THIS DOCUMENT OUTLINES SOME STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING THE LOYALTY PROGRAM. 1. Creating awareness about the program for new customers

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1 PROMOTING THE LOYALTY PROGRAM THIS DOCUMENT OUTLINES SOME STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING THE LOYALTY PROGRAM. There are two parts of the program promotion - 1. Creating awareness about the program for new customers 2. Engaging enrolled customers through different campaigns 1

2 1. CREATING AWARENESS ABOUT THE PROGRAM You must promote the loyalty program vigorously to derive maximum benefit. If customers don t know about the program, even a well designed program will not be successful. The website and campaigns are the two primary channels for creating awareness about the program online. If you have an offline presence, there should be pop-up banners in visible areas of the store specially near the entrance announcing the rewards program. Table top banners should be placed at checkout counters. 1.1 WEBSITE PROMOTION The customers that land on your site should immediately know that there is a loyalty program that they can take advantage of. They should have easy navigation links to enroll into the program. Some of the standard website promotion strategies are listed below Rewards Landing page Create a page on your website which explains the program - how to earn points/ redeem points, tier structure and other terms and conditions. This is a useful page for customers to learn more about the program and can be used as a landing page for the loyalty promotion campaigns. The page should have clear call to action links to enroll in the program. Examples: Loyalty Link in the Header Your website header is a high visibility area and the loyalty program should feature here. You can direct customers to the Rewards Landing Page depending on their authentication status. Examples: (a) 2

3 1.1.2 (b) Call out earning opportunities (c) Add contextual descriptions wherever customers can earn points on your website. Not only do these call-outs draw attention to the loyalty program but they also act as an incentive for customers to do that particular activity. You can also add an expandable section in these call outs which shows what the points are worth. This may just provide the extra incentive to earn more points to reach the promised reward. Examples: 1. Product page call-out for points that can be earned on purchasing the product along with an expandable tool tip which shows what the points are worth. Home > Occasions > Birthday Flowers > Marvelous Marvelous $5 OFF A Future order 50 POINTS $15 OFF A Future order 150 POINTS $10 OFF A Future order 100 POINTS $20 OFF A Future order 200 POINTS Earn upto 45 Rewards Points 3

4 2. Product page call-out for points for reviews 3. Checkout page call-out for the loyalty program 4

5 4. Points for subscription SIGN UP NOW AND GET REWARDED! Get 100 POINTS when you subscribe First Name * Last Name * Zip Code * Address * SIGN UP Powered by Zinrelo Contextual notifications Messages delivered at the right time are very effective in driving engagement with the loyalty program. Zinrelo offers in-built notifications that are displayed whenever customers earn points. These should be enabled on the website. Examples: 5

6 1.2 CAMPAIGNS is an effective medium to reach a large audience and create awareness about the loyalty program. You should announce the launch of the program to your whole subscriber base. Apart from announcing the launch, there is a lot more you can do to create awareness using campaigns Announce program launch An series is more effective than a single in getting customers enrolled in the program. If you are using a marketing automation tool, you could set up an campaign as outlined in the diagram below Launch: Announce the launch and highlight program benefits Did customer register for the program? YES Welcome Invite friend referals NO 2 - Limited time promotion: 2X points for account creation 3 - reminder about limited time promotion and reinforce program benefits Seed customers and notify them that they have points The best way to create interest in the program is to tell customers that they already have points which they can redeem for rewards. You can award points for purchases made in the 90 days prior to launch and notify all the customers about the points they have Add a loyalty program banner in transactional s Simply including a loyalty program banner in your transactional s like order confirmation s and shipping confirmation s will increase awareness about the program Internal to employees to promote the new initiative The loyalty program is not just a marketing initiative. This is a program that touches every business function. Sales teams can plan promotions around the loyalty program, customer support teams should know the program rules to address customer questions, cashiers at your POS should be trained as well, accounting teams will have to track the liability of outstanding points, marketing teams can use the insights from customer data to plan their campaigns, product teams can seek customer feedback by offering incentives through the program. So it is important to keep all internal stakeholders informed about the program. When the loyalty program becomes a company wide initiative, you are likely to get more ideas for taking advantage of the program. 6

7 1.1.5 Display points available for logged in customers Many websites display the customer name in the header / my account section when the user is signed in. Adding the customer s available points next to the name is a good way to promote the program. Example: WELCOME: ROHIT BARVE WISHLIST NEWLETTER SIGN-UP SUPPORT SHIPPING HELP STORE LOCATOR (400 Reward Points Available) 2. ENGAGING ENROLLED CUSTOMERS Enrolled members are already aware of the program. But they may still need a nudge to participate actively in the program. Promoting the program to enrolled customers is a great way to reengage inactive users. This needs a different approach from just creating awareness about the program. 2.1 USING EVENT BASED NOTIFICATION TRIGGERS: Any marketing message is far more effective when it is delivered at the right time. Zinrelo offers a set of in-built notifications which are triggered based on pre-defined events. You can notify customers when they earn points for any activity, whenever they become eligible for a new reward, when they are close to a reward threshold, when they close to a tier upgrade or when their points are about to expire. For details on setting up these notifications check Configuring notifications document. 2.2 CREATING PROMOTIONAL EVENTS Enrolled customers are always looking for ways to earn more points and rewards. Promotional events that offer these opportunities generate a lot of interest. These promotional events need not be exclusive to the loyalty program. The loyalty program can just be linked to the regular promotions by offering points as an incentive. You should include one such event each month in your marketing calendar. The campaign should be promoted through campaigns, social media, blogs and even on your website. Here are some ideas for the loyalty promotion campaigns. 1. 2X points weekend: Award double points for purchases made during a promotional weekend. 2. Bonus points for select products: Award bonus points for products that you want to push. E.g. Summer Sale: 3X poins on all swimwear purchases. 3. Bonus points for high value orders or repeat orders: Such rules may not be exclusive to one campaign but calling it out in a campaign will have a positive impact on your AOV and repeat purchase frequency. e.g. Black Friday Sale: Get 100 bonus points for orders above $100 and 200 bonus points for your 2nd purchase in the Black Friday week 4. Promo products that can be purchased only with points 5. Contests: Special rewards to members earning maximum points in a given month Zinrelo has a sophisticated rule engine that allows setting up some of these campaigns without any additional setup. 7

8 ZING YOUR LOYALTY & REFERRAL PROGRAMS SUMMARY Program promotion is crucial to the success of the program. Promotion involves creating awareness about the program as well as engaging existing customers. The website and campaigns are the primary channels for creating awareness about the program. Social Media and blogs are other options. To engage enrolled members you should use event based notifications and also run special loyalty program promotions each month To zing your loyalty and referral programs contact Zinrelo. zinrelo.com Persian Drive Suite #101, Sunnyvale, CA 94089