The growth and democratisation of e-commerce has helped to create more demanding consumers who are less likely, given the immense range on offer, to be "loyal" to a single brand. building customer loyalty online or offline.
Although it takes extra effort on your part to make customers see your brand as a partner for life in this new age of consumption, it's not impossible - all it takes is imagination and a customer retention programme like the one we're about to help you create.
How to create a loyalty programme?
To create a customer loyalty programme that will help you increase sales, follow these seven steps:
Step 1: Know your customer's profile and choose a reward in line with their needs
To be able to define what reward or offer to give your customer in order to build loyalty, it's important that you first get to know their needs and what they value.
In addition to analysing the data of those who visit your shop, online or not, through AI or using Big Data,
- bet on personalised email marketing campaigns and targeted at these customers
- offer them products and services related to their previous purchases
- bet on payment methods in line with your payment habits
- create "wishlists" that consumers can feed themselves and thus make your job easier
You can also use effective customer retention strategiesoffer you discount coupons, bonuses and even concert tickets or free subscriptions to products/services.
Step 2: Define how customers will access the rewards
In this field, the most common thing is to offer a percentage discount on the total value or to offer postage when you buy a certain number of products or spend money on a single purchase.
You can also create loyalty strategies which involve accumulating points with every purchase, which you can then exchange for discounts or free products (take advantage of this to free up stock of products that don't sell much).
If you want to go one step further, develop a mobile application where, as well as having access to your content, customers can qualify for personalised discounts.
Step 3: Define access rules and give the loyalty campaign a name
Create a page on your corporate website or social networks exclusively for promoting and explaining the rules for accessing the loyalty campaign.
On this page, the entire programme must be clearly explained and contain the following items:
- Programme name;
- Types of rewarded actions;
- How much the points are worth once translated into discounts;
- How points can be exchanged for rewards other than discounts.
As for the name, it must be catchy, unique and arouse curiosity in consumers in order to encourage them to participate.
Step 4: Automate your loyalty programme
To make the loyalty programme as simple as possible, and therefore more accessible to a greater number of consumers, automate it, but always with a touch of personalisation to extract the most useful information from your customers for future campaigns.
Step 5: Always leave room for "one more customer"
The loyalty programme should not be closed to customers who have already bought from your shop.
To increase your attractiveness, for example, offer extra bonuses to those who are not yet registered on your online sales platform.
Step 6: forge partnerships
One of digital marketing tools most used by companiesIf you're looking for a solution, you can establish partnerships with digital influencers or with brands that provide services or sell products that complement your own.
For example, Uber has formed a partnership with the Starwood hotel chain that allows its customers to earn points that can be converted into stays. Germany's T-Mobile offers its customers a Netflix subscription if they buy two or more telephone lines.
Step 7: Keep your customers
The loyalty programme should not run out for the duration of the campaign.
To increase the degree of connection with your customers, create content targeted at them and make use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, email marketing and automation tools to better manage your communications with them.
Advantages of a loyalty programme for your company
In addition to the obvious, i.e. retaining customers and expanding the numbers your brand reaches, a successful loyalty programme will be based on:
- Reduce the costs of attracting new customers;
- Increase the number of sales;
- Increase the average ticket, i.e. the average amount spent by each customer on each purchase they make;
- Improve communication with your target audience;
- Develop more efficient marketing campaigns;
- Obtain data on customers' consumption habits and, as a result, personalise their purchasing journey, including the type of online and/or face-to-face payment methods they prefer;
- Increased recurrence, i.e. the rate of new business between your shop and the consumer.
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