Budget Planning. For Loyalty Programs.

Transcription

1 Budget Planning 101 For Loyalty Programs

2 No matter how good you are at planning, the pressure never goes away. So I don t fight it. I feed off it. I turn pressure into motivation to do my best. Introduction Benjamin Carson As a CMO at Antavo, I ve seen all sorts of client budgets: ambitious and humble, overcomplicated and straightforward, detailed and simple. Regardless of their planning style, the most disheartening feeling I have is when I see a great plan going up in smoke because of imagined or false budgeting problems. A sense of unpredictability, a lack of transparency, and a feeling of being out of control are the most important show-stoppers. But it doesn t have to be this way. At Antavo, we use the time-tested budget planning model that I am going to share with you right now. Armed with this knowledge, there won t be any more stumbling around the stage in the dark: you will be able to draft a budget and make every penny count. Zsuzsa Kecsmar, CMO, Antavo 2

3 Overview YOUR SPREADSHEET TEMPLATE 3 1. PLANNING AND PREPARATION COSTS 4 2. TECHNOLOGY COSTS 7 3. REWARDS COSTS 9 4. ACTIVATION COSTS MANAGEMENT COSTS 14 CONCLUSION 16 3

4 In this part of our series, we walk you through the various elements that make up the full cost of a loyalty program. We start with the planning and preparation, then move on to the technical, continue with the cost of prizes and rewards and end up at the of maintaining and managing a campaign. Your spreadsheet template We even have a useful spreadsheet for you to use. Download it here. If it looks too much, just remember that we promised you a well thought-out, detailed and clear model that can be used off-the-shelf. And we keep our promises. Of course, you can simplify it to your own liking as well. 4

5 1. Planning and preparation 5

6 In this preliminary phase, your job is to groom yourself for the whole budgeting process by laying some solid foundations. Here are the starting steps. 1.1 Define the structure 1. Planning and preparation Your job here is to get answers to these questions: What prizes, rewards, etc., will move my community? An important point here is that the prizes you are considering don t have to be costly; they just have to be precious in the eyes of your customers. To come up with the best ideas you have to know their wishes and dreams. Drilling deep into your community forums, social media conversations, and CRMarchives should do the trick. What visual elements could I use during the campaign? In the age of high-definition Facebook timeline photos, your customers are more sensitive to visual elements than ever before. Get your past and recent ideas together, ask for support from your graphic design expert, and come up with your very best; because being good enough is no longer enough. What does a supporting marketing plan look like? A supporting marketing plan is kind of a mini marketing plan part of the bigger loyalty plan with the former supporting the latter. Both budget-wise and complexity-wise, you can make it as elaborate or as simple as you see fit unless you sport tools and channels that can efficiently support your campaign. Our money-saving tip: Use our quick guide on rewards to minimize planning time. 6

7 1. Planning and preparation 1.2 Research technicalities By technicalities we mean everything technology related from compiling a list of possible agency partners to reviewing software packages or SaaS tools with a detailed review of their capabilities and features. Our money-saving tip: Don t over think technology-related issues. If you run on well-documented e-commerce engines like Magento or WooCommerce... etc. it s 99.99% certain that you can put your hand on a mature, time-tested plug-in to do the job for you. Also, SaaS loyalty program solutions are now really affordable and can be custom-tailored for the platform you already use. If there s a way, skip custom development projects and the accompanying time and financial expenses. 1.3 Plan the project To-do lists, schedules, timetables, project plans you name it. The important thing here is to have an idea about the tasks, timeframes, and responsibilities of your whole endeavour. Don t forget to include items specific to the loyalty program such as the ongoing follow-up of customer feedback, fine-tuning rewards or coming up with new ones, monitoring the overall mood or delivering rewards. 7

8 2. Technology 8

9 2. Technology There are two subsets of that you will almost certainly have: 2.1. Platform There s going to be a price tag attached, no matter which way you go. Be it a plug-in, a SaaS tool or a piece of custom software - someone has already put it together for you. 2.2 Human resources If you are like me, if someone says that it s written in C, you can only think of music notation or a vitamin prescription and not a programming language. That s why we need to bring in technology expertise, be it in-house or outsourced. It money to set up a platform; and it to have it constantly supported. Our money-saving tip: You can go with a SaaS tool and cut down drastically on your technology-related. Both setting up a platform and getting constant s upport are usually less expensive compared to your other options. 9

10 3. Rewards 10

11 3. Rewards At the heart of loyalty marketing lies the idea that when you prize loyal behaviour, it will come. So, obviously you have to have some actual rewards to offer your customers and it s going to cost you in different ways. 3.1 Cost of the reward itself A one-off gadget, an event ticket, a VIP service - no matter what you come up with, everything has a price tag, even if it just collects dust in your office. 3.2 Cost of showing your reward to the world Taking pictures, creating pre-visualization renders, or just stamping a virtual badge - someone has to do it for you. 3.3 Cost of delivering your reward You have to make sure that the rewards you offer, be they virtual or physical, actually get to your customer. This, too, money. Our money-saving tip: Here you find some great collection of ideas for you to mix up your rewards offerings with some virtual and experience-based prizes. Our money-saving tip: If you make the rules clear in advance, it s okay to send out the actual reward packed together with your customer s next regular order, thus saving on shipping. 11

12 4. Activation 12

13 4. Activation By now, although you may feel that there s lots going on, your customers still don t know anything about your loyalty program. You have to activate it and get them to participate. For this, you have to have a supporting campaign and an appropriate budget. 4.1 Preparation Design: banners, badges, landing pages, online ads, etc. Take into account all the visuals, on-line or offline, that you need to show your brainchild to the world. Our money-saving tip: Built-in design templates and copy examples can save you a ton of money and weeks if not months of time, so choose a platform that already has them all. Copywriting: getting a professional or using expert help in writing, stylizing, and tailoring all the written content you use in your campaign is a good idea. 13

14 4. Activation 4.2. Launch It s just the same start you ve had several times before: newsletter announcements, Facebook ads, Google AdWords, promo videos - use the tools and channels you have experience with and trust the best for the job Maintenance You don t want to close down the show after just a week. You want a long-running performance. Start off as you mean to continue. Use follow-up s, maintain advertising, run contests, and organize special events. They all help to keep your customers focus on your loyalty program. 14

15 5. Management 15

16 5. Management It s like a Moon landing: most of the work starts after the launch. And to have a smooth landing, you have to: 5.1 Keep a constant eye on the set-up If your rewards run out or start to feel boring, you have to have a thorough look at what s going on. Adjust, create new goals for your customers, and shake things up Analyze results 5.3 Support First-class support is a must, not an option anymore. The idea here is to employ sophistication to handle your customers reactions to the loyalty program and also to treat loyalty members differently compared to non-loyalty members. Channel the results of your program right into your CRM processes. Although this step correlates to the previous step, we are talking about your supporting marketing campaign here, not the core of the loyalty program itself. You have to be prepared to make well-grounded but immediate changes to your advertising, social media, and public relations sub-campaigns. 16

17 Conclusion Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now. Alan Lakein We promised you a complete but not a complicated budgeting model. Going through the steps of preparing, weighing up technology options, crystallizing the of rewards, jotting down a supporting marketing campaign, and thinking about the expenses related to maintenance and management, you will be well placed. 17

18 Contact us I hope all this has helped you to become even more confident in your loyalty program launch. Please don t forget that you are not alone along the way. Get in touch with us for further advice, support, and help with any question and enquiry on how loyalty programs can advance your business. I m just an away. Zsuzsa Kecsmar, CMO, Antavo zsuzsi@antavo.com 18

19