Building a B2B loyalty program can be challenging — from customizing it, to integrating it with your tech stack, all the way through implementation. Not only is the customer pool significantly smaller than it is for B2C businesses, but fostering loyalty as a B2B company is a different ball game as compared to consumer-facing brands.
We’re here to break down the most important tips and trends you need to know to take your B2B retention marketing to the next level in 2020.
1. B2B-specific rewards
Make sure to cater your rewards to the B2B audience. For example, offer rewards to customers for paying sooner, either in accordance with net 30 terms or even when they make an order. This tactic improves cash flow to your business, while incentivizing customers to make additional purchases. Another opportunity is rewarding customers for buying in bulk to increase average order value — consider using a custom “punch card” campaign to reward customers who purchase above a certain dollar amount.
2. Content is king
Get your customers and prospects hooked on your business by publishing relevant, helpful content about your industry. Write blog posts, guest post in industry-specific publications, and share engaging content on organic and paid social to establish your business as a leader and knowledge source in your field. This makes customers and prospects trust you above the competition and entices them to keep visiting your site. Be sure to reward customers for engaging with your content (i.e. sharing blog posts and liking pages on social) to build a stronger connection with your business. You can also set up a “Read Content” campaign, which awards customers with points after they’ve read one of your articles and returned to your site to answer a question.
3. The B2B experience
To create a successful B2B loyalty program, you need to really understand your ideal customer profile and cater your on-site experience to their needs. Business owners and managers care most about the bottom line — make sure your loyalty program is easy to find, easy to get to from payment pages, and optimized for clarity and conversion. While customization and branding is always important, B2B clients need to know what they can get out of the program immediately upon landing, so simplicity and clarity trumps everything else.
4. Reward VIPs with tiered loyalty
Take better care of your best customers. If they’ve been loyal to you in the past, they’re likely to continue purchasing from you if you can show them that you value their business. Create a tiered VIP program based on lifetime spend or reward points accrued, and then offer high-level VIPs incentives liked like discounts on bulk purchasing or fun branded swag. This is a simple way to encourage your best customers to purchase even more.
5. Adding B2B to Your B2C Brand
This one depends on the scope of your business — if you mainly sell B2C, make sure you’re not neglecting your B2B customers when it comes to retention and loyalty. If you’re a manufacturer selling to stores and individual shoppers or a brand that also sells in bulk for retail distribution, having a consumer-facing loyalty program isn’t enough. Create a specific program for your B2B customers.
Take for example Virtue, an eCommerce retailer for paintball and outdoor equipment. While much of their marketing is directed at individual players, they were also able to implement a fantastic B2B program that rewards paintball shops and teams for purchasing in bulk. Some of their personalized VIP perks include branded sponsorship packages and deals on product bundles.
Conclusion:
It can be easy to overlook B2B loyalty in a consumer-facing world, but remember that businesses will respond to the right kind of rewards. Drive loyalty among your best customers by keeping incentives B2B-specific, encouraging customers to engage with your content, prioritizing clean UX onsite, and crafting custom VIP tiers.
