1-888-353-5012How many loyalty programs do you belong to? For me, I’ve got my grocer, my favorite gas station, the movie theater, the drugstore, the hardware store and a clothing store. And that doesn’t count all the ones I DECLINE to join because the benefits are confusing or not compelling enough.
Most of us (83%) belong to between 1 and 6 loyalty programs, BUT 72% of us use less than HALF of them. Why? Simple answer. We forget about them (or stop caring) because there isn’t a compelling enough reason to engage with them. That’s what we call an Engagement Gap: The difference between joining a program and using a program.
For a Royalty Rewards® merchant like you, loyalty is a very important part of your business…. But JUST Points and Rewards are NOT enough. To generate a continual stream of customers and increase spending at your business, you need a COMPLETE Multi-Media SYSTEM. And as a Royalty Rewards® client, you benefit from having it working in tandem with points and rewards. Yes, loyalty is important. It’s the way we entice your customers to join, to provide their contact information and to give you their permission to communicate with them. But it is only one piece of the puzzle. You too are subject to an engagement gap. It’s unavoidable. But you have the power to close that gap and here are the top 3 ways your Coach can help you do so.
Strategy 1: Give Your Offers A Makeover.
hen surveying customers that aren’t engaging with their loyalty program, as many as 41% of customers say it’s because the benefits/rewards aren’t interesting or valuable enough. Take a moment and read these three offers of REAL, Royalty Rewards® merchants for the same campaign. Which one do you think performed best?
A FREE Appetizer Valued Up To $11 Plus A Roll Of Duct Tape: Disclaimer: Not Valid With Any Other Offer. No Cash Value. One Offer Per Table. No Multiple Offers On Split Checks. Not Valid With Happy Hour.
A FREE $10.00 Off Your Next Visit: Disclaimer: Not Valid With Any Other Offer, Daily Specials Or Alcohol. Valid On Food Purchases Only.
A FREE $6.23 Off Plus DOUBLE POINTS On Your Next Visit: Disclaimer: With The Minimum Order Of $20.00. Valid From June 1-30, 2023. Not Valid With Any Other Royalty Rewards Offer, Discount Or Promotions. Choose To Redeem By Member App Or Certificate. One Redemption Allowed Per Promo.
No! JUST Points and Rewards are NOT Enough.
For any marketing program to generate a continual stream of customers and increase spending at your business, you need a COMPLETE Multi-Media SYSTEM. Here are all the pieces of your Royalty Rewards® Program that work together to produce your program ROI:
– Customer Milestone Campaigns
– Unlimited Email On Demand
– Lost Customer Reactivation Campaigns
– Seasonal Sales Boost Campaigns
– Bounce Back Campaigns
– Member Survey
– Online Review Accelerator
– Targeted Offers (based on visit frequency & spend)
– Loyalty Points and Rewards
…AND your own personal Coach to help and guide you along the way.
And this is all delivered using multimedia: in the Mobile App (with Push Notifications), via Email, via Text, and with Direct Mail.
We’re going to share the actual redemption rates with you below, BUT this was also a trick question… because whatever you THINK the answer is, you will never KNOW until YOU test offers on YOUR customers.
Before we go into detail, Offer #1 provides a very important lesson. Although there are clear ways to improve this offer, which we detail next, in this case we suspect the Merchant is not capturing ALL the transactions generated by the campaign. If your team members aren’t redeeming campaigns correctly, you are doing yourself a MAJOR disservice. This offer COULD have been the best of the bunch, but this merchant will never know and can’t use it to improve future marketings.
9.7%
Offer #1 had a redemption rate of 9.7%. While considering our point above, believe it or not, offers that include dollars AND cents are proven to perform better than those with just the former. So, if the offer was for $10.99 instead of $11, it could have been perceived as more valuable. Also, re-read the disclaimer. Even though the add-on premium should be enticing, the notable restrictions could have prevented people from trusting the offer.
54.4%
Offer #2 had a redemption rate of 54.4% and the disclaimer is the least prohibitive of them all. So, while the offer may seem mundane, it’s success may rely on its simplicity. Just like the first example, complicated disclaimers impact perception and can increase suspicion.
42.8%
Offer #3 had a redemption rate of 42.8%, most likely because double points always boost results.
They cost you nothing yet have a high perceived value and move people to a Reward faster.
Strategy 2: Point Bump.
Remember the last time you reached a personal milestone? Or EARNED something by putting in work, time, or effort? It felt good, didn’t it? For your Rewards Members, Award Certificates work the same way, and they are the highest redeemed of ALL campaigns for that very reason: they are earned. In marketing, when things produce not only a good ROI, but the HIGHEST ROI, Do. More. Of. It. So how can you issue more awards?!? A point bump, which leverages a key statistic. Nearly 90% of customers engage less often if they feel it takes too long to earn rewards.
With a point bump, you can ‘bump’ up members who are close to earning an award, so that they earn one faster. Since awards have the highest results of all the campaigns you send, this is a great tool for boosting sales. The faster they earn, the faster they return, the smaller your engagement gap.
In 2023, Holly’s Restaurant used it monthly and had an average of 51.9% of the recipients return and spent a total of $28,676.91.
Longtime Merchant Marblehead Chowder House used it recently. Sending it to everyone they hadn’t seen in 30 days, who were 25 or less points away from an award. As a result, 42.3% of the recipients returned, spending $24,782.84.
Strategy 3: Create Tiers For Your Biggest Spenders.
74% of customers would engage more in a program if they were moved up a tier based on their spending. We track lifetime sales of each of your Rewards Members – you can view the results in your “Top Households/Members Report”. This will show you who your best customers are and, if they spend over a certain dollar threshold, you can set it so they earn 1.5 or 2 points for every dollar they spend. (Your Coach can help you do this). If you are hesitant to do this permanently, you could offer it as a bonus in a slow period (i.e., 30 days every January) to your biggest spenders.
Closing The Gap: The more focus you put on engaging with your customers, signing them up to your Rewards Program and providing them with reasons, offers and connection that influences them to return – the faster your sales will grow and the more you will benefit from the program.
PS. We couldn’t finish this article without highlighting one of the most important parts of the program: Capturing Rewards Transactions. Transactions (and members!) are the LIFEBLOOD of the program. They work in conjunction with campaigns to trigger member status and segments, award certificates, and surveys. If you aren’t capturing transactions consistently, you are ACTIVELY increasing YOUR engagement gap.
74% of customers would engage more in a program if they were moved up a tier based on their spending.
Ready to get started? Give your Coach a call at 1-888-353-5012.
Case Study: Confusion Kills
As I mentioned above, one of the loyalty programs I belong to is my local drug store. In our area, there are two dominating drug store options, and both have loyalty programs. One started their program years ahead of the curve and is super successful, easy to earn, easy to redeem, and has plenty of unique offers. The other started years later, has gone through some iterations, and it’s not nearly as user friendly.
Here’s an example: Check out the email below, which I received to notify me of my birthday reward. After I read this, there were 2 (well, 3) major problems that jumped out at me. Can you spot them?
Here’s the first: “Make sure you activate your $5 birthday gift before the last day of your birthday month, so you don’t miss out on your reward.” Pardon? I need to activate it? And the second: “Don’t know how to activate your birthday gift? Watch our step-by-step video here.” Yes, this process is SO confusing for their customers, they’ve created a VIDEO to show the activation process.
And finally, although I must give them credit for having the offer displayed prominently as their headline, considering the amount I spend there each year, the offer is weak.
I do shop here often, and as of today I have been there 3 times this month and each time I’m angry that I can’t just redeem this $5. The ONLY reason I eventually took the time to activate it was to benefit this article, which I planned to share with you. At first, I thought that PERHAPS they were driving me to log into the account online to provide some information that was missing from my account, or survey me, or require something else that would be of value to them, but No. They just required me to go through the ridiculous step of activating this reward.
I imagine activation rates are extremely low. In fact, until I shared this with our staff, one team member had no idea these rewards needed to be activated, rather they just kept shopping assuming they would automatically be rewarded.
The lesson? Don’t irritate your loyal Reward Members with confusing program requirements. As soon as people are irritated and/or confused – they do nothing. With Royalty Rewards® on your side, we make sure your program campaigns are easy to redeem, but there are still things you can do to help. Here are a few things you can consider.
Keep Disclaimers SIMPLE.
Not only do complicated disclaimers frustrate customers, but they can also devalue your offer, and in many cases be perceived as an attempt to hide information or be less than transparent. This will erode trust and diminish response.
Support Multiple Redemption Options.
Go to where your customers are, not where you want them to be. Some prefer using their app, some like to print out emails, others want tangible direct mail. Make it easy for customers to take action on their terms.
Provide a Variety of Valuable Offers.
Cater to different customer preferences with a variety of $ Off Certificates, free products, or even charitable donations. Your Coach can help you get creative.
Act on Constructive Feedback.
Review the responses to your membership survey regularly, respond when warranted, and make changes when you see constructive feedback.
90 Million Mom’s in North America And EVERY SINGLE ONE Of Them Needs A Mother’s Day Gift
If I asked you how much money is spent on Mother’s Day each year, what would be your answer? If you came in close to $35 Billion, you’d be spot on. And that’s only in the USA. Yes, Mother’s Day is BIG money with consumers buying gifts like jewelry, clothing, electronics, spa treatments, and flowers.
Here’s another statistic that might surprise you: According to the National Retail Federation, in 2023 consumers planned to spend a record $274.02 per person on average for Mother’s Day. Would you have guessed the number was that high? I know I wouldn’t have.
Why are we telling you this? If celebrating Mom’s Month is not on your marketing calendar, call your Coach right away and start to plan how you will get your piece of the pie. And at Royalty Rewards®, when we say, “your piece of the pie”, we don’t mean a one-day special or measly discount valid only for the weekend. Our campaigns are run the entire month of May and are designed to peak interest, create buzz, AND create a memorable experience for all your customers.
Let me start with a story. I have a lot of plants (so many that I’ve lost count). My daughter does not share my love of plants (yet!) and she even complains about them all the time. But guess what I got for Mother’s Day last year? A plant! And whenever I look at that plant, it reminds me of my daughter and the thought she put into getting me something to make me feel special. This plant means so much to me, I affectionately call Nancy. Why am I telling you this? You can be part of giving this type of experience to your customers. Here’s all the ways you can get a piece of the Mother’s Day spending frenzy:
Jewelry.
What Mom wouldn’t love some bling? With a premium campaign, instead of giving away a certificate for an item at your business, the giveaway is an item of value to your customers. For Mom’s Month? A necklace. This year, we’ve sourced beautiful, high-quality necklaces to make this campaign a success. Ready to take it up a notch? Bundle it with a rose, and another item from your business (like a free dessert, a free scarf, or a discounted oil change.) Call your Coach for details.
Plants.
I might be biased because I’m an unapologetic Green Thumb Mama, but this is one of my favorite Sales Boost Campaigns we offer. A great way to run this promotion is to partner with a local greenhouse or flower shop and negotiate a rate that makes this a no brainer. But make sure you start NOW. These types of businesses are already planning their purchasing for May. Call your Coach for details.
Story Telling & Social Media.
These types of holidays make for GREAT CONTENT. Over the next few months, collect stories and memories of “The Moms of <Your Business>”. Provide staff and customers with a unique opportunity to shine the light on THEIR Mom, by sharing a story or special memory. Then share them on social media at a regular interval. If the contributor isn’t shy, include a pic. This could be as simple as giving your customers a card that already has “I love my mom because” and have them fill out the rest (allow anonymous entries or tags for recognition)!
