoppers about what they could earn for registering. Consumers won’t freely part with an email address or other personal details without a good reason, so it’s important to show the benefit of joining your program wherever possible.
The Children’s Place creatively advertises its myPlace Rewards loyalty program by including a rewards teaser by every product next to its pricing information. The notation reads, “Get XX myPlace Rewards points when you buy this item.” When shoppers click for more information, explanatory text appears that tells shoppers how they can earn the loyalty points. Members of myPlace Rewards earn five points per dollar spent and a $5 rewards certificate when they earn 1,000 points. By demonstrating the value prop of your loyalty program during the consideration phase, you may win the sale over the competition, and gain a new loyal customer as a result.
The Children’s Place uses a unique strategy to promote its myPlace Rewards program on product pages.
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Tie a Social Media Strategy to Your Loyalty Program
These days, if you are running a multichannel loyalty program, a social media strategy is an imperative part of your marketing plan. You not only reach consumers through other channels, but you can build a community for constant customer engagement at the same time. Building a community requires communicating promotions through social media posts, videos, apps, and blogs, and understanding how consumers use these channels to receive information. Incorporating a social media strategy into your loyalty program helps engage current members and create excitement for those who may not currently be involved. Once customers become active, it’s important to consider providing incentives (points, sweepstakes entries, or exclusive benefits) to increase the likelihood of social sharing. Zumiez, for example, uses its Facebook page to promote some of its rewards for The Zumiez Stash loyalty program. Using social media allows Zumiez to highlight a specific rewards offering to capture interest and encourage people to redeem their loyalty points. This strategy helps the brand bring more attention to the program and showcase the many different ways in which Zumiez recognizes members for their loyalty. Social media also acts as a portal in which to have conversations with users and receive feedback.
Zumiez engages customers by using its Facebook page to promote The Zumiez Stash loyalty program.
Multichannel loyalty programs are an important part of the marketing mix because they help brands understand customer behavior and interactions across channels. It’s vital to embrace online as well as offline channels to generate interest in your program and keep customers engaged for the long term. - Geoff Smith, SVP of Marketing, CrowdTwist
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Use Your Product Packaging to Promote Your Loyalty Program
If you are a Consumer Packaged Goods company, you know how challenging it is to grab consumers’ attention. That’s why it’s important to use your biggest asset— your product packaging—and put it to use. Consider advertising your loyalty program on-pack and run an in-pack promotion. As a first step, you should determine what to feature on-pack—your brand name, a call-toaction, or both? Secondly, decide what action customers must take as a result of the campaign—will they submit codes online, or text a code to earn points? As part of the process, you should plan adequate time to secure your manufacturing process to support the on-pack promotion. Finding the right manufacturer can take additional time and resources. Finally, if you run an in-pack campaign, ensure that customers have easy access to your codes to encourage ongoing participation.
Kellogg Co. advertises its Kellogg’s Family Rewards program on about 2.5 billion packages of its products.
Kellogg Co. is one example of how a CPG firm engages customers with its loyalty program through its packaging. In addition to its online advertising efforts, Kellogg promotes the Kellogg’s Family Rewards program on more than 90 percent of its products. An on-pack call-to-action prompts consumers to enter 16-digit codes online in exchange for points. The codes are printed on or inside product packages of Kellogg items. The points can be collected and redeemed for coupons and prizes, such as toys and sports gear, or donated to local charities. More than 8 million people are enrolled in the program. 7
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Link Your Loyalty Program to a Larger Event or Campaign
If you want to inject some new life into an existing loyalty program, consider tying your loyalty offering to an event or a larger campaign. This tactic gives you a great opportunity to transform your program from something ordinary to something exciting and fresh that will motivate people to participate. For example, Dunkin’ Donuts recently linked its DD Perks loyalty program to a new product launch to increase awareness about the program and its latest menu item. The coffee chain organized a special event and invited 12 DD Perks program members from various markets to taste the new Croissant Donut and awarded them with $500 Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards. At each tasting, Dunkin’ Donuts offered the first 500 customers free samples. Separately, the brand kicked off a Croissant Donut sampling tour in the Northeast and promoted the DD Perks program. The event not only built buzz around the new item, but it also generated awareness and interest in DD Perks.
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Dunkin’ Donuts tied its DD Perks loyalty program to a new product launch event to build interest.
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Promote Your Program In Stages
Loyalty programs can involve many different components and stages. But not every facet of a loyalty offering must launch at the same time. It may be more important for your brand to focus on one channel or element and refine it before rolling out other initiatives. Too many variables that occur at the same time could hamper your program.
Purina, for example, began its national My Perks loyalty program in 2013. The brand initially launched the program on social media using Facebook posts to encourage enrollment. Several months later, Purina began adding product codes to packages of cat food and rewarding consumers with points for purchases. Staged rollouts give you additional time to plan your program and work out any functionality issues that may exist. Consider promoting one channel or element first, and then move on to something else to extend the marketing life of your loyalty plan.
Loyalty programs often have several moving pieces, but brands shouldn’t feel pressured to promote everything all at once. To get more life out of a program, brands should think about promoting things in stages. With a planned, methodical approach, companies can share their program benefits and the multiple reasons why people should join over time. - Dennis Tze, Chief Revenue Officer, CrowdTwist
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Purina kicked off its loyalty program with an emphasis on social media before rolling out other components.
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Fully Integrate Your Loyalty Program Into All That You Do
While a simple advertisement at a cash register might capture some shoppers’ attention, you won’t realize the full potential of your loyalty program unless you advertise it everywhere. It’s vital to think about all the places your customers’ eyes wander—Facebook, Twitter, banner ads, print media, email, in-store signage, etc. The more you promote your loyalty program, the better results you will achieve. Be seamless with your loyalty program messaging, and integrate it everywhere your brand and customers live.
Kohl’s uses in-store signage, among other cross-channel promotional strategies, to spread the word about its new loyalty program.
As part of the plan to promote its new loyalty program, Yes2You Rewards, Kohl’s blanketed customers with marketing communications. In addition to advertising the program on its website and through signage in-store and at checkout, Kohl’s sent inserts in credit card mailers. What’s more, the brand also prompted store associates to inquire during checkout whether customers enrolled in the program. The loyalty initiative, which is optimized for mobile and Web, rewards members with one point for every dollar spent, and a $5 shopping credit after every 100 earned points. The program also features a mobile wallet component to simplify tracking, redeeming, and the sharing of rewards points with other members. This seamless program crosses multiple channels to reach consumers through the many ways they interact with the brand.
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Conclusion Building the right loyalty program, one that truly helps to differentiate your brand, requires that you offer value and keep customers engaged. Launching a program without a solid promotion strategy won’t help you move your loyalty efforts forward.
It’s crucial to abandon the “set it and forget mentality” and look for new ways to market your program. This will help you capture consumer interest and entice participation. When customers and your community recognize your effort and your unique difference from competitors, they’ll spread the word and help you grow.
About CrowdTwist CrowdTwist is an industry-leading provider of comprehensive multichannel loyalty and analytics solutions that drive engagement and incremental spend, leading to better customer data, stronger insight, and more personalized experiences. We are revolutionizing loyalty, helping top brands including Pepsi, Nestlé Purina, L’Oréal, and Zumiez develop a deeper understanding of customers. For more information, visit www.crowdtwist.com, or call 646.845.0646.
For more information contact
Dennis Tze Chief Revenue Officer dtze@crowdtwist.com Copyright © 2014 CrowdTwist. All Rights Reserved.