Loyalty programs are an essential component of a successful marketing strategy. In fact, over 60% of consumers will join the loyalty program of a brand they love.
In order to engage shoppers for the long term and build lasting lifetime value, your program must be customized to your brand’s unique voice and look-and-feel. A cookie cutter loyalty solution just won’t make the cut; while shoppers may join initially, it doesn’t foster the same long-term engagement as a dynamic, on-brand program. In fact, over a third of Millennial consumers are quick to drop a brand whose loyalty program doesn’t meet their expectations.
However, many marketers believe a template-based solution is their only choice because it’s quick to deploy. They shy away from customized programs, assuming they take too long to launch. Many marketers think that when it comes to loyalty programs, they have to choose: either speed to launch, or customizability.
The good news is, you can have both. Today, marketer-friendly loyalty programs are built to enable your team to easily build and deploy an on-brand loyalty program quickly, without having to sacrifice the level of customization needed to drive engagement.
That means you can quickly launch a program that both matches your brand’s style and allows for continuous strategy optimization any time — with no extra time or development resources required.
Here are some of the benefits to getting a customized loyalty program up and running fast.
Start driving CLTV immediately and for the long run
By leveraging a solution that’s built to launch fast, like one with an editor made for marketers, your brand can design and instantly deploy a program that looks great and fits your needs — then start reaping the benefits right away.
Choose ways for your customers to earn their loyalty points, like sending referrals or following your brand on social media, and decide on your VIP status requirements. When you’ve designed the program that’s right for your brand, push it live immediately.
Then, to keep your program from going stale, you can continuously design and deploy new campaigns on the fly. Build out double points days, scheduled limited-time campaigns, or launch exclusive new products for redemption in your loyalty program, and see your changes reflected immediately onsite — creating a seamless customer experience and fostering higher engagement from the jump.
In addition, your team can optimize your program based on customer feedback and engagement with the program. If you see that members are interacting with a certain type of campaign over another, try launching something similar to maintain engagement. Or, if a campaign seems to drive lower traffic, simply stop running it whenever you want.
Build an agile loyalty strategy
The most successful marketing strategies are agile, meaning they’re built to react as consumers, seasons, and products change. With a marketer-friendly solution, your loyalty program can follow suit.
Once you’ve outlined the fundamental goals you’re looking to achieve with your program, you can easily optimize for ongoing engagement. Rather than simply letting your program run in the background during potential high-intent moments, like holiday shopping season, your brand can easily run new campaigns to capture attention and drive continued engagement.
Check out these campaign ideas from Volcom, Soko Glam, and Rebecca Minkoff.
Time-sensitive early access drops
Volcom’s loyalty program, Stone Rewards, launches early access campaigns for shoppers around holidays to incentivize action right away. A one-day only sale piques members’ interest, and tiered discount incentivizes maximize order value.
Holiday campaigns that drive repeat purchases
Girlfriend Collective leverages their rewards program, The Collective, to launch holiday-centric loyalty campaigns that spark engagement. Below, they’re offering double points for shoppers that create loyalty accounts before the Black Friday & Cyber Monday season, ensuring they can drive higher conversion from program members during the holiday weekend.
VIP event experiences just for members
Rebecca Minkoff’s RM Rewards drives engagement toward online events, like virtual stylings, for VIP members only. The exclusivity drives increased program engagement, and the event helps to fortify customer connections with the brand — increasing lifetime value.
Optimize quickly and easily, anytime
Just because you have the agility to create campaigns on the fly doesn’t mean you have to commit to them for the long run. With control over your program, your brand can iterate and optimize every campaign you run any time you want.
If you see that your members seem to be engaging with a certain type of campaign over another, try launching something similar to maintain that traffic. Or, if a campaign seems to have low engagement, simply stop running it and start something else. It’s easy to try new strategies — and you may make valuable discoveries about member behavior.
Debunking the myth of the lofty loyalty program
Today, building a customized loyalty program is fast and easy. With a marketer-friendly solution like Yotpo’s Loyalty & Referrals Modules, your brand can have an engaging program up and running quickly — and you can iterate on it instantly.
To learn more about how your brand can drive lifetime value with loyalty and referrals programs that actually work, click here.
