Originally published July 18, 2022 , updated on July 26, 2024

Loyal customers form the foundation of any successful business. They are and should always be a major priority within your company. The facts speak for themselves: acquiring a new client can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.

Building a loyal customer and fanbase is crucial to your business’s success. Better yet, loyal customers are those that refer your business to others. Although considered an old-school marketing tactic, word of mouth is still one of the best ways to gain new buyers. 

Garnering loyalty with your customers takes innovation and effort. Many companies opt to offer loyalty programs to retain existing customers. This effective technique is proven to work, but doing it well isn’t as easy as some people think. 

This blog will discuss what a customer loyalty program looks like. We’ll also unpack some tips to help you plan and implement a B2B loyalty program.

Why Should You Build a Customer Loyalty Program?

A customer loyalty program forms part of a marketing strategy to retain returning consumers by rewarding them. The goal of this program is to get your customers to choose your business over your competitors. Typically, when a consumer purchases more, they’ll receive rewards. It fosters continuous engagement, which drives sales.

These schemes also create trust with your customer base and keep your brand top of mind. They’re such an effective marketing tool that it’s been reported that 90% of companies now run some form of a customer loyalty program. 

They offer incredible benefits for your company, including influencing consumer buying decisions, boosting brand recommendations, increasing sales, and targeting new demographics. With 62% of Gen-Z consumers being influenced by these programs, you have the opportunity to sway a whole generation in favour of your brand with a good loyalty program. 

Get Incredible Consumer Insights

For most customer loyalty programs, a business needs to gather their client’s contact details and various personal information to issue rewards. This is a fantastic way to gather consumer insights and segment your database. 

By segmenting your audience’s information, you understand more about your consumers’ likes and dislikes. For example, you might be a sports brand selling equipment for tennis, squash, rugby, netball, or football players. Part of your reward program sign-up could be asking your client to pick which sports they are most interested in. This can help you segment your database and tailor your messaging to impact specific groups more effectively. In essence, this strategy will help prevent you from trying to sell a tennis racquet to a rugby player. Plus, communicating the correct message to the right audience will increase your chances of making a sale. 

How Will a Reward Scheme Boost Your Engagement? 

Price is no longer the deciding factor when it comes to purchases. Consumers are no longer buying items just because they are cheaper. It may help, but it’s not enough. A loyalty program, however, can give you the upper hand instead of your competitors. 

As we mentioned, you gather your consumer’s data and use it to market messages, product promotions, and new materials to clients. This helps foster stronger relationships and boost brand recognition. Clients will engage with your message and feel as if your products or services were made to suit their needs. They will resonate with your messaging because you’re catering it to them. This entices them to share or act on it repeatedly, fortifying existing brand relationships and potentially gaining new leads. Strong brand relationships mean better conversions. Better conversions lead to a higher chance of repeat sales. 

With your loyalty program comes access to your consumer’s behaviour. If you’re a clothing store, for example, your loyalty program might detect that your customer predominantly purchases dresses and more expensive items as opposed to what might be considered casual, daily wear. Your subsequent communication to them could include discounts on a new range of luxury, higher-priced bags and accessories that would complement their purchases. Knowing more about the intricacies of your consumer’s needs will help you tailor-make your marketing. Plus, when your consumers receive more relevant information in their inbox, you’ll be increasing customer satisfaction. A happy customer engages more with your brand. 

Creating a Successful Loyalty Program

When starting a consumer rewards program, you must strategise to make it work effectively. You don’t want to be giving away products for free or making a loss. Rewarding your customers needs to be beneficial for both the business and the client.

This is where promotion is key. Marketing your B2B loyalty programs, or even retail-driven ones is essential. Your customers can’t sign up for something they’re not aware of. Use a variety of platforms to do this. Ask clients to sign up in-store or on your website. The more ways you can offer them to sign up, the better. You could even consider building a loyalty app so that consumers can sign up there, monitor their points, and engage with your brand. 

Centre Your Rewards on Your Business Goals

A plan without a goal is meaningless. Know what you want to achieve out of your loyalty program and build your strategy up from there. 

For example, if you want to drive sales, perhaps your rewards program should offer a discounted service or freebie after the 9th purchase. This encourages people to make enough purchases to receive their freebie.

Establish a budget when it comes to implementing this system. If you are going to offer coupons or discounts, will they be capped? You could think about offering this to the first 50 clients, for example. If it’s a discount, it still needs to be a viable percentage to get the customer interested while ensuring your business profits. 

If you want to improve customer loyalty, use a consumer journey map to start understanding what your clients enjoy and where they are dropping off your site. Then start tailoring content at these points to grip their attention and retain them. A reputable content marketing company can create content that engages an audience enough to entice them to sign up for your loyalty program. 

Build customer loyalty and boost engagement with a solid marketing plan. Use a content marketing company like Goodman Lantern to help you communicate your excellent reward scheme, and you’ll benefit from a continuous customer base that will only flourish! Get in touch today to find out how we can improve your marketing strategy. 

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