Reward Program

Identifying which loyalty program company is best for your business?

Be it a business or an individual, we all have placed loyalty at the top of the list. However, for businesses customer loyalty is a driving force that keeps them in the competition and to reward such loyal customers, businesses have started integrating loyalty program in their marketing strategy and keep the loyal customers.

From the large options of customer loyalty program available in the market to choose from. It often becomes a challenge for brands to figure out which loyalty program would be most effective and suitable for their business.

Hence, in this blog we will help you understand and identify the best suitable loyalty rewards program and loyalty program company to offer you best results.

Defining Basics of Loyalty Program

In its essence a loyalty program is a marketing strategy being implemented by any business or brand to reward the loyal customers and ensure repeat business from the customers. In this process brands offer various benefits such as discount coupons, gift cards, free gifts and other additional benefits.

Furthermore, the customer loyalty program is designed in such a way that it is beneficial for both the parties involved and leaves the customer with a satisfactory experience with the brand. However, it is often challenging to identify and design the perfect loyalty program for your brand which covers all the major aspects. Hence, it is recommended to get a suitable partner such as RewardPort to help you throughout the process.

The biggest benefit of integrating a loyalty program company such as RewardPort is that you can get customized loyalty program as per your requirements and pick the suitable aspects.

Benefits of Loyalty Program

Here are some of the most important benefits that you can reap off leveraging a loyalty rewards program. 

• Building customer relationships

First and foremost integrating a loyalty program in your marketing strategy would allow you to build a strong relationship with your customers, offering them a sense of belonging and connection with the brand. 

• New customer base

Once you start implementing a loyalty program your loyal customers will do a word-of-mouth marketing for your brand which would push their peers, friends and family to get an experience with your brand. Hence, expanding your customer base and helping you acquire new customers.

• Increased sales, revenue and profit

Since we have already established this will help you gain more customers it is only logical that this will further help you get more sales, generate more revenue and hence more profit as well. 

• Brand recognition 

Since more and more customers will be getting connected with your brand, and your loyal customers will be doing word-of-mouth marketing for you, this will help your brand get more recognition in the market. 

• Customer satisfaction

Customer loyalty program is one such aspect which is implemented for offering benefits to both the parties. Having said that, a loyalty program would result in certain rewards or additional benefits to the customers which would offer them a certain level of satisfaction.

What to Consider?

Now that we have established the benefits and the purpose of integrating a loyalty program in any business, let’s have a look at some key points that you need to consider when designing your customer loyalty program. 

• Data driven insights

Always look for data driven insights before you start designing any customer loyalty program for your business. Data will always help you put together a clear picture and help have a better understanding of what is required and what is expected out of this loyalty program. 

• Define the purpose 

Define the purpose of integrating a customer loyalty program in your business. Define if you are trying to expand your customer base, maintain the loyal customer base or spread a word of marketing for your business. 

• Target audience 

Next step is to get a clear understanding of your target audience. This will help you devise your strategy in a better manner. Your target audience will help you get better insights about your business plan and what you wish to achieve via the loyalty program. 

• Prioritize customer service

When designing your loyalty rewards program, always prioritize the customer services. Focus on offering your customers enhanced services. This will help your customers have a sense of connection with your brand and further allow them to create a bond with the brand.

Furthermore, prioritizing customer service will allow your customers to feel valued which is going to contribute to the success of your brand in the long run. 

• Understand the customer needs

When designing your loyalty program rewards first understand the needs of your customers, then decide for the rewards that you want to offer. Don’t go selecting random rewards that are not aligned with your customer’s needs. 

• Rewards optimization 

Optimize your rewards at a regular interval to offer the customers a fresh and new feel instead of repeating the same rewards. This will further allow the customers to look forward to the rewards with your loyalty program. Always maintain the element of surprise in the program.

Loyalty Program with RewardPort

For a brand it is important to maintain and reward loyal customers. Hence, it becomes a necessity to integrate a loyalty program in their marketing strategy. In the above discussion we have already established the contributing factors, benefits, and key points to consider while integrating a loyalty program.

Furthermore, it is important to integrate customer loyalty program with the right partner such as RewardPort where you can get the program customized as per your needs and leverage different programs and services such as Sweepstakes, CineRewardz, Scratch2Win and various others from the entire offerings.

5 loyalty rewards program that are beneficial for your brand.

For any business or brand, the one thing that keeps them going is their customer’s undying loyalty. In today’s fast paced world it is however, quite difficult to manage and build a loyal customer for a longer period of time. The reason being, short attention spans of customers and high competition in the market. For this a brand requires a loyalty rewards program to keep the loyal customers with them. 

Now, it might sound a bit complex and confusing as to how loyalty program companies are helping various brands to establish loyalty rewards program. Here in this blog, we are going to give you a walk through of the entire process of developing a loyalty programs in India.  

Understanding the Basics of Loyalty Rewards Program

A customer loyalty program is a structured and devised marketing program with an intent to retain the existing customers and expand the customer base leveraging the existing customer base. It is achieved by offering these existing customers some rewards, incentives, or any other additional benefits. 

In general these programs are point based systems to ensure a repurchase and recurring event of customer, hence ensuring customer loyalty toward the brand. These points can be redeemed in the future purchases and reap benefits from the brand as well. 

Why Integrate Loyalty Program Company?

For any brand that is looking to integrate a loyalty rewards program, they are required to do so via a loyalty program company. Since not many such loyalty program companies are existing in the market at this point, RewardPort is one of the best loyalty program companies to exist. 

Here are some of the most common benefits that a brand can reap off by integrating a loyalty rewards program. 

• Customer retention 

The most common benefit that a brand can avail from a loyalty program is that it helps you to have better customer retention. With a loyalty rewards company such as RewardPort you can leverage any of the following programs as per your preference and avail customer loyalty and customer retention.

Sweepstakes, Digiflix, and Freebucks are a few programs from RewardPort’s customer loyalty program that can be integrated. 

• Brand recognition

Another major benefit of these loyalty programs is that they help your brand to get better recognition. Since you are valuing your existing customers by offering them rewards and incentives, they are bound to do word of mouth marketing for your brand. Hence, better brand recognition. 

• Increased revenue 

Since you are retaining your old customers, by offering them points to be redeemed on their next purchase. It further helps to increase your brand’s revenue and generate more profit as well. 

• Increased customer base 

Existing customers doing word of mouth marketing leads to better brand recognition, hence increasing your customer base and allows you to get more and more customers. This further contributes to generating more revenue and more profit for the brand. 

Now, having discussed the benefits, let’s have a look at some of the best approaches of integrating a loyalty rewards program in your brand. 

5 Loyalty Rewards Program

Here are 5 best loyalty rewards program that you can integrate into your business by leveraging the services of loyalty program companies in India such as RewardPort. 

• Point based system 

One of the most common approaches that a loyalty program company would implement is a Point-based system. Here the customer is rewarded with certain points on their purchase, which can be redeemed on their next purchases allowing them to have some discounts on the purchase. 

This allows the customer to come back for another purchase in order to redeem the points. Since these point-based loyalty rewards program are free to sign up for, any brand can easily integrate these and let the customers keep coming back and ensure customer loyalty. 

• Cashback system 

Another most common approach is to have a cashback system. Loyalty programs India are integrating this approach to let the customers have a sense of satisfaction or winning after they complete a purchase. 

In this system, once a customer makes a purchase, brands can integrate loyalty program such as Scratch2Win by RewardPort and let the customer scratch the card and get a certain amount of cashback. Now this can be in the form of direct cash or a discount that can be availed on the next purchase. Hence, ensuring repurchase by the customer, and loyalty as well.  

• Tiered program 

The tiered program is a bit different from the two we have discussed above. Here, the customers are segregated into different tiers or categories and are promoted to the next tier based on their purchase. 

With a new tier, the customer also gets some additional benefits such as early access to the sale by the brand and much more. This allows the customer to reap the benefits of a tier and also shop more and more to get promoted to the next tier and again have more benefits and advantages as well. 

• Subscription program 

A lot of brands have started this subscription program as part of their customer loyalty  program. Here the customers are given subscription to a premium OTT platform or any other platform once they make a specific purchase with the brand. 

This allows the customer to feel rewarded and incentivised for making the purchase and receiving the subscription. One of the best such programs is Subscription Nation by RewardPort, one of the best loyalty program company. 

• Referral program 

The last one is the referral program where a customer gets a reward or discount or any other incentive once they refer the brand to a friend or family member and they make a purchase or sign up with the brand. This is beneficial for the brand as it helps them to get more customers and also beneficial for the customer as they get benefits out of their friends and family members making the purchase. 

What are the different forms of employee rewards programs leveraged by brands?

For any brand or a company, its employees are its backbone and strength. The only way to keep the employees for a longer period of time is to recognize and reward their efforts and hardwork. For this companies implement different strategies such as employee rewards program.

Let’s first understand what an employee rewards program is.

Decoding Employee Rewards Program

As the name itself suggests, an employee rewards program is a recognition program that a company implements in its process to recognize and reward employees for their dedication, hard work and constant efforts.

Also these are often used as employee program retention programs to ensure that an employee doesn’t leave the company abruptly. Furthermore, these programs also allow an employee to provide feedback and views on different policies of the company.

Elements for an Employee Program Success

If you are designing an employee program engagement, here are some crucial elements that you should consider including.

First and foremost, start with employee feedback. If the company takes employee feedback and implements even a few points for improvement, your employee program retention rate is already increased. This allows employees to feel valued and heard and won’t quit the company.

Secondly have a clear communication about how the performances would be monitored and how often these employee reward program would be implemented. This would keep transparency in the company and allow employees to focus better on their performance and improve the factors where they are lacking behind.

Next step, be specific about the rewards and incentives for employee performance being distributed. This would further allow the employees to set their expectations and put in more efforts to achieve the rewards that they wish to. This would allow them to perform better and give their best performance throughout the year.

Also, you need to have a clear communication about the employee program engagement. This would create an environment where all employees would feel included and valued, further allowing them to form a bond with the company.

Different Approaches of Employee Rewards Program

After discussing the basics and elements of an employee rewards program, let’s have a quick look at some of the most common approaches being implemented in companies to boost employee performance and increase retention rate as well. 

• Monetary incentives

In monetary incentives there is a fixed amount of money that is being awarded to the employee as a form of reward. This money is usually given in form of bonuses, appraisal, salary raise, or travel cards. This allows the employee to feel valued and builds a sense of belonging with the company.

For this you can partner with a loyalty program provider such as RewardPort and leverage their different services to integrate the most suitable services in your strategies.

With RewardPort you can explore CineRewardz, Subscription Nation, Free Bucks, Digiflix and others for employee rewards program. 

• Peer to peer appreciation 

It is important for the employees to get appreciated by their peers as well. For this you can ask the employees to nominate the best suitable employee as per their preference. This way not only the management, but the employees are also appreciating the efforts of their peers which further boosts their morale. 

• Non-monetary incentives 

For non-monetary incentives you can give your employees different rewards such as trips, dinner with family, extra days off. This way you are not only rewarding your employees but also providing them an experience that they can associate with the company in future. 

• Social recognition

In the digital world it is essential to offer your employees recognition on the digital platform as well. This way your employees will feel motivated to give their best performance in the future. Also, this will allow your employees to share their experiences on the digital platform, offering visibility to the employees and the brand as well. 

• Creative awards 

Get creative and reward your employees with creative and personalized gifts by offering them different titles such as ‘problem solver’, and ‘creative thinker’. These can be implemented if you have regular employee appreciation activities. Further for personalized gifts you can reward your employees with different things such as planners, bags, and shirts personalized for the employees. This way you are allowing the employees to associate the company with those objects and associate themselves more with the company and generate a sense of belonging.

Now that we have discussed the most popular employee rewards program, let’s have a quick look at the possible benefits of integrating such activities into the company strategies.

Benefits of Employee Program Growth Opportunities

Some of the major benefits observed are as follows:

• Increased employee retention rate
• Employee loyalty
• Better working conditions and environment
• Employee performance enhanced
• More growth opportunities for employees
• Increased employee engagement
• Better team communication

The above-mentioned benefits allow a company and its employees to grow together and work in better conditions for maximum output and enhanced performance.

Employee Program Engagement with RewardPort

We have established the importance of integrating an employee rewards program in a company. Also, we have talked about the most common approaches of employee  engagement program that companies employ for enhancing retention rates and boosting employee performance as well.

Furthermore, for doing all this you need a right partner that can help you achieve all this without any hassle. RewardPort is one of the leading loyalty program providers in India that can offer you such services to be integrated in your company.

Here at RewardPort you can explore different services such as CineRewardz, Digilfix, Freebucks, Sweepstakes, and others. These services are designed to offer your company loyalty programs that can be customized as per your needs as well.

Additionally, these can be integrated hassle-free and you can further keep a track of all the activities for better analysis. For more information get in touch with the expert team here at RewardPort and pick your employee rewards program today.

Building Brand Advocacy Through Loyalty Programs: Engaging and Empowering Customers

Brand advocacy has become an effective marketing strategy for modern businesses. If your customers turn into brand advocates, your brand is more likely to grow faster than ever. However, building brand loyalty and advocacy is not that easy. It requires a lot of effort and patience. But once you achieve it, your brand is going to reach the next level of success. Studies show that loyal customers spend 67% more (on average) than one-time buyers. These loyal customers are the ones who become brand advocates if you continue to provide them with good experiences.

Whether you run a loyalty program on your own or partner with a loyalty program company, here are a few tips you can consider to build brand advocacy:

1. Understand Your Customer Base

The first step in building brand loyalty is to understand your customer base properly. You should be very well aware of what your customer base looks like, their interests, and their expectations of your brand. Unless you know how your customers perceive your brand, you won’t be able to fulfill their expectations. You can start by collecting and analyzing customer data through surveys, interviews, social media listening, feedback forms, and other analytics methods.

This will help you segment your customers based on their interests and other demographics. The information you collect through analysis will also be helpful in brand positioning, messaging, and differentiation. You can also consider partnering with a loyalty program company as they have access to the right tools and technologies required to collect and analyze customer data.

2. Focus On Delivering Value

Many companies just keep investing in marketing and advertisements without even understanding whether their customers consider it valuable or not. Instead of just marketing your products or services, you should focus more on delivering value to your customers. Ensure that you deliver what your brand promises. This is why the above step, i.e. understanding customers, becomes essential to identify what they value.

Try to offer the best quality and improve the value proposition by offering warranties, free trials, discounts, rewards, cashback, etc. Customers have plenty of options to choose from. You need to give them a strong reason to choose your brand by offering value and quality. Studies suggest that consumers would rather go for an expensive product with good quality instead of a low-budget product with average quality.

3. Build Trust by Engaging With Your Customers

When it comes to boosting customer loyalty, building strong relationships with your customers becomes extremely important. You can not expect your customers to make repeat purchases if they do not trust your brand. Engaging with your customers through social media or communicating properly with them when they visit your offline store are some important steps you can follow to make them trust your brand.

Post social media content or blog posts that your customers can relate to, try to reply to every customer comment or query you receive, and make them feel valued. These things require only a little effort but can have a big impact on your brand reputation. You can also use customer reviews or testimonials to build brand trust among your customers.

4. Empower Your Customers

The next step in the journey is to empower your customers to become brand advocates. Provide them with the opportunity to share their reviews, feedback, or experience with your brand through social media or any other platform. You can even reward them for doing so. When your customers are actually satisfied with your products and with the loyalty rewards you offer, they are more likely to become brand advocates and promote your brand through ‘word of mouth’ marketing.

To motivate your customers to promote your brand, you can offer referral incentives or run social media campaigns that require them to post stories about your brand in order to win some prizes. Although many of your customers might be promoting your brand even without any rewards, you can increase your reach by running such incentive programs.

5. Align Reward Programs with Your Brand Vision

The reward programs you implement should be aligned with the culture and vision of your brand. Identify the brand objectives that you intend to achieve with a loyalty program and plan for the program accordingly. A loyalty program that works for some other brand might not be suitable for your business. Every brand has different objectives and the reward programs should be implemented according to these goals.

Improve Brand Loyalty With Effective Reward Programs

Loyalty programs do not only help you improve customer loyalty, but are also very effective in improving customer experience, brand advocacy, and brand reputation. However, it’s important to understand your brand objectives before implementing a loyalty program. If this is something that you find challenging, you can partner with loyalty program companies like RewardPort. With rewards starting from as low as Rs. 10, their team of marketing experts can design the most suitable loyalty program for your business as per your requirements and your customer’s interests.

What are Different Loyalty Programs Being Introduced by Brands for Increasing Sales?

Every brand is looking out for loyal customers, and channel partners who will always be there, making purchases from the brand and supporting the brand in their own way. These loyal customers and channel partners are the strength of any brand and based on this relationship and bond, brands run certain campaigns to recognise and reward these loyal partners.

To make their place and sustain in this highly competitive market, brands are trying out different strategies, and making their own plans to mark their identity in the market. In this process brands are recognising and rewarding the loyal customers and channel partners Program for their support and efforts via loyalty program.

What is a Loyalty Program?

Loyalty program is a marketing strategy implemented by a brand to recognise and reward loyal customers and channel partners. These strategies are devised in a manner that they can make these loyal partners feel valued, motivated and appreciated for their loyalty and efforts.

However, loyalty programs differ from brand to brand, depending on their internal strategies, audience base, marketing plans, and other factors. These can be further categorised into different segments such as:

• Paid Program: a certain amount of money is paid to get access to the VIP club or group for added benefits on a monthly or annual basis.
• Point Program: on every purchase customers receive some points that can be redeemed on their next purchase or they can use them to get some form of discounts.
• Tier Program: similar to a point program only, but here with a fixed number of points customers are upgraded to a new tier with added benefits.
• Value Program: with every purchase the brand donates some amount of money to a value added program such as child education, hunger relief, etc to make the customer remember the brand for a long period of time and make them feel the satisfaction of contributing to some good deeds.

Further depending on the needs and requirements of the brand these loyalty programs can be modified and implemented in the brand strategies. One important thing to consider is that partnering with a loyalty program provider is essential as their expertise and professional approach can help you strategies the loyalty program with ease.

Loyalty program provider RewardPort is one such company that can help you modify, and implement these loyalty programs as per the requirements of your brand. Here with RewardPort you can browse through their wide range of programs available such as CineRewards, Sweepstakes, Freebucks, Digiflix, Subscription Nation, etc. These loyalty programs are developed in such a way that they can be easily integrated with any brand and their marketing strategies.

Benefits of Loyalty Program

Every practice and strategy in the field of sales and marketing is added for some benefits and with a goal of either increasing the sales or increasing brand recognition in the market. Here are some of the most common benefits that your brand can avail by implementing a loyalty program.

• Customer Retention

When any brand implements a loyalty program it recognises, rewards and appreciates the loyalty of customers in different ways. This makes the customers feel valued, and heard which strengthens their loyalty and bond with the brand, further continuing their journey with the brand.

Loyalty programs can include programs such as Digiflix, CineRewards, Subscription Nation by RewardPort for a more effective approach.

• Increased Order Value

If the customer feels valued via these loyalty programs, they are more likely to place orders for more items by the brand, hence, increasing the order value and giving more profit to the brand.

• Increased Revenue

Feeling valued pushes the customers to make more purchases which increases the sales of the brand and hence they generate more revenue compared to the others. This small act of appreciation allows the brand to achieve more heights and grow more.

• High Brand Recognition

Appreciated customers are more likely to refer the brand to their peers which will increase the brand recognition in the market, making more and more people get associated with the brand.

• Word of Mouth Marketing

Another benefit is that the appreciated customers tend to talk about their experience with the brand which does a word of mouth marketing for the brand, and this can be highly influential for their peers and others with whom they are discussing this about.

• Expanded Customer Base

Talking more about the brand with the peers influences them to join the brand and avail loyalty benefits like their friends are availing. This provides the brand with new customers and helps them expand their customer base to a whole new level.

Functioning of a Loyalty Program

Now that we have discussed the benefits of implementing a loyalty program, you need to understand how these programs work, and how you can incorporate them into your brand strategies for more benefits.

• Brand recognition
• Customer awareness
• Purchase
• Sign up with company
• Data collection
• Rewards and discount coupons

Once a customer is enrolled with a brand this cycle keeps on going and new customers keep on adding following the same cycle, forming a never ending loop.

RewardPort Loyalty Program

In this environment of cut throat competition to get the customer’s attention and get the customer loyalty, having a right partner to help you achieve that goal is necessary.

RewardPort is one such partner that you will need to achieve growth and customer loyalty. It is one of the leading loyalty program company that one can indulge with for different customised and personalised loyalty programs.

It consists of programs in a wide range from CineRewards, Digiflix, Subscription Nation, Sweepstakes, Freebucks and others. These programs are designed in such a way to be integrated into any brand’s strategies and help them develop their loyalty programs.

For more details get in touch with the expert team of RewardPort today.

Frequently Asked Questions: –

1. What are the benefits of implementing a loyalty program for a business?

While implementing a loyalty program it will help the business to retain its customers and also attract new customers hence generating more sales and more profit for the company.

2.What types of rewards are commonly offered in loyalty programs?

Commonly discount coupons, vouchers, redeemable points are rewards being provided in the loyalty program to the customers. However, few brands depending on their budgets and other factors can also provide their own merchandise as well.

3.How can customers enroll in a loyalty program?

For enrolling in a loyalty program, customers can engage with the brands while making their purchases and provide their contact information along with other required details. From this database brands can develop their loyalty program.

Impact of Gamification Rewards Program in Increasing Sales

There has been a time where all of us have been hooked to those video games and screens for hours. But have you ever wondered what was the reason behind that? The adrenaline rush, exciting graphics and details, better storyline, challenges- may be all of these.

Similar gamification concepts have been introduced by various brands as a part of their sales promotion or other marketing activities. Reason behind this is to provide the reward-winning experience to the customers which will push them to make more purchases.

What is a Gamification Rewards Program?

As already mentioned that brands are also incorporating similar aspects, here are few things that you need to understand about the gamification rewards program, and its benefits along with impact on the industry.

Gamification is the process that is introduced in the rewards program to make them more interesting for the customers and make them feel involved in the whole process. Gamification can be done in different ways such as spin the wheel, scratch cards, or treasure hunts, referrals, badges etc.

All these activities makes the customer feel more involved in the entire process of making the purchase and tends to remember the brand as the overall shopping experience is being uplifted here.

Some of the benefits of introducing gamification to rewards programs are:

• Brand Recognition & Awareness

When you introduce gamification in sales activities, buyers tend to remember your brand as the gamification process has enhanced their overall experience and made it interesting. This will help them remember your brand for a long time and generate more brand awareness & recognition.

• Increased Customer Engagement

Interesting gamification processes will intrigue your customers to get involved in the process which will increase customer engagement in your brand. This will eventually get your brand more customers and help you expand your customer base.

• Appealing for Customers

Gamification process is appealing for customers, and the reward-winning adrenaline rush pushes them to make a purchase to see the reward they might get. This makes the overall experience for the customer interesting and satisfying.

• Increased Sales & Revenue

Because the overall process is made interesting for the customers, this can enhance the sales and earned revenue. Once customers are intrigued they will keep on making purchases due to the reward addiction and hence, your brand will have increased sales and revenue.

• Word of Mouth Brand Marketing

When the overall sales process is made satisfying and interesting for the customers they will be referring the brand to their peers and hence doing a cost-effective word of mouth marketing for your brand.

Additionally, gamification rewards program can be incorporated into any brand’s strategies by partnering with the right loyalty program provider such as RewardPort whose wide range of products and services can be implemented to introduce gamification in sales process and hence increasing the sales.

RewardPort offers Gamification to introduce different types of processes such as spin the wheel, treasure hunts, slot machine pop ups, etc, to make the process interactive for the customers.

How to Integrate Gamification Rewards Program?

Before starting on the how, you need to answer a few questions for a better understanding and vision of the gamification process.

• What are your goals?
• What is your target audience?
• What is your objective?
• What is your budget?

Once you have answered these questions, you now have a clear understanding of the basics of the gamification process and what to expect out of it. Let’s dive into the process of integrating the gamification rewards program into your brand strategies.

• Identify the audience
• Understand their needs and requirements
• Identify the interest areas of the audience
• Figure out what kind of gamification activities interests the audience
• Introduce an element of surprise
• Make the reward worth the gamification process

Following the above-mentioned process, once you have developed the initial gamification for your audience, based on the constant feedback and activities you can alter the process and make it more interesting for your audience.

Different Gamification Reward Programs

Although the need to introduce the gamification process entirely depends on the needs and goals of the brand, here are some of the most common gamification introduced in the reward programs.

• Badges

For making a fixed number or amount of purchases you offer the customers with different badges and showcase their journey with the brand. This allows them to bond with the brand and form a sense of belonging and makes them feel a part of the family, hence, more purchases. It further intrigues the customers to reach the highest badge and have the sense of winning.

• Gamified Surveys and Quizzes

You can make data collection gamified and interesting for the customers, this way they will provide their data and won’t feel bored. Making this process interesting you can add certain pop ups to select the items from, and portray it in a story form which is interesting for the customer.

• Treasure Hunts

Be it online or offline, you can incorporate treasure hunts for customers to put in some extra efforts and win the rewards. This will make the customers feel involved in the entire gamification process and hence, form a bond with the brand.

• Spin the Wheel

This tends to be one of the most basic and commonly used gamification tactics. Once the customer spins the wheel and it lands on a certain prize, the customer is awarded that price. This is interesting as it keeps up the suspense and intrigues the customer about the prize.

You can introduce Spin the Wheel Gamification Rewards Program by RewardPort for a more effective process.

Gamification with RewardPort

With RewardPort you can also include processes such as scratch cards with their Scartch2Win program and also incorporate the leaderboard which shows the top winning customers. This makes other customers buy more products from the brand and see their name on top of the leaderboard.

Furthermore, once a customer reaches the top of the leaderboard they are given an additional reward which creates a sense of victory for the customer and hence, they form a loyalty bond with the company, also referring the same to their peers.

For more information you can get in touch with the experts here at RewardPort and get your gamification rewards program customised as per the needs of your brand.

Employee Engagement: Appreciating the Efforts and Hardwork

A most often asked question, yet most people cannot answer it correctly- what’s the strength of a company? People tend to neglect the most basic element of any company- its employees.

If your company’s employees are loyal toward the company, no one can stop the brand and its employees from growing and achieving great heights. Although it has been already said enough, it’s a fact that if you take care of the employees, they will take care of the brand. Hence, having an effective employee engagement program is necessary for a brand.

Key Points to Consider

Understanding the basics of employee engagement is necessary before you start strategizing the engagement program for your organisation. Here are a few points that need to be considered before developing any employee engagement program.

• Clear Assessments

Have a clear assessment of the purpose of the employee engagement program and consider all the factors that you would like to highlight.

• Understanding Employee Needs

Give some thought to the needs of the employees, learn what they need and how you can fulfil their needs with this program.

• Objectives of the Program 

Make the objective of the program clear with everyone and avoid any kind of bias or confusion.

• Clear Communication 

Make a clear communication about the objective and goals of the program, along with the criteria of assessment if any.

• Leadership 

Let the leaders step in and appreciate the efforts and hard work of the employees and make them feel motivated.

• Brand Value

Try to incorporate the values and vision of the organisation in this program as well, as to make the employees feel valued and seen.

Benefits of Employee Engagement

Just like any other campaign or program run by the organisation, the employee engagement program also plays an important role in the company. Here are some of the most common and visible benefits of integrating an employee engagement program.

• Employee Retention

Integrating employee engagement programs in the culture of any organisation will help the employees to put their thoughts forward, share their experiences and grievances if any. This provides management a chance to solve these issues beforehand and hence, provides satisfaction, sense of value to the employees which helps to retain them.

• Motivation to Employees

For any employee motivation is the key to work harder, these engagement programs work as a boost and motivation to the employees to give their best and perform better.

• Recognition & Rewards

The purpose of employee engagement is to recognise & reward the hardworking and best performing employees. These rewards & recognition work as a boost for the employees to perform better and get recognised by the organisation.

• Feedbacks on Policies

This can also allow employees to offer their feedback on the policies set by the management and get the management to change the policies for a better work culture. This will make the employees feel heard, and values which pushes them for better work.

• Understanding Needs & Problems 

This can be a bonding moment for the employees and the management, where they can understand each other better, their needs and problems and expectations which make the overall working environment better and easier for the employees.

• Celebrating Achievements 

Celebrating employees achievements is another form of employee engagement activity that can make the employees feel recognised and appreciated.

• Enhanced Productivity 

A motivated employee always works better, and with increased productivity. This increased productivity comes from exciting employee engagement activities.

• Sense of Satisfaction 

With these employee engagement activities when employees are recognised and rewarded for their efforts and hard work, they get a sense of satisfaction which further motivates them to work even harder and better.

Different Employee Engagement Activities to be Included

Although the employee engagement program can differ from company to company depending on their budget and other factors. But here are a few most common employee engagement activities that you can integrate into your company.

• Recognition and Rewards

Management can recognise the efforts and hard work of the employees and provide them with different rewards depending on their performance and preferences. Here you can give your employees discount coupons, vouchers, movie tickets, even free products as a token of appreciation.

You can further involve loyalty program providers such as RewardPort and integrate their different programs such as CineRewards, Sweepstakes, Scratch2Win, Freebucks, etc.

• Bonding Activities 

Here the management can plan to organise lunch or dinner or any other kind of bonding activity that can help the employees bond with each other and further perform better as a team.

• Team Outings 

Taking employees out for movies can be a great fun activity to do which can help them relax and feel free. You can integrate CineRewards by RewardPort as a loyalty program and avail such more exciting programs.

• Promoting Work Life Balance

Companies can offer their employees with vouchers and gift cards or spas, or restaurants to enjoy with their families, promoting the value of work life balance. For such programs you can involve My Choice of Gift by RewardPort and many other programs by the brand.

• Employee Health Check 

Employee health is one of the key factors that a company has to keep in mind. To ensure the employee’s health is optimum you can offer them coupons for blood checkups and other medical aspects.

• Additional Trainings 

For constant growth learning is essential and it can come from taking up new and advanced training sessions in the concerned fields. These trainings will help employees to evaluate their own skills and learn additional skills to survive in the cut throat competitive market.

RewardPort Employee Engagement Program

A leading provider of loyalty programs, RewardPort has been working in the industry for a long period of time and offers various loyalty programs for brands to choose from. These loyalty programs can be incorporated into any brand and their strategies.

These programs are customised as per the needs of the brand and monitored closely by the expert and highly professional team of RewardPort. Additionally, these programs have helped companies retain customers, employees and boost their sales activities.

For more information you can get in touch with the experts here at RewardPort and learn more about our different products and services being offered.

Top 10 Loyalty Programs in India in 2022 vs. 2023

Attracting customers and retaining them is not an easy task, especially in such a competitive market. Every brand is trying to offer its customers something better than the competitors in order to retain its loyal customers. Businesses are doing this through loyalty programs that are aimed at retaining customers by rewarding them for every purchase they make. Running and managing a loyalty program is not as easy as it might seem to be. From choosing the right program to running it effectively, you need to take every step carefully.

Most of the successful brands are running a loyalty program in India. Looking at some best types of programs can help you understand how different programs work and what can work for your customers.

What is a Loyalty Program?

A loyalty program is a marketing and promotional strategy businesses use to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Under a loyalty program, brands offer rewards, incentives, or other type of benefits to their customers in return for their loyalty. The more a customer purchases, the more rewards they earn. Businesses run many different types of customer loyalty programs based on their objectives and requirements. The primary goal of a loyalty program is to boost repeat business by retaining loyal customers. Its secondary goals include attracting new customers, improving brand reputation, and increasing customer satisfaction.

With every passing year, brands are coming up with new innovative ideas to run effective loyalty programs. The way loyalty programs used to be a few decades ago is too different from the programs that work today. Now, you cannot cheer up your customers just with warm greetings, but they expect a lot more in return for their loyalty.

Top Loyalty Programs of 2022

Here is the list of some top customer loyalty programs that were most effective in the year 2022 and are expected to remain effective for more coming years:

1. Community-Based Loyalty Programs

Community-based loyalty programs, as you can understand from the name, are programs that focus on creating an online community for people who share similar interests. Along with rewarding customers for their purchases and loyalty, a community-based loyalty program aims to retain customers by making them feel like they are a part of the brand’s community. Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is one of the greatest examples of this type of loyalty program.

2. Rewards-Based Loyalty Programs

Be it 2022 or 2023, rewards-based loyalty programs have always been in trend. These are among the most widely used programs where customers earn some sort of reward points after every purchase they make. These points are also known as loyalty points. Customers can redeem these points against a host of options offered by the respective brand. However, a rewards-based program is only effective when the points you offer are valuable and are redeemable against some useful options. Running a rewards program without understanding the interests of your customers can be quite risky.

3. Mission-Based Loyalty Programs

With Mission-Based loyalty programs, brands provide their customers with an opportunity to give back to the community without paying anything extra from their pocket. Many companies run these types of loyalty marketing programs that are not just unique but are also very effective in making customers feel good about a brand and retaining them. Mission-based loyalty programs are similar to rewards programs, where customers earn rewards after every purchase and redeem the earned points for charity.

For example, suppose a customer has earned 10,000 points with the monetary value of each point being Re. 0.25. Now, the customer can choose a charity option to redeem the points and an equivalent amount, i.e. Re. 2,500 gets donated to the selected charity in the customer’s name.

4. Subscription-Based Loyalty Programs

Subscription-based programs are quite different as customers need to pay a fee in order to participate in the program. Many top brands run paid loyalty programs, where customers can get exclusive benefits by paying a nominal annual or monthly fee. These programs can be designed in many different ways. Some subscription-based loyalty programs have different levels with every level having a different fee and different benefits. A level with the highest subscription fee has the most premium benefits and the one with low or no fee has basic benefits. These programs can be considered as the paid version of tiered loyalty programs.

5. Cashback-Based Loyalty Programs

Cashback-based programs are loyalty marketing programs where customers earn some percentage of cashback after every purchase they make. The cashback percentage may be the same for every purchase or may vary based on the amount of purchase. Some brands offer a fixed percentage of cashback to every customer irrespective of the amount they spend. On the other hand, other brands offer cashback on the basis of the amount spent by a customer. The more a customer spends, the higher the percentage of cashback he/she earns.

Top Trending Loyalty Programs in 2023

The programs that were run by brands earlier in 2022 are still running effectively. However, the following are some best loyalty programs in India in 2023 that you can consider if you are planning to run a new program for your customers:

1. Tiered Loyalty Programs

Tier-based or level-based programs are among the most popular retail loyalty programs in 2023. In a tiered loyalty program, there are multiple tiers with different rewards and benefits. With each higher tier come better rewards and incentives. These are quite different from subscription-based programs as subscription-based programs allow customers to choose a level by paying the respective fee. On the other hand, tier-based programs promote customers to higher levels as they make more and more purchases. These types of programs encourage customers to make purchases more often in order to earn better rewards.

2. Coalition Programs

Coalition programs are loyalty programs that a brand runs in partnership with other businesses. As a brand owner, you can partner with a loyalty program company, which runs and manages the loyalty program for your customers. RewardPort is one of the best loyalty solution providers to consider. Based on your business requirements, goals, and your customers’ interests, RewardPort can run a loyalty program that works effectively for your customer base.

3. Gamified Loyalty Programs

The concept of combining loyalty programs with gamification strategies has become quite popular these days. Most of the successful retail loyalty programs in 2023 have some sort of gamification that makes it interesting for the customers. Some best examples of gamified loyalty programs include ‘Scratch to Win’ contests, top spenders leaderboards, badge-based programs, referral contests, etc. Gamification is a great way to build healthy competition among your customers and encourage them to spend more on your brand.

4. Hybrid Loyalty Programs

Many companies also run hybrid loyalty programs, where customers can earn regular rewards as well as some additional benefits. In simple words, it is a combination of multiple loyalty programs with different types of rewards and benefits. Running a hybrid program is a great way to stand out from the competition and attract more customers by offering multiple benefits. Though these programs can be quite expensive, you can retain most of your loyal customers if you implement the program in the right manner.

5. Store Credit-Based Loyalty Programs

Store credit-based loyalty programs are similar to cashback-based programs, where customers earn store-specific rewards. For every purchase a customer makes, he/she earns some sort of points that can only be redeemed against future purchases from the same brand. Instead of offering multiple redemption options, these programs allow customers to redeem their points against the brand they have purchased from. When customers have some rewards to redeem against a particular brand, there are high chance that they will return back to the brand and make a purchase.

Why Choose RewardPort as Your Loyalty Program Partner?

To run an effective loyalty program aligning with your business objectives, you must have a thorough understanding of how these programs work and what can make your customers come back. Many top brands that are running the best loyalty programs in India already trust RewardPort. This is what RewardPort’s marketing experts team can do for you. They analyze every small detail of your business and look at your customers’ interests to find out what works best for your brand. With rewards starting from as low as Rs. 10, you can start a loyalty program that is affordable yet effective.

15 Customer Incentive Programs & How to Boost Their Results

The idea of running loyalty incentive programs to attract and retain customers has become very popular now. To keep up with the competition, brands are providing their customers with more rewards and incentives than ever before. Studies suggest that consumers are more likely to stay loyal to a brand that offers more rewards and discounts. However, rewards and other perks are not the only factors that contribute to building brand loyalty. Even running a charity-based or community-based program is a very effective strategy. Here is the list of some top customer incentive program ideas:

1. Cashback Programs

In cashback-based loyalty incentive programs, customers get a percentage of their spent amount back. If you run a cashback program, you can fix the percentage of cashback that your customers earn on each purchase. In most cashback-based incentive programs, the percentage of cashback increases as spending increases.

For example, you can offer a 3% cashback on spends up to Rs. 1,000, 5% cashback on spends between Rs. 1,000 & Rs. 3,000, and a 10% cashback on spends beyond Rs. 3,000. After your customers pay the bill, credit the cashback via their preferred payment mode. When they receive a percentage of their spending back, they are encouraged to purchase from you again in order to save some money.

2. Discount-Based Programs

Discount-based programs are very effective in retaining loyal customers and encouraging them to make more frequent purchases. In this type of loyalty program, you can offer your customers a discount coupon after every purchase they make. This discount coupon can either be redeemed against their current purchase or they can save it for future purchases. However, offering discounts for future purchases with a limited period of validity is a better idea. Just like the cashback-based programs, you can increase the value of discount coupons as the spending of your customers increases.

3. Loyalty Points

Customer incentive programs that offer loyalty points are among the most widely used loyalty programs. Under a loyalty points-based program, customers earn some form of reward points after every purchase they make. The percentage of loyalty points is fixed by the brand and customers get rewarded accordingly. These reward points can later be redeemed against various options that are provided by the respective brand. When running a points-based loyalty program, you must ensure that you offer valuable rewards and provide some interesting redemption options against them. One of the biggest reasons why many points-based loyalty programs fail is that they don’t offer valuable rewards or useful redemption options.

4. Store Credit

Store credit-based loyalty programs are similar to cashback programs. In this, you offer a special kind of cashback that can only be used against your store purchases. Therefore, it’s like offering small discounts for future purchases. Many e-commerce companies are using this loyalty program to boost their customer retention rates. You can create a separate loyalty portal for your customers. Every time they make a purchase, the eligible store credit points are credited to their loyalty portal and they can redeem it any time they want.

5. Tiered Reward Programs

Tier-based loyalty incentive programs have also gained significant popularity in the last few years. In a tier-based loyalty program, there are different levels of loyalty and customers earn higher rewards with every increasing level. These programs are generally divided into three or more tiers. The more a customer purchases, the higher tier they get promoted to. As they enter a higher tier, they get a higher reward rate and also some additional benefits. These programs are effective in motivating customers to spend more in order to earn higher benefits.

6. Charity-Based Reward Programs

Charity-based reward programs are very similar to loyalty points-based ones. In this program as well, customers earn reward points after every purchase they make. The only difference is that the reward points here are redeemable only against charity donations. Many consumers prefer brands that take social causes into consideration. By allowing your customer to donate to charity without spending a single extra penny, you can create a big impact. Just make sure you provide multiple charity options so your customers can donate to a social cause of their choice.

7. Choice-Centred Loyalty Programs

These loyalty programs are rare but interesting. In a choice-centered loyalty program, you can allow your customers to choose rewards of their choice. They can choose to earn any one of the reward points, cashback, or store credit. Not every customer might be interested in the hassle of earning reward points and redeeming them. Some may prefer loyalty points and others might like to earn cashback or store credit. By running a choice-centered customer incentive program, you can give your customers the flexibility to get rewarded as they want.

8. Gamified Reward Programs

Gamified reward programs are loyalty incentive programs combined with gamification strategies. You can run leaderboards contests on social media, ‘spin the wheel’ contests on your website, sweepstakes, top spenders offer, etc, to improve customer engagement and boost loyalty. Including gamification strategies in your loyalty program is one of the best ways to make your program exciting for your customers. A loyalty program is successful only when customers are interested in it.

9. Subscription-Based Programs

These are paid loyalty programs, under which customers need to pay a fee in order to avail of the program’s benefits. However, subscription-based programs do not work for every business. Before implementing a paid loyalty incentive program, you must ensure that your customers are really interested in the rewards you are offering. A good idea is to include a paid and an unpaid version in your loyalty program. Customers can either choose to earn basic rewards by opting for the free version or they can earn more premium rewards by opting for the paid program.

10. Spend-Based Rewards

Spend-based reward programs work amazingly when your goal is to make your customer spend more every time they visit your store or website. You can run a spend-based rewards program, where customers do not earn rewards on every purchase but they get rewarded only on spending beyond a certain amount. You can include multiple spend thresholds and add different rewards for each spend threshold. For example, your customers get a 15% discount on spending Rs. 2,000 or more, a 20% discount on spending Rs. 5,000 or more, and a 30% discount on spending Rs. 10,000 or more.

11. Rewards for Top Spenders

Along with your continuous rewards or cashback-based loyalty incentive program, you can run top spenders’ offer. Under this, customers who spend the maximum amount in a month or quarter are rewarded with some premium gifts. You can choose the top three spenders of the month or quarter and gift them some free products from your brand or even from some other brand. Many e-commerce brands run such offers, where top spiders can win premium gifts such as free TVs, mobile phones, earphones, etc.

12. Referral Rewards Program

A referral program is not just a great way to expand your customer base but is also very effective in boosting your customer engagement. In a referral program, you ask your customers to refer a friend and get rewarded for each successful referral. To make your program more interesting for your customers, you can add different levels to it. For example, offer them a 5% discount coupon when they refer a friend, a 10% discount coupon when the friend signs up, and finally, a 25% discount coupon when the friend makes his/her first purchase.

13. Early Access to Sales

It is not fair to treat your loyal customers equally to the non-loyal ones. Loyal customers are valuable and you must show them that you value them more. One of the best ways to do it is to provide them with early access to the sales and discount offers at your store or website. If you are launching a three-day flash sale, give your registered users access to it 24 hours earlier than the actual start time of the sale. This doesn’t only make your existing customers feel valued but also encourages non-registered users to register on your website.

14. Community-Based Programs

As the name suggests, community-based programs are not just about offering rewards or loyalty points but creating an online community of customers who share the same interests. You can build an online platform where customers can accumulate rewards and also share their views with each other. Building an online community is another great way to encourage loyalty among your customers. Once they join your brand’s community, they consider themselves an important part of your brand and are more likely to stay loyal.

15. Free Perks Programs

Everyone loves free gifts. If the rewards or cashback-based programs do not seem exciting to you, you can simply go with a free perks-based loyalty program. Every time your customers make a purchase, you offer them something for free. The free gift can be as small as a hair clip to as large as a travel bag from some premium brand. Based on the spending made by your customer, you can provide them with free gifts and motivate them to come back to your store.

Run Your Loyalty Incentive Program With RewardPort

To build an effective and suitable loyalty program aligning with your business requirements, you need to put a lot of time and effort into it. This is why partnering with loyalty program companies like RewardPort is always a good idea. RewardPort is one of the top reward and loyalty solution providers in India. The team of experienced marketing professionals at RewardPort analyzes all your business needs and comes up with effective loyalty solutions that work for your business.

5 B2B Rewards Programs for Consumer Products Businesses

Although loyalty programs are more popular among B2C brands, these can also work amazingly well for B2B businesses. As the competition is really high in the market, almost every business is running a loyalty program to attract potential customers and retain them. Running a loyalty program for a B2B brand can be quite challenging, but with the right strategies, you can make your loyalty program successful and bring immense success to your business. Before planning a loyalty program for your B2B brand, you need to keep a lot of things in mind. The most important thing to understand here is that B2B loyalty programs are different from the ones that work for B2C businesses.

You need to analyze your business requirements and your customers’ needs before implementing a loyalty program. Let us help you understand what B2B loyalty programs are, how are they different, and what are the best loyalty program ideas for B2B businesses:

How Are B2B Loyalty Programs Different From B2C Loyalty Programs?

One major difference between B2B and B2C businesses arises in the size of their customer base. As B2B businesses generally have a smaller customer base, they can customize their loyalty programs to provide each customer with personalized experiences and fit the requirements of each customer. Moreover, B2B loyalty programs need better communication as you need to communicate with each customer separately for encouraging them to participate in your program. Another significant difference between B2B and B2C loyalty programs is that rewards need to be more premium in the case of B2B programs.

5 Effective B2B Loyalty Program Ideas

Here are some top loyalty program ideas to boost B2B customer engagement and improve loyalty:

1. Offer Transaction Based Discounts

Discounts work amazingly well in boosting customer loyalty as well as in improving brand reputation. After your customer makes a purchase, provide them with a discount coupon that they can redeem against the current or future purchase. Discount offers are not just beneficial for your customers, but also for your business. Customers are likely to purchase more at discounted prices and as a result, your overall sales increase. Discount-based loyalty programs can be advantageous in boosting B2B brand loyalty in many ways.

Customers always prefer to buy items at sale and hence discount offers can attract new customers to your business. When they get items at lower prices multiple times, they are more likely to make future purchases from your business and stay connected with you for a longer period. Discount-based offers can be of different types. You can either offer a fixed percentage of discount to all your customers or offer higher discounts to customers who spend more.

For example, you can offer a 10% discount to customers who buy 100 units of a product and a 20% discount to those who buy more than 300 units. Another example is to offer a 10% discount to all customers irrespective of the units they purchase. To boost sales, the first offer seems to work more effectively.

2. Run a Rewards-Based Loyalty Program

A rewards based loyalty program works for almost every type of business, including B2B and B2C businesses. However, there can be a difference in the implementation of rewards programs for B2B companies. With this type of loyalty program, you can allow your customers to earn some reward points for every purchase they make and redeem these rewards against exciting vouchers or discount coupons. Make sure that you offer some exciting redemption options that can encourage your customers to earn more and more reward points.

You can fix the number of loyalty reward points against a certain spend amount and allow your customers to earn rewards accordingly. Also, the monetary value of these reward points can be fixed by you as per your preference. You can even keep the monetary value higher for some redemption options and lower for others. For example, suppose you offer 500 Reward Points for every spend of Rs. 10,000, where the value of each reward point is equivalent to Re. 1 for redemption against your products and it is Re. 0.5 for redemption against other options, such as vouchers or discount coupons of other brands.

With these loyalty programs, customers are encouraged to spend more in order to earn more rewards. And when you offer a higher monetary value of reward points for redemption against your products, customers are more likely to make repeat purchases in order to use their reward points. Reward and loyalty solution companies like RewardPort can help you run such loyalty programs and boost B2B brand loyalty.

3. Use Tiered Incentives

Offering tiered incentives is one of the fairest ways to treat your most loyal customers the best. Tier-based loyalty programs are also among the most popular types of loyalty programs for B2B companies. You can divide your loyalty program into different tiers, where a higher tier comes with better rewards and benefits. The more customer purchases, the higher tier they get promoted to. This is a great way to encourage your customers to purchase more frequently in order to get into the upper tier and receive more premium benefits.

For example, let’s suppose you run a loyalty program having three tiers. Your customers enter the first tier after they make their first purchase and receive a 5% discount coupon after every purchase in this tier. This discount coupon can be redeemed against future purchases. After spending a certain amount on your business or after making a specific number of purchases, they enter the second tier and receive a 10% discount coupon after every purchase. Similarly, they enter the third tier after fulfilling the pre-specified conditions and receive a 15% discount coupon after every purchase in this tier.

4. Stimulate Co-Marketing and Support Activities

Co-marketing activities do not just help you boost customer loyalty but also allow you to strengthen relationships with your customers. Provide your B2B customers with the marketing resources and allow them to expand their business as it is ultimately going to benefit your business as well. You can allow their marketing teams to work with your marketing experts and make better sales strategies together. You can mention their business in your advertisements and marketing campaigns to help them get a better reach.

For example, as a manufacturer of home decor products, most of your customers will be retail home decor shop owners. When you advertise your products, you can mention the addresses of your customers’ shops from where your end consumers can buy these products. This will not only help your customers but also improve your marketing campaigns.

5. Offer Referral Incentives

Referral incentives or discounts are one of the most effective loyalty programs with dual benefits. One, you can boost loyalty in your existing customers. Two, you can acquire new customers with minimum effort. In a referral loyalty program, you incentivize your customers to recommend your brand to their friends. The referral incentives can be in the form of rewards, discount coupons, or any other benefit that is exciting enough to encourage your customers to participate in this program.

To make the program more interesting, you can even add different incentives at different stages of referral. For example, suppose you run a discount-based referral program. In this, your customers get a 5% discount coupon when they refer a friend and they get another 10% discount coupon when the friend makes their first purchase. Along with acquiring new customers, this is a great way to boost B2B customer engagement.

Run the Best B2B Loyalty Program With RewardPort

RewardPort, being one of the top rewards and loyalty solution providers in India, can help you build a customized loyalty program for your business. The team of marketing experts at RewardPort makes sure that every detail of your business is taken into consideration and that the loyalty program is planned accordingly. A B2B rewards program is successful when it aligns with your business requirements and fulfills your customers’ interests. This is what RewardPort can do for you.

How to Run a Loyalty Rewards Program as a Small Business?

Running a loyalty rewards program is the best way to retain existing customers. It can also help you attract new customers by setting your brand apart from the competitors. With increasing competition in the market, more businesses are recognizing the need for customer loyalty. Encouraging customers to stay loyal has become a challenge for businesses, especially for the small ones, as customers have lots of options to choose from in the market.

This is where loyalty programs come into play. Almost every business, from average to large-sized, is running a loyalty program today. But for small businesses, it is not very practical to spend a lot on loyalty programs. However, with a proper strategy, small businesses can create effective loyalty rewards programs under their budget. Before you start looking for a loyalty program provider, you must understand why loyalty programs are so important for a business:

Why is a Loyalty Rewards Program Important?

Studies suggest that acquiring new customers can be 5 to 25% more expensive than retaining the existing ones. Though it is essential to attract your target audience, focusing more on customer loyalty can take your brand to another level. Customer loyalty matters even more for small businesses, which can not spend much on customer acquisition.

In today’s competitive market, it becomes challenging to motivate your customers to stay loyal when they have a lot of other options. But with an effective loyalty program, you can keep your customers coming back again and again. With these programs, you can reward your customers for every purchase they make. It makes them feel that they are receiving something in return for their spend. As a result, they are encouraged to make repeat purchases to earn more rewards.

Some of the most significant advantages of loyalty reward programs include:

• Helps in customer retention.
• Encourages customers to make repeat purchases, which further increases the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).
• Strengthens your relationship with your customers by improving customer satisfaction.
• Helps you differentiate your brand from the competitors.

Tips for Running loyalty programs for small businesses

If you are running a small business and trying to build an inexpensive yet effective loyalty program, the following tips might help you achieve your goal:

1. Profile your customers

Profiling your customers refers to creating a perfect picture of your target audience. It is important to identify what your target audience or your customer base looks like. You will have to study your customers and categorize them based on their interests, buying habits, locations, etc. Also, check your customers’ data to find out how many customers make repeat purchases and what is the percentage of one-time buyers.

You should also consider the reviews and feedback of your customers to understand what they like the most and what they do not. After recognizing the requirements and interests of your customers, you can build the most successful loyalty program that does its job of customer retention perfectly.

2. Find What Your Customers Value

You can not make the most out of a loyalty program until you offer something that your customers value. The rewards or benefits you are offering must be interesting enough for your customers to build excitement among them. They will definitely come back to earn more rewards, provided that the rewards are valuable for them.

To find out what your customers are interested in, you can take customer surveys or launch polls through your social media accounts. Another way is to launch short-term offers with different reward options and see which offer gets the most customer engagement. Going with a rewards-based or a cashback-based loyalty program is always a safe option. You can either offer a certain percentage of cashback or a certain number of rewards every time your customers spend a specific amount on your brand.

If you are creating a rewards-based loyalty program, try to offer some great redemption options to your customers. Allowing them to use the rewards against future purchases is the most effective way to encourage repeat purchases.

3. Build 2-3 Programs

Many businesses have different types of loyalty programs running simultaneously. You can also do the same to set your brand apart from the competitors and make the loyalty program exciting for your customers. Let us help you understand this with an example. Suppose you run a rewards-based loyalty program. You have a separate portal for loyalty programs where your customers can log in to track their rewards and redeem them.

To make this program more interesting, you can include gamification. Along with the regular rewards that your customers earn on making purchases, allow them to increase the number of earned reward points in some other ways. You can do this by running a ‘Spin to Win; contest on your website or app. Give your customers a chance to spin the wheel once every day and earn some additional rewards. This will help you increase log-ins to your website/app and also make the loyalty program interesting for your customers.

Similarly, you can even run tier-based loyalty programs along with a basic rewards program or a cashback program. The more rewards you offer, the more your customers are encouraged to stay loyal.

4. Find The Right Platform & Automate The Program

You can find various platforms online that run loyalty programs for small businesses. To find the right platform, you have to keep a lot of factors in mind. Your first step should be to set a budget and look for loyalty solution providers that fit your needs. RewardPort can help you run the best loyalty programs with rewards starting from as low as Rs. 10.

Also, make sure that the platform or tool considers your business objectives and creates a loyalty program that aligns with the interests of your customers. The platform should also allow you to automate the loyalty programs as running them manually can be a real challenge. For automation, you can build a separate rewards portal where your customers can create an account, and all their rewards get accrued automatically when they make a purchase.

Best Loyalty Program Ideas for Small Businesses

The benefits of loyalty rewards and not unknown to businesses these days. However, you need to choose the right type of loyalty program for your brand in order to make it work effectively. The following are some best and most cost-effective loyalty program ideas for small businesses:

Punch Cards:

A punch card is one of the most basic types of loyalty programs. With a punch card, you can encourage your customers to make a certain number of purchases in order to earn a free gift/reward. For example, suppose you run a salon. You can print punch cards with 9 empty boxes and include a free service (like a free hair spa) in the 10th box.

Now, every time your customer visits and avails of your service, a box in their punch card gets stamped. On their 10th purchase, they can avail of a free hair spa along with the service they are going to avail of. This is one of the easiest loyalty programs as you don’t need to make any special efforts to run this.

Come Up with Membership Plans:

Customers love it when they are appreciated for their purchase. Having a membership plan is one of the best ways to make your loyal customers feel special. You can either have a free membership plan or a paid plan or both. Allow your customers to sign-up for the membership plans and avail of the benefits.

If you are having a free and paid membership plan, you can include more benefits with the paid plan. Make sure not to keep the fee of these plans low and affordable for most of your customers. Your goal should not be to make revenue out of this fee, but only to make your customers stick to your brand. Once your customers pay a fee for the membership plan, they are very less likely to switch to other brands.

Points-Based Rewards Program

Points-based loyalty programs are the most popular these days. You can offer a certain number of reward points on every purchase your customers make. In these programs, the number of reward points is fixed against a certain spend amount. The monetary value of rewards and redemption options can be decided by the brand.

For example, you can offer 10 Reward Points for every spend of Rs. 100. Now if a customer makes a purchase worth Rs. 500, they earn 50 points. Let’s say the monetary value of 1 Reward Point is Re. 0.5 and you allow redemption against your own products or services. The next time your customer purchases something, he/she gets Rs. 25 (50 points worth Re. 0.5 each) off on this.

Referral Programs

Referral programs do not only work for customer retention but are also very effective in acquiring new customers. You can run a ‘Refer a Friend’ contest on your website or app. Make sure that you offer some valuable rewards or discounts so that your customers refer as many friends as they can. Once their friends sign up or make a purchase, your customers as well as the friends get the reward.

The benefits of loyalty rewards are not only restricted to customer retention, but these programs also help you acquire new customers, boost brand awareness, and improve customer satisfaction.

Run an Effective Loyalty Rewards Program with RewardPort

RewardPort is one of the top rewards and loyalty program providers in India. With high-quality and low-cost rewards, RewardPort can help you run cost-effective loyalty programs that are just perfect for your small business. The team of marketing experts at RewardPort considers every small detail of your business to come up with an effective loyalty program plan that works best for your brand.