Reward Program

5 Simple & Inexpensive Loyalty Programs for D2C Companies

A Loyalty Program, if created and implemented in the right manner, can bring incredible growth to a business. Many D2C brands in India are missing out on the fundamentals of building brand loyalty. The Indian D2C market is estimated to grow to $100 billion by 2025, which shows the level of competition arising in the industry. Succeeding in such a competitive market is a challenge. But if you understand what it takes to set your brand apart from others, you win the game.

One of the most important factors determining the success of a brand is brand loyalty. This is why businesses are now investing more and more in building loyalty programs to retain their customers. Loyalty programs are the strategies used by businesses to boost brand loyalty and improve customer experiences. Customers love it when they get valued for their purchase and this is exactly what loyalty programs aim to do. Before you start looking for a loyalty program company, you must be aware of the importance of boosting customer loyalty:

Why Customer Loyalty is Important for D2C Businesses?

D2C businesses are facing more competition than ever before, especially online ones. To stand out in such a competitive market, it becomes important to focus on building brand loyalty and improving customer experiences. Studies suggest that loyal customers spend 25% more per transaction than other buyers. Moreover, acquiring new customers can be much more expensive than retaining the existing ones.

Most D2C companies in India focus more on customer acquisition than customer retention. However, that should not be the case. It is fine to invest in acquiring customers. But to recover high customer acquisition costs, retaining existing customers is also equally essential. One-time buyers are less likely to become brand loyalists. Loyal customers generally feel emotionally connected with the brand and they tend to purchase more often.

A loyalty program does not only help your business increase repeat purchases, but it also enhances your customers’ experiences. Your customers feel valued when they get rewarded for their purchases. As a result, they start purchasing frequently to earn more rewards. This is how the benefits of loyalty programs are not just restricted to customer loyalty, you can also acquire new customers and improve their overall experience.

Every D2C business needs to earn customer loyalty to beat the competition in the market. Here are some most effective loyalty program strategies for D2C businesses. Make sure that you look for these features while choosing a loyalty program company:

1. Start with Reward Points/Discounts

Reward Points-based programs are the most basic type of loyalty program. Under these programs, customers earn a certain number of loyalty points every time they purchase from a brand. The monetary value of these reward points is decided by the brand only. If you are trying to start with a cost-effective loyalty program for your D2C brand, a reward points-based program would be the best option to consider.

You can build a separate portal to run the loyalty program, where your customers can log in to track their rewards and redeem them. Make sure that you offer some great redemption options. If the redemption options are not good enough to excite your customers, they will not be interested in earning more rewards. Allowing your customers to use the reward points against their next purchase is also a great idea to encourage your customers to come back.

2. Include Gamification

Gamifying your reward program strategy makes it even more interesting for your customers. Gamification is a powerful tool that helps businesses in maximizing the benefits of loyalty programs by keeping their customers engaged. Along with increasing the level of excitement, it encourages your customers to keep coming back for more. Below are some great examples of gamification strategies to boost customer loyalty:

Spin to Win Contests

You can run Spin to Win contests on your website or app and allow your audience to Spin the Wheel once every day. This encourages them to log in to your app regularly to earn rewards or prizes. It can benefit your business in two ways. First, you get more app downloads and log-ins. Second, people who win discount coupons/rewards will make purchases to redeem these rewards.

Top-Spenders Leaderboards

Having a leaderboard for top spenders is another effective gamification strategy. You can add a leaderboard to your website, where your customers can check real-time top spenders of the day, week, or month. It encourages them to spend more to see their names on the top of the leaderboard.

Referral Contests

Running referral contests is the most cost-effective way to acquire new customers while improving the experience of your existing customers. You can keep different rewards for different stages of referral. For example, offer a 10% discount on referring to a friend, a 30% discount when they sign up, and a 50% discount when they make their first purchase.

3. Promote Loyalist To Higher Tiers

A tier-based loyalty program also works amazingly well. As a D2C brand, you must understand that not every customer is equally loyal. There are customers who really like your brand and prefer you the most. Also, there are other customers who only consider you an option and might switch as soon as they see another opportunity. More loyal customers deserve better rewards as they play a significant role in the success of a business.

You can come up with a loyalty program with different tiers. Many D2C businesses are already having such programs. The more your customers purchase, the higher tier they get promoted to. And a high tier means better rewards.

For example, suppose a brand has a loyalty program with three tiers A, B, and C. The customers enter tier A on making their first purchase. In this tier, they get 5 Reward Points for every Rs. 100 they spend. As soon as they complete 10 purchases, they enter tier B, where they earn 10 points for every Rs. 100 they spend. Once they complete 50 purchases with the brand, they enter tier C and start earning 20 points for every Rs. 100 they spend.

4. Provide Proactive Assurance To Your Customers

Loyalty programs are not just about offering rewards and discounts to your customers. You also need to focus on enhancing your customers’ experiences and making them feel good about your brand. You can ensure this by providing proactive assurance to your customers. Make sure that all their questions are answered and their doubts are resolved. This is why many D2C brands are adding AI chatbots to their websites and apps.

If your business is online, you can add AI-powered chatbots to your website. With this, you can ensure that your customers’ queries are resolved quickly and with maximum accuracy. Even if you run an offline business, make sure that you have some support representatives present at your offline store. It gives a sense of satisfaction to your customers and boosts brand loyalty among them.

5. Reward Your Most Loyal Customers With Unexpected Gifts

The most loyal customers of a business are the most precious ones. You can identify brand loyalists by looking at your customer data. It is important to value these customers and appreciate their loyalty. You can do this by sending them personalized messages and small surprise gifts on special occasions like their birthdays. It helps in building stronger relationships with your loyal customers, encouraging them to stay connected with the brand for a longer period.

Boost Your Brand Loyalty With RewardPort

Being one of the top rewards and loyalty program providers in India, RewardPort helps businesses in strategizing and running the most effective loyalty programs. The team of marketing experts at RewardPort has already executed loyalty programs for several leading brands.

Taking every detail of your business into account, RewardPort can help you run a loyalty program that aligns with your brand objectives. With lost-cost rewards and the best marketing strategies, RewardPort can help you boost repeat purchases within three months.

7 Loyalty Program Rewards for Small & Medium Enterprises

More and more brands are now adopting the concept of loyalty program rewards to retain customers. Research shows that over 90% of companies, whether small, medium, or large enterprises, have a loyalty program today. Businesses must have effective strategies to boost customer retention and stand out in a competitive market.

Running a loyalty program is the most used and effective way to encourage customers to stay loyal to a particular brand.

Loyalty program rewards motivate customers to turn into repeat buyers. However, a loyalty program will work only if it aligns with the interests of the customers and the business. A loyalty rewards program that works for a large-sized business might not be suitable for other small brands.

Here are some best loyalty program ideas for small and medium enterprises:

1. Loyalty Points

Points-based programs are one of the most common loyalty programs for businesses of any size. Such loyalty programs aim to motivate customers to stay loyal to a brand. Under these programs, customers receive a few points every time they purchase.

The number of points is fixed against a certain amount spent on the brand. For example, you can offer 10 points on every spend of Rs. 100 to your customers. If they make a purchase worth Rs. 1,000, they receive 100 points.

These points can be redeemed against various options available at a rewards portal or in the form of store credit that is redeemable for future purchases. You must ensure that the loyalty points are valuable for your customers to make these loyalty programs successful.

If your rewards program is not interesting enough for your customers, it cannot encourage them to repeat purchases and stay loyal to your brand. When the loyalty points are valuable, your customers feel they are getting something in return for their spending and will be motivated to repurchase.

2. Referral Purchase Rewards

Referral purchase rewards are the rewards/benefits customers receive for referring a product to their friends. Under these programs, your referring customers and their friends (to whom they refer your products) get some benefits.

However, the terms and conditions for receiving the rewards can be different with different referral programs. Some programs offer rewards/discounts as soon as customers refer a friend. However, other programs reward them only when their friend signs up or makes a purchase.

The latter is a better option. You can run a referral purchase rewards program under which your customers receive decent benefits when their friend signs up to your website and makes a purchase. You can also keep different rewards for different levels in the referral process.

For example, your customers receive a certain number of reward points when they refer a friend, then they get a discount coupon when their friend signs up, and finally, they get a gift when their friend makes a purchase.

Referral programs are a great way to expand your market reach and acquire new customers. You can encourage your customers to make more and more people aware of your brand. The programs help you increase your brand awareness through word-of-mouth and boost sales.

3. First Access

Giving your customers the first access to your new products, flash sales, and discount offers is also an effective way to boost customer loyalty. Whenever a new product is launched, you can make it accessible to the registered customers on your website before it is available to others in the market.

Another way is to provide your customers early access to flash sales, discount offers, BOGO deals, etc., via e-mails or text messages.

With these loyalty program techniques, you can encourage your target audience to become your registered customers. Also, as your existing customers feel special when they get early access, they promote your brand through word-of-mouth.

The early access strategy works better for online businesses, where purchase does not require registration.

4. Charitable Activities

Giving back to society can be the best reward sometimes. Your rewards program can give your customers opportunities for charitable donations. Offer loyalty points to your customers for their purchases and let them redeem their earned rewards against charity.

Such programs can encourage socially conscious consumers to stick to your brand as they get to contribute to the charity through you. You can include different charity options in your reward redemption program and allow your customers to choose what they prefer.

Once they accumulate a certain number of loyalty points, the equivalent amount gets donated to charity in their name. The program becomes more effective when your charity partners are related to your brand.

5. Pay Later Accounts

Most top e-commerce companies provide ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ options in partnership with financial services companies. Pay Later is a small line of credit that allows customers to purchase and pay for it over a month or in installments.

The pay-later option makes it convenient for customers to make frequent purchases. Moreover, they often spend more than they would without this credit option.

By providing pay-later and EMI options to your customers, you can make them feel that you trust them and understand their needs. Customers with a line of credit with a brand are more likely to stay loyal to it.

6. Freebies

Who doesn’t like getting free products? One of the most effective ways to retain customers is by offering them freebies. Whenever your customer makes a purchase, surprise them with a random free product.

It can be anything as small as a free pair of matching earrings with the main outfit. If you have launched any new products, the best way to make your customers aware of them is to send them free samples along with their purchase.

You can also let the consumers redeem their loyalty points for a free product. The redemption options can include other brand vouchers, discount coupons, etc., to make the program more exciting. Using the word ‘free’ in your loyalty programs can be much more effective than it seems to be.

7. Limited Period Offers

Keep coming up with limited-period offers exclusively for your customers. When your customers make a purchase, you can provide them with a discount coupon that is only valid for a short period. Make the discount offer exciting enough to motivate your customers to visit your store back before the offer expires.

Offering great discounts for a limited duration creates a sense of urgency in your customers and prepone their purchases.

How To Build a Loyalty Program?

Almost every brand runs a loyalty program to retain customers today. However, the loyalty rewards program can be considered effective when it adds value both to the customers and the brand.

Here are some important points to consider when building a customer loyalty program for your business:

• The loyalty program must offer value to your customers. If the customers don’t find your loyalty program rewards valuable, they may not feel motivated to repurchase.
• Tie the rewards back to your brand to make the program more effective. You can offer rewards or cashback that the customers can redeem against your products.
• Keep a mix of instant and premium rewards for different segments of customers. Not every customer is loyal. Before offering premium rewards and benefits to boost loyalty, you can identify long-term customers and one-time buyers coming for discounts.
• Make sure that the rewards program is cost-effective for your business and that you don’t spend without analyzing the results.

Set up a Loyalty Program with RewardPort

RewardPort is one of the top loyalty program solution providers in India. With RewardPort, you can set up a loyalty program that works for your brand and fulfills your customer needs. Experts at RewardPort can plan and execute loyalty program strategies according to your business goals and consumer profile.

RewardPort helps you provide loyalty program rewards online and offline as your budget and consumers allow.

9 Effective Employee Rewards Program Which Costs Nothing

Employee rewards programs are an essential component of any successful business. A well-designed rewards program can help boost morale, increase productivity, and improve employee retention rates. While there are many ways to reward employees, not all programs have to come at a high cost.

In this blog, we will discuss eight effective employee rewards programs that cost nothing.

1. Recognition and Appreciation Programs

Employees thrive on recognition and appreciation, and one of the best ways to show appreciation is through a formal recognition program. A recognition program can be as simple as a thank-you note or a shout-out in a team meeting.

Employees who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to be engaged and motivated, leading to increased productivity and job satisfaction.

2. Professional Development Opportunities

One of the most effective rewards for employees is the opportunity for professional development. By investing in your employees’ growth and development, you not only improve their skills and knowledge but also demonstrate your commitment to their success.

Providing access to training programs, conferences, and online courses can help employees improve their skills and advance in their careers.

3. Flexible Work Arrangements

ork-life balance is crucial for many employees, and offering flexible work arrangements can be a valuable reward. Flexible work arrangements, such as remote work options, flexible schedules, or compressed workweeks, can help employees achieve a better work-life balance and improve their overall well-being.

This reward also has the added benefit of reducing overhead costs for the business.

4. Extra Time Off

Providing employees with extra time off is an effective way to reward them for their hard work. This can come in the form of a bonus day off, an extended holiday break, or a long weekend. Extra time off can help employees recharge, reducing burnout and improving their overall job satisfaction.

5. Peer-to-Peer Recognition

Peer-to-peer recognition is a powerful way to build a positive work culture and boost morale. Allowing employees to recognize each other’s accomplishments can help build stronger relationships between team members and foster a sense of community within the workplace.

This can be done through a formal recognition program or simply encouraging employees to give each other shout-outs in team meetings or a company chat platform.

6. Personalized Rewards

Personalized rewards are an effective way to show employees that you value them as individuals. By tailoring rewards to their interests or preferences, you demonstrate that you know and appreciate them on a personal level.

Personalized rewards can be as simple as a gift card to their favorite coffee shop or restaurant, a book on a topic they enjoy, or a subscription to a service that aligns with their hobbies.

7. Volunteer Opportunities

Many employees are passionate about giving back to their community, and offering volunteer opportunities can be a rewarding experience for both the employee and the company. This can come in the form of company-sponsored volunteer events or simply allowing employees to take time off to volunteer for causes they are passionate about.

Not only does this reward demonstrate your commitment to social responsibility, but it also helps build a positive work culture and improve employee satisfaction.

8. Employee-Led Initiatives

Empowering employees to lead initiatives within the company can be an effective way to reward them for their hard work and dedication. This can come in the form of allowing employees to lead a project, create a new program, or spearhead a new initiative.

By giving employees the autonomy to lead, you demonstrate that you trust and value their contributions to the company.

9. Social Acceptance

Here is another project that is not only free but also successful in this day of selfies and social media.

Promote staff members via social media, in the corporate newsletter, or on the company website when they are performing at the top of their game. The employees will feel much better about their achievements because of the significant difference.

Also, others can aspire to achieve it, which will result in higher performance.

Effective Employee Rewards Programs

Effective employee rewards programs should help you improve employee morale, increase productivity, and have higher retention rates. But employee rewards don’t have to be budgeted for another time.

Whether it’s providing access to professional development opportunities, offering flexible work arrangements, or empowering employees to lead initiatives, these rewards demonstrate your commitment to your employees’ success and well.

All types of employees are taken into consideration when designing the employee incentives and redemption programs at RewardPort, and while they are simple to use, they also provide an engaging model to keep employees interested.

11 Must-Have Incentive and Recogination Programs to Reward Employees

A unique program designed by firms to thank employees for their contributions to the growth of a company is known as an employee incentive and recognition program. Effective employee recognition programs guarantee that workers feel valued, appreciated, and inspired to accomplish company goals. They also aid in attracting and keeping top talent.

1. Gift of Thanks

This is presumably one of the most frequently advised ways to express your appreciation to your staff. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and a vocal or handwritten “Thank You” has the greatest impact on any expression of gratitude.

Therefore, be sure to express your gratitude to your deserving employees.

2. Peer-to-Peer Identifiers

Peer recognition has a special value. Peers occasionally have greater knowledge of their coworkers’ work than supervisors or those in control do. They are the ones that collaborate at work, and their interactions are less intimate. They frequently see features that bosses miss.

Healthy peer-to-peer recognition is essential to the success of your firm. By conducting surveys among the staff and identifying the ones who received the most votes, it may be completed swiftly.

3. Include Your Staff in a Short Film

Most individuals enjoy watching themselves on screens. Make a brief video that lasts 5 to 10 minutes and make your staff the stars. Inquire about their opinions and loves and dislikes regarding the business.

If you look at the number of voluntary participants, you might be astonished. These actions increase your employees’ sense of belonging to and “participation in” the business.

Of course, once the film is finished, make sure to share it with everyone.

4. Identifying the Creativity in Creative Minds

Some employees continually contribute fresh ideas or a dash of imagination to their work. These are typically the people who have a genuine enthusiasm for what they do and consistently strive to achieve their best. Tell them you value what they are doing. It’s important to remember to thank them occasionally.

Others will be compelled to offer their thoughts and go above and beyond by receiving such appreciation. It, if you haven’t set aside an award for them, do so right away.

5. Moment for the Classic Wall of Fame

An excellent icing on the employee appreciation cake would be to have a wall of fame in the office where the successes are showcased for the entire crew. It will increase the value and notoriety of the appreciation.

Digital screens with live feeds on recognition, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. can also be installed in strategic office places.

6. Promotion of Wellness at Work

An organization can benefit from promoting wellness in the workplace in numerous ways.

For maintaining their health, employees can receive free or discounted gym memberships as an incentive. To keep them motivated and encourage others to adopt a healthy lifestyle, you must also recognize their health achievements.

Along with other advantages like enhancing workers’ health and well-being, decreasing absenteeism, and boosting productivity, it gives the organization a caring image.

A strong corporate wellness program is a requirement for any company.

When such additional efforts are made to enhance employees’ wellness (apart from work), they innately feel cherished, cared for, and thus, recognized.

7. Financial Incentives

Financial incentives have been shown to improve employee engagement: According to research by the Incentive Research Foundation, when an incentive program is properly designed, performance can rise by as much as 44%.

A percentage of the benefit should go to the performers if an employee has helped the organization save money or increase revenue. The design of incentive programs must inspire employees to work harder and further the objectives of the firm.

8. Social Recognition

Employee recognition shouldn’t just take place behind closed doors. While praising your employees, go public. When you publicly thank your staff, they can show off their well-deserved gratitude.

Using social media is another approach to making employee recognition public. Naturally, your staff members spend a lot of time on numerous social media websites. They would adore the opportunity to brag about their success on these platforms.

9. Gamify your rewards and recognition programs

Gamification has become prevalent.

In essence, it is introducing game features into a non-gaming environment.

Your employee recognition program might benefit greatly from gamification. It will pique curiosity and result in more productive work from your staff.

How Do You Do It?

The goal is to make employee recognition an ongoing, immediate process. Keeping track of the accolades and prizes received by your workers is the next stage.

Create leaderboards, badges, and certificates to recognize employees in various areas of their professional lives. If it is healthy, competition may be a powerful motivator.

10. Multiple Choices

What would our staff members adore, do you know? It is the gift of genuine option.

When given the option to select a material reward for a job well done, your staff will be quite happy. Ask your employees what they would like the next time you want to award them.

If it complies with your R&R plan, let them choose the incentives of their choosing.

11. OTT Membership

If you have staff who work remotely, this is the best reward you could give them. Asking your staff for information on their favorite OTT subscription will allow you to provide it to them as a gift.

In this approach, your staff members not only get what they want but it’s also one of the most financially viable methods for rewarding staff, especially in the modern age.

Conclusion

It can be difficult to come up with awards or ideas for employee recognition.

However, you must constantly make it a point to show your staff appreciation regularly, regardless of what. And this list was RewardPort’s way of helping you out by thanking and rewarding your staff in the greatest way possible.

Which suggestions for rewards and recognition do you think are the best? RewardPort is highly aware of it and gives you programs that are specifically tailored to meet your demands.

What do Millennials want from Loyalty Programmes?

A successful business thrives on interacting with its customers and encourages repeat business. One of the most effective strategies for increasing customer retention is the modest loyalty program. With 63% of Millennials viewing loyalty programmes as important to them, compared to 61% of Gen X, Millennials are exhibiting a particularly great interest, and there are more memberships than ever.

Despite this interest, there is evidence that loyalty programmes are falling short of Millennials’ expectations. In contrast to 62% and 38% of non-Millennials, a concerning 70% of Millennials participate in fewer than half of the loyalty programmes to which they belong, and 50% participate in less than a quarter.

Therefore, it is important for brands to collaborate with a good loyalty programme company to meet the expectations of millennials.

Access to smartphones is essential

In a survey of 1,287 consumers, 97% of millennials responded affirmatively, compared to 69% of non-Millennials, when asked if they would be more likely to engage in a loyalty programme if they could avail it from their smartphone.

Loyalty programme companies need to ensure that the audience can access loyalty programme on their smartphones since it’s safe to assume that 87% of the millennial customers own smartphones and carry them around at all times.

When asked about the top loyalty programme annoyances, 56% of Millennials said that having to download and utilize a mobile app to access rewards, points balance, and other information was annoying, while 44% said having to log into a website was the most annoyance. So, loyalty programme companies need to resolve this issue.

Participate on their favorite platform

Through their preferred means, people want to be contacted and engaged. Brands may demonstrate to customers that they are paying attention to them by using an omnichannel strategy, which also adds a personal touch that can significantly increase engagement and general satisfaction.

When asked about the best ways to use loyalty programmes

• Among millennials, 54% believe a smartphone app is insufficient
• 28% opted to use a smartphone to send texts
• 11% opted to use a mobile wallet
• 6% opted for a computer website
• 4 percent choose Facebook Messenger

Meeting Millennials’ demands

Every generation will benefit from having a clear, usable loyalty programme that is available through a variety of channels, but there are undoubtedly some tactics that will resonate more strongly with millennials. When we looked at complaints about loyalty programmes, the findings were largely consistent across generations.

Rewards expiring before they could be used was the biggest complaint among millennials (30%), followed by not knowing when rewards were available (28%) and having to carry the card (14%). Just 22% of non-Millennials selected this as the most noteworthy generational difference in this case, which was not knowing when incentives are available.

Any Loyalty programme company trying to optimize their programmes for millennials must make sure that it is completely available on smartphones, though not always through a mobile app. Make checking the status of collected awards or point balances as simple and frictionless as feasible without requiring users to register for a website or download an app. Pay attention to the communication channels that your customers prefer and adapt your approach.

It makes excellent commercial sense to invest in meeting millennials’ expectations because they may remain loyal customers for a very long time.

Engagement

It is not surprising that millennials are drawn to loyalty programmes that engage them through numerous channels because they are a tech-savvy and highly connected generation. Brands should get in touch with an exclusive loyalty programme company to increase millennial loyalty by implementing a programme that keeps them informed about the brand experience whether they interact with them online, through a mobile app, or in-person. One such channel is social media, which has the added advantage of enabling peer-to-peer recommendations, which many millennial customers rely on before making purchases. Social media is fantastic for constant, relevant communication as well as having this additional benefit.

Brands should think about gamification tactics as well. Brands have the opportunity to build rewarding and personalized experiences that offer entertainment value to the customer while increasing engagement by integrating game-like aspects into their rewards programme.

Convenience

Even a reward programme with fun activities and engaging features won’t appeal to millennials if it’s challenging to use.

While millennials rely on technology to make their lives easier, they expect digital solutions to enhance, not replace, their experiences. This requires businesses to create loyalty programmes with #1 and cost-effective loyalty programme company like RewardPort that are user-friendly and simple to use across all platforms, including laptops, tablets, and, above all else, mobile devices. Millennials are quick to give up on apps that take a long time to load or have complicated interfaces if they do not save them time or improve their lives.

Since 76% of millennials own smartphones, mobile solutions are most suited to their constantly connected and on-the-go lifestyles. For instance, 63% of millennials are more likely to make a purchase if they receive a coupon on their mobile device while close to a store, while 45% of millennials access coupons via email on mobile devices. Loyalty programmes can benefit from common mobile techniques like real-time notifications, multichannel capabilities, personalization, or even technology like mobile wallets, much like other top mobile solutions.

Millennials respect their hard-earned money, time, and effort and despite having enormous purchasing power, people favor experiences over possessions. Brands will need to move away from tried-and-true loyalty strategies in favor of fresh initiatives that place an emphasis on experience, engagement, and convenience.

Conclusion

Every customer wants a comfort zone to fit in and RewardPort understands this necessity so we resolve it and make it lucrative. RewardPort is India’s leading loyalty programme company crafting customized loyalty programmes and solutions as per your needs in order to ensure that your customers keep coming back and with full ease it offers reasonable fairs.

5 Superb Sales Techniques to Reach Your Consumer Faster

Everyone has something they can market, whether it’s an item, a service, or some essential information. However, gaining customers and increasing sales from that service, item, or piece of knowledge are the only ways a business can prosper. However, you can’t just sit back and hope that someone would come across your product and buy it. Sales growth is the result of carefully planned sales methods that are created and implemented. To boost sales, you must either expand the audience you sell to, improve the goods you sell, improve your messaging, or do all of the aforementioned.

1. Be methodical when creating leads

The first step is to make sure that your firm generates enough leads consistently to sustain a steady flow of business. Too many business owners are determined to put out regular fires instead of thinking about their long-term aims.

• Establish goals for how many prospects you want to have in the funnel at any one time.
• To reach those goals, schedule the number of visits you want to have each week with potential clients.
• The remaining time should be used to manage your ongoing sales efforts.
• Although it’s not always the simplest element of your job, generating leads is essential if you want to create steady sales.

2. Understand the sales cycle

Your sales cycle, which is the period of time between meeting a potential customer for the first time and closing a deal, will be determined by the type of business you’re in. This can differ significantly amongst businesses. Your sales cycle can only be increased greatly when you offer good products at the time of redemption for the customers through game vouchers and gift cards. But you need to be aware of how long it often takes you, in days, weeks, or months.

To determine how long your sales cycle is:

• List the 20 most recent closed sales you’ve had
• Note the duration of each
• Calculate the median
• Using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology can also help you discover your best customers, target particular demographics, and obtain a better understanding of your sales pipeline.

3. Understand numbers

Every business needs a certain number of prospects at all times just to keep up sales. Consider the usual sales cycle as well as the quantity of closed transactions you desire each month. The proportion of contacted prospects who made purchases is another important statistic to be aware of. Make the best customers through your products such as game redeem code, best loyalty programmes, redeem game voucher. With the aid of these figures, you may establish objectives for your company.

Example: 

Your company wants to sell three things each month. An average sale is closed four months after the client is first contacted. You have a close ratio of 25% if one out of every four prospects your sales team contacts end up making a purchase.

In this case, you can be certain that you will close three transactions each month as long as you keep 48 active leads at any given time. It’s that easy. You will need to keep a list of 64 active prospects if you decide one day to boost your monthly production to four closed transactions, for example. With this knowledge, business owners are better equipped to provide their salespeople clear, measurable goals.

4. Active referral-seeking

Obtaining recommendations from happy customers is a general rule for any firm. Asking for a referral directly can be difficult, so one approach to avoid it is to encourage customers to mention their customers and suppliers about the products or services such as best loyalty programmes, redeem game voucher, game gift cards and others.

If a possible customer comes up during a conversation, you may ask them if it’s okay to call Tom and explain that you spoke with him. Describe yourself and say something like, “I was thinking it would be a good idea for us to gather up. Consider next Tuesday.

5. Be prepared for pushback

Be ready for typical objections, especially when conducting cold calls. Typical adverse reactions include:

I have to deal with someone else. 

I’m overworked. 

This is not the best time. 

Send me some material first, and then we can discuss. 

You will lose the prospect’s interest if you are not prepared with succinct responses. Get ready to respond by practicing your exact words in advance. It’s critical to understand their concerns before attempting to cast a more favorable perspective on them.

Conclusion

Sales promotion is one of the essential elements of the promotion mix. Keeping your needs in mind RewardPort develops a variety of sales campaigns that resonate with your target market in order to establish lasting relationships with your customers.

10 Common mistakes businesses make with their giveaways

You’ve probably seen your fair share of branded contests over the years. This is for a reason. Contests, when properly executed, can be one of the most effective marketing strategies.

Marketers have known this for years, and as a result, branded contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways have worked wonders for decades.

1. Ineffective Giveaway Strategy

The most serious mistake a company can make when running a giveaway contest is a lack of strategy. Most businesses often launch giveaways without first defining contest goals and objectives. This increases the likelihood of miscommunication and other technical issues that a comprehensive giveaway marketing strategy would otherwise eliminate.

A good giveaway strategy enables businesses to avoid low entry rates and ensure effective contesting to achieve the desired results. A strong giveaway strategy has the advantage of providing a standard for what a successful giveaway will look like. This way, you can reduce squabbles and get your team on the same page to meet specific objectives and achieve your desired level of success.

2. Unspecific Calls to Action (CTA)

The main goal of marketing your giveaway is to have a prominent CTA. Make it clear what the entry requirements are and use text and buttons to entice people to join.

3. Relying Solely on the Giveaway Publisher for Promotions

Create a contact list and send them an email about your giveaway. Be careful not to irritate existing customers by offering your product at a lower price than they paid for it – instead, offer them a free upgrade. Send out e-mails and follow-ups announcing the progress of your giveaway to give it the appearance of a real-life event, which it is.

4. There Are no Official Rules

Establishing official giveaway rules and regulations may require additional work, but it can often mean the difference between a successful giveaway contest and a failure. Without clear rules in place, your giveaway may confuse or, worse, expose your company to reputational harm, legal action, and complaints.

As a result, you must publish your official giveaway rules a few days before the contest to allow time for participants to review them.

When establishing rules, you must define participant eligibility by specifying residency and age requirements. Excluding your employees, affiliates, and their family members from the contest also ensures objectivity and avoids backlash from neutral participants. To avoid confusion and legal trouble, you should also specify how the winner will be chosen and notified, as well as how you will use the personal data you’ve gathered.

5. Unappealing Awards

Another reason most giveaways do not have a higher participant turnout is that the prizes are unappealing and irrelevant. Most people have no idea what giveaway prizes are, what they do, or how much they are worth.

When potential participants are not sold on the idea of your prize, they are more likely to participate without feeling completely convinced or to avoid the contest entirely. One way to avoid this is to come up with several social media giveaway ideas and determine what initially drew your audience to your brand.

As a rule, use your product as a giveaway to generate buzz and gauge customer interest. Using your products in giveaway contests gives the winners a taste of what they can expect if they continue to do business with you, ultimately increasing your conversions and sales in the long run.

6. Running Competitions for Too Long

Businesses frequently run giveaways for extended periods in the hopes of generating and maximizing traffic. This strategy, however, can backfire and result in participants completely forgetting about your contests. On the other hand, if you don’t run it long enough, you may limit the number of people who can enter.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all story when it comes to running giveaways, the sweet spot for a typical contest duration is two to four weeks. This is enough time to ensure that your marketing strategies mature, but not so long that it becomes tedious, and participants begin to complain.

Establish an appropriate contest duration to maintain a sense of urgency and entice people to enter sooner than later.

7. Registration Is Difficult

Many marketers make the mistake of requiring users to go through multiple registration processes and fill out multiple forms to participate in their contests. While this is a great way to collect relevant data, it may discourage potential entrants from converting and participating in your giveaway.

According to data, 74.3% of people despise forms because they take too much time and effort and provide little value. As a result, utilizing powerful marketing technologies such as a giveaway software solution is critical in reducing participant frustration and ensuring a successful contest.

It easily integrates with social media platforms and a dynamic giveaway software platform makes it easier for your customers to participate. The participants can easily log in using their Twitter or Facebook accounts.

Experts at RewardPort can also guide you with several such initiatives to ensure a high-performance Giveaway campaign for your brand.

8. Poor Reward-to-Effort Ratio

The purpose of a contest is to put in a little effort in exchange for a chance to win a large prize. Otherwise, you could save money and buy the item yourself.

This is true in any contest, but it is especially true when trying to get user-generated content in the form of essays, photos, videos, and other media.

Unfortunately, too many contests make this mistake and ask participants to do a lot of work for a small reward. As a result, even if you spent a significant amount of time and money executing the campaign, you may receive very few entries.

Here are some common signs that you’re asking too much of your audience:

• High entry barriers: If users require specific equipment to make submissions, such as a microphone or a camera, they will not accept low-quality prizes, such as cheap gift cards.
• Too time-consuming and/or labour-intensive: If you’re asking people to put in hours of work, you should make it worthwhile.
• The prize is too specific: Assume you sell photography and video equipment. A lens may appear to be a good prize, but it is meaningless to those who do not own a compatible camera. Prizes like this are inferior to those that can be used by anyone.
• The cost is low: Money cannot buy happiness, but it can purchase contest entries. The less expensive the prize, the less interest you will receive.

9. Arriving at the Worst Possible Moment

There’s nothing worse than missing out on a contest you’d love to enter because you don’t have the time, money, or energy to do so. Or, even worse, you simply didn’t notice it.

This type of error can turn off people who would otherwise enter your contest. That is a major issue.

Choosing the Incorrect “Location” (i.e., Poor Targeting)

We are all aware that location is important in the real world. You don’t want your contest to attract people who aren’t interested in your brand. While there are no “places” in the traditional sense on the internet, there is traffic – and various traffic sources.

Sometimes you must make a tradeoff: do you want hyper-targeted entrants, a mix, or are you willing to go crazy and accept anyone for the sake of expanding the campaign’s reach?

There are several things you can do to keep things more focused:

• Exclude advertising to specific demographics using Facebook Ads targeting.
• Make the prize specific to a specific demographic.
• Increasing traffic from websites that contain your target audience

Avoid Giveaway Mistakes & Ensure Success

For businesses that lack the tools needed to automate specific processes like contest duration, fraud protection, and contest creation, preventing giveaway mistakes can be difficult. Using a dynamic marketing software platform to manage your giveaways is one way to ensure a successful giveaway.

Alternatively, connect with RewardPort’s award-winning strategists to design and execute a custom Giveaway campaign for you.

14 Ways to promote your sweepstakes in 2022

If you’re an online retailer, you should think about incorporating sweepstakes into your marketing strategy. They’re an efficient marketing channel for expanding your business, generating more leads, promoting your brand, and increasing sales.

A sweepstake is simple and inexpensive to run, and the benefits are far greater than those of many other marketing methods when done correctly.

Email subscribers, new customers, and increased followers on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest. Increased brand exposure and awareness can all result from a single promotion and increase sales.

Planning and Construction

Sweepstakes are a low-cost marketing promotion method that can have a significant impact on growing an audience and building a business. However, before running sweepstakes, you must plan it out so that you have a road map for success with a set of predetermined goals.

Many businesses believe that by giving something away for free, they will receive a flood of new visitors, email subscribers, Facebook likes, and sales. Unfortunately, without a well-defined goal and a solid marketing strategy, this is rarely the case.

To start creating your roadmap for a successful giveaway, plan out each step of your promotion until you reach the goal that you want to achieve. You can begin building your sweepstakes once you have a clear roadmap.

Marketing

Setting up your sweepstakes is a good start, but if you want to accelerate your sweepstakes and meet your goals, you’ll need a solid marketing plan.

Here are 14 different ways sweepstakes can bring real and measurable results to marketers:

1. Make a blog post 

Writing a blog post about your sweepstakes is an excellent way to notify customers and prospects that you have a promotion going on. Your post should include a brief description of the promotion, how to enter, what prizes are available, and when it will end. Bonus points if you can explain how winning the sweepstakes will benefit the reader’s life.

2. Send a newsletter via email 

Send an email to your list announcing your sweepstakes and providing a direct link to the entry page. Even if these people are already on your list, you should still promote them because if they enter, they will share the giveaway with their friends and family (Facebook and otherwise)

3. Share it on Facebook

Make a post about your giveaway on your Facebook timeline. Include an image of the prize that will catch people’s attention, as well as a brief description of what they can win. Finally, in your post, include a direct link to the giveaway.

4. Share it on other social media portals

In addition to Facebook, promote your giveaway on Twitter by sending a tweet with details about what people can win as well as a direct link to the giveaway page. Pin the giveaway to Pinterest, and share it with your audiences on Google Plus, LinkedIn, and Instagram as well. 

5. Make use of video 

Creating a video is no longer a difficult task, thanks to the power of smartphones. You can easily create short video clips to promote your sweepstakes using Vine, Instagram, or YouTube. A good starting point would be to make a short video clip showing the prizes available.

6. AdWords by Google 

If you’ve set aside money to promote your sweepstakes, Google AdWords can be an effective way to reach your target audience. It enables you to target specific keywords that people are looking for and have your promotion appear in search results.

7. Blogger promotion

Bloggers are always looking for great content to share with their readers. Make a list of 10 or 20 bloggers in your niche and send each of them a personalized email about the sweepstakes you’re launching and how you believe it would be a good fit for their audience if they’d be willing to promote it for you. 

8. Collaborate with another company

Collaboration with another company on your giveaway is a great way to increase the number of prizes and gain more exposure. Contact companies that are related to your niche but are not direct competitors to see if they would be interested in offering one of their products as a prize in your giveaway. If they agree, you now have another company to help you promote the giveaway. It’s a win-win scenario.

9. Publish a press release

Use a service like PR web, Pitch Engine, or PR Newswire to create a press release and schedule it to be sent out on the day the promotion goes live.

10. Incorporate a message into your packages

Tossing a little card inside each package telling them to enter the promotion is a great way to get people to enter your sweepstakes if you ship out physical products. Remember that just because these people are already customers does not mean that they will not refer their friends and family to you.

11. After transaction communications

If you sell a product, including a link to your sweepstakes after checkout can be an excellent way to collect entries. Because these people have already purchased something from you, they will most likely be delighted to have the opportunity to win something.

12. Collaborate with YouTube channels

Some incredibly popular YouTube channels may be the ideal partner to help promote your giveaway. Look for channels in your niche with many subscribers and make sure their videos have many views.

To get them to promote your sweepstakes, you may need to offer some form of compensation (either monetary or in the form of a gift- many of them review products for their audiences).

13. Banner of your sweepstakes on the business website

Most visitors to your website’s homepage will be unaware of your sweepstakes unless you notify them. Make an image that can be displayed on your homepage and links directly to your giveaway.

You can also use a simple service like Hello Bar to notify people on your homepage that you are running a giveaway. It appears simple, but many businesses simply do not realize it is an option. 

14. Offline marketing

Social media and digital media aren’t the only ways to publicize your giveaway. If you have a physical store, consider how you can use walk-in customers to raise awareness for your competition. Here are some offline promotion ideas:

• Tossing a little card or flyer inside each package telling them to enter the promotion is a great way to get people to enter your sweepstakes.
• Make a check-in contest to encourage people to visit your physical store.
• Promote the contest at local events and communities in which you are involved. Create a banner or say something about your giveaway if you occasionally organize events. Using QR codes generated by a QR Code Generator is a good idea.

Conclusion

If you want your giveaway or contest to be successful, you must promote it frequently and on all available platforms. Make a page on your website for the giveaway, include details in your newsletter, and regularly spread the word on social media. Change your phrasing and timing on social media and monitor the response rate as you do so.

You may find that more people are willing to participate in the evening when they have “distraction time” and are winding down for the day. Contests, like any other marketing activity, can always be improved.

RewardPort sweepstakes can increase sales by up to 200%. Encourage customers to buy your products by offering them the chance to win big. Sweepstakes are ideal for brands seeking to introduce new items and boost trial numbers. Nothing beats sweepstakes to get users to buy your products.

The Impact of Loyalty Programs: Pros and Cons

Loyalty programs are designed to reward your most valuable customers. Businesses choose to implement a rewards program to retain current customers and convert new buyers into loyal customers. Traditionally, many businesses use rewards programs such as rebate programs, cashback, earning points, and others to incentivize customers to make purchases.

What is a Loyalty Program?

The most basic definition of a loyalty program is that converting customers into brand loyalists necessitates a repeatable process that incentivizes them to continue purchasing from you. Loyalty membership is essentially the process of rewarding customers for their frequent or ongoing engagement with your brand through structured marketing strategies.

They receive more rewards as they spend more. Customers will feel good about purchasing from you if you put customer preferences at the heart of your marketing efforts and execute a program well, giving your business a competitive edge over your competitors.

Why Are Loyalty Programs Necessary?

Loyalty programs were created when businesses realized that the competitive advantage, they once had due to product differentiation was no longer valid due to the proliferation of similar looking and “me too” products. Having loyal customers became more important and difficult in such an environment.

Advantages of Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs became popular because they offered businesses a way to maximize their customers’ lifetime value, along with the following advantages:

1. Retention of Customers

A loyalty program’s primary goal is to retain customers by rewarding them for repeat purchase behavior. According to Khan and Khan, “loyalty exists when a person regularly patronizes a specific (store or non-store) that he or she knows, likes, and trusts.” In short, a customer loyalty program is a tool for retaining customers by providing them with a compelling reason to return to the company and establishing habits.

Many studies have been conducted to explain the relationship between loyalty programs and retention rates. According to one European study, customers’ relationship perception of a loyalty program offered by a Dutch financial services company explained about 10% of the total variation in customer retention and customer share.

Customer retention strategies have a well-established direct impact on the bottom line of a business. A company with a 60% customer retention rate loses three to four times as many customers as a company with an 80% retention rate.

2. Customer Information and Consumer Trends

When a customer registers for a loyalty program, their information is saved in the company’s database. Companies can use this data to segment their omnichannel, offline, and e-commerce customers, profile their best customers and tailor their offerings to specific groups of consumers.

Because loyalty program data provide a comprehensive picture of customer behavior, purchasing habits, and preferences, the company can use it to improve inventory management, pricing, and promotional planning. This information also allows marketers to assess the effectiveness of special promotions based on additional purchases, the use of additional channels, or a shorter time between purchases.

3. Increased Cart Value

Data collected by a company can be used to cross-sell and up-sell. It can provide extended warranties after a purchase, recommend accessories that complement the purchased item, and provide discounts on related purchases. Furthermore, the loyalty program can provide relief by increasing demand during slow seasons.

The best example is an airline mileage program that is only available on certain flights. Because there are less wastage, such targeted promotions are more likely to produce satisfactory results.

4. Getting Rid of Unprofitable Customers

One of the less frequently mentioned benefits of loyalty cards and programs is that they allow businesses to shed excess weight. A well-designed loyalty program enables businesses to segment their customers and identify profitable and unprofitable customers. It assists them in dropping customers who only buy discounted lines and avoid the premium range regularly. These customer profiles may end up costing more than they generate.

5. Improved Customer Communication

A loyalty program provides a direct line of communication with customers, making interactions much easier. Aside from promoting sales and announcing new products/services, a useful item on this list of the benefits and drawbacks of loyalty programs is that they facilitate recalls when necessary. This is possible due to the recalled items’ purchase date and barcode. Because it is based on the consumer’s actual purchase of the affected good, the recall notice gains weight and significance. In comparison to a store sign or newspaper notice, this email-borne recall notice has a high chance of being read by the public.

Disadvantages of Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs have not always worked the way businesses aimed them to. Here are a few disadvantages you should hedge against while using a loyalty program.

1. Loyalty Behavior Is Difficult to Assess

It is extremely difficult for the loyalty framework to break free from the transactional spirit. A frequent buyer appears to be a loyal customer often. However, this may not be the case, as he may be purchasing from the company simply because it is convenient for him. Or he may be purchased solely for the benefits provided by the loyalty program in the form of rewards. As a result, loyalty, which is essentially an emotion, may not be measured by the loyalty program.

2. Keeping the Bottom Line in Check

The financial aspect of loyalty programs is the most stressful of all the benefits and drawbacks. Discounts, in any form, are detrimental to a company’s bottom line. A typical $50 sale transaction has a cost of $40 and a profit of $10. A 5% loyalty discount—$5 off a $50 sale—reduces profits by 50%. The costs remain constant, but instead of earning $10 on each sale, the profit is reduced to $5. What appears to be a minor discount (in this case, 5%) can have a significant impact on profits.

The key to overcoming this financial setback is to ensure that your loyalty program is reasonably priced and effective. If the program is truly increasing repeat purchases and average order value, you should have no trouble recouping your losses if your discounts are balanced.

3. Saturation of the Market

Loyalty programs, like products, are ubiquitous and may appear identical. They are all similar in terms of membership requirements, purchase requirements, and benefits. However, in today’s ultra-competitive world, businesses are unable to back out of their loyalty program commitments due to the fear of lost sales.

With the average household participating in over nine reward programs, businesses must develop programs that are distinct and distinguishable. However, creating a loyalty program based on a sustainable competitive advantage that cannot be replicated is extremely difficult. However, advocate loyalty programs are a good way to stand out because you can reward customers for doing things that are unique to your audience.

4. Profitability Variability

Based on past customer behavior, loyalty programs hope to increase repurchases. However, their incomes, needs, and lifestyles change over time. Naturally, their purchasing habits shift. People prefer to avoid the traditional loyalty program. According to a Maritz poll, four out of every ten loyalty program participants left at least one program. That is why some experts are understandably skeptical of loyalty measures such as RFM (Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value). RFM is a useful tool for measuring customer loyalty, but it is far from perfect.

5. Loyalty Data Limitations

Because loyalty data excludes purchases from other brands and stores, it provides a skewed picture of consumers’ overall purchasing behavior. Data from customer panels may also be more representative than data from loyalty card members. Furthermore, customers may be offended if they are uncomfortable sharing sensitive information to receive the program’s incentives.

However, this point on the list of the benefits and drawbacks of loyalty programs can be addressed by incentivizing customers to share their other purchase data by rewarding them for submitting third-party receipts to you. You can gather this information to reward them for their purchases of your goods while also processing the receipts for additional information, whether they do so by scanning physical receipts or forwarding e-receipts.

Conclusion

Nobody can deny the value of loyal customers. The point of contention is the loyalty program’s ability to generate more loyal customers. This is because not all loyalty programs are successful. Some have failed due to their undifferentiated appeal, while others have failed due to poor implementation. Some have also failed because of incorrect value propositions.

Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of loyalty programs will aid in avoiding such errors.

Role of Rewards in Driving “Value Sharing”

“I do not love rewards!”, said nobody. Rewards are always exciting and free vouchers always boost the motivation of the customers. Also, customer loyalty programs are the best way to drive value sharing in the business either by helping in buying decisions or keeping employees motivated to achieve a certain goal. The end goal of every business has to be to achieve the buyer trust and a brand name of its own which only can happen with the help of high sales and motivated employees. Both the driving forces can be kept happy with free goodies that come as a reward to them. Value Sharing is an extensive subject that includes not only building on buying decisions but also include other intangible good a customer can do to a brand in terms of helping in word of mouth or act as a repeat customer. In short, a reward will make a customer happy and a happy customer will help in adding to the value share for the business.

Here are certain points to help you understand the role of rewards in driving Value Sharing.

Satisfied Customer Base

Buying and purchasing is a daily activity a customer does but when the target audience shops he adds on to the credibility of the brand as a whole. On top of the quality products you promise, if the customer also gets a good discount or a buy one get one free option it will help in saving more and bring a purchase satisfaction to your customers. This will help you in retaining more customers.

Win Customer Trust

Winning a customer is one thing and retaining the existing customers is another. Most of the times major brands also indulge in a plan to do a lucky draw and only one winner wins which in fact makes a lot of people disappointed and sad who do not win the draw resulting in a reduction in sales and unhappy buyers. Winning customer trust is important.

Add More Customers

loyalty reward management programs in terms of discounts and sales often add on more footfall in your store or website and help in adding more customers to your database. Discounts and other rewards act as a driving force for the customers to invest more money in you than your competitor.

All in all, rewards are a win-win for both the buyers and the sellers where they gain in terms of a customer or retaining customer and the customer gets brands at reasonable prices. For more end to end reward program solutions, one can visit rewardport.in. Through research and collective expertise, we guide our clients with choices to help them motivate their people. Be its sales force, channel partners or employees. We motivate to enable people to do things differently, by developing their strengths, knowledge, and confidence. They care and focus to build a relationship with people… Forever.

A Guide to the Ultimate Loyalty Program

What is a customer loyalty program? It is a full-fledged marketing plan to retain a brand’s loyal customer base.  A company which uses customer loyalty programs benefits more at any point of time than a company which doesn’t use it. Moreover, it is likely to cost a brand more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one.

Did you know? Your existing customers spend about 70% more than the new customers.

It is time you incorporate success-driven customer loyalty programs in your brand’s marketing plan.

Today we have an impressive list of technologies to get customer attention and direct them in buying a product or service. Nowadays, customer loyalty programs have become increasingly important and gain a bigger potential to retain existing customers. Chances are some of them become active members.

Customer loyalty programs should be included in all companies that value its buyer base. Buyers who stay true and loyal to the brand help spread the word and encourage their families, friends and others to know more about the brand. This, in turn, increases free referrals.

If you are running a company and looking to maximize your customer base, the following inputs will make the process smoother.

How to make a customer stay with your brand?

• Analyze your target audience with their expectations and tastes. Then, work on a strategy that helps you achieve your customer acquisition goal
• It is important to maintain consistency in your product quality  while you try different ways to promote the same
• Whenever and wherever it is required, attend to your customer feedback and reviews
• Always keep a tab on your sales performance and listen to what your buyer says
• Your loyalty program should be designed in a way that gives the maximum value to your customers

A detailed and customized loyalty program will make your buyers feel valued and important for the business that you do. This excites them to be a part of your brand today and in the future. Appreciate your customers by including fun and surprise elements whenever they make a purchase.

By learning what they like and see in your product//service, you will be in a better position to evaluate your plan and make necessary adjustments which will then increase their brand loyalty. They would love coming back to you. Use the present opportunity to learn about your customer touch points. How often do you meet your customers to interact with them? Learn more ways to improve your customer loyalty both online and offline. Research about the key metrics that help determine your customer value. Chart out plans for reward points and recognition. Find out different methods to motivate them. These will guide you to design the ultimate customer loyalty program for your brand’s success.

Avoid these 5 common mistakes in 2019 if you want to run a successful loyalty program

2019 has just arrived and every brand or organization is already prepped up to create and build loyalty programs that are not just interesting but engaging and utilitarian in nature. Times have changed and are likely to keep changing at a fast pace and all you need to do as a brand is to get with it! Old-school ways have ought to go and newer ways and strategies must be embraced to cater to the evolved set of customers you have.

Here are the top 5 common mistakes that you must avoid if you wish to run a very successful loyalty program:

1. Cut the complications

2019 should be all about being apt and adept. The basic rule to this is to do away with any kind of complicated rules. The simpler, the better. It is one thing to create exciting offers and incentive programs and it’s another to complicate it through multiple tiers and rules. The point is to be straightforward and prominent. The reason you need to keep the complicated rules to the bare minimum is that you want to gain your customer’s attention by offering them valuable loyalty programs and not have them occupied in figuring out or calculating their gains.
For instance, if your loyalty program need points to be converted into monetary value then make the who process simpler by denoting each point to a certain value of money. Eg: 10 points = 10 Rupees

2. Being generous with the validity

This is a must-have condition for any loyalty program at this point in time. If you are looking for customers to reflect their emotions and trust towards your brand for a long time, then it is necessary that you stick to your words; in this case, the rules you assign to the program. People will bestow you with their loyalty if your program offers them a large window of redemption of the loyalty program they have. Even better would be to stake out any form of validity period at all! Shorter periods for the redemption of these incentives or rewards might project your brand as a petty or cheap brand.

3. Don’t bore it

One of the main reasons why a loyalty program is offered in the first place is because you want to create loyal customers out of your target audience. If your loyalty programs offer you the straight-out-of-the-mill type of incentives then you’re clearly not doing great! Boring needs and has to go out. A BOGO offer is acceptable only if your company has five other offers that are sure to knock your customers out of the park. Creating new, interactive and creative ways to get your customer’s attention or loyalty is of utmost importance.

4. Few Amends Only

Take a loyalty program live to the public only if you have complete faith and confidence in it. Should you feel that there are bugs or smaller errors to be amended before going live, it is imperative that you make sure to get it changed prior to making it available to your audience. Frequent changes in your loyalty or incentive program can directly affect the faith of your customers on your products and services. It also tends to distract them easily.

5. One-tier rewards are a No-no

As it is earlier mentioned, it is important to create reward programs that make your customers want to stick with your brand for longer. To initiate such long-term behavior, it is important that you develop loyalty programs that are manifold and offer more in each segment and not be static in any way. Multi-tiered reward systems engage your customers and encourage them subtly to get back to you in the hopes of getting onto the next tier of the program.

With such simple yet significant changes, you are sure to make the most of 2019 with your loyalty programs. Remember to gauge your audience at all times and work around their expectations to reduce discouraged behaviour from your customers. If you can let go of these 5 major mistakes while structuring your loyalty programs, then your program is set to be a hit!