From repeat buying to modifying buying behaviors themselves, loyalty marketing can produce a significant return on investment. Find out what U.S. buyers are saying about brand loyalty programs today.
4 Ways Loyalty Marketing Programs Increase and Influence Buyer Behaviors
When effective, your loyalty marketing program could be influencing buyer behavior in many ways. From repeat purchasing behaviors to changing when, where and what they buy, here’s a closer look at the benefits a good loyalty marketing program can provide.
Loyalty programs can do more than ensure customers make repeat purchases. As brand loyalty programs become more sophisticated, other benefits can also be realized, such as influencing when and where buyers make purchases and even steering them to make new brand and product choices in order to maximize benefits. Not only can this make a business more profitable through increased customer spending, but it can also help them improve the efficiency of inventory selection, replenishment and distribution.
Ultimately, brands will only realize these benefits by investing in loyalty marketing and designing a loyalty program that delivers when it comes to the customer’s perceived value of playing along. Let’s take a closer look at the ROI of effective brand loyalty programs as well as components of loyalty programs that can help you achieve those results.
Buyers – whether they are consumers or business buyers – appreciate recognition and rewards. In fact, 86 percent of US consumers say that loyalty programs are a worthwhile endeavor on the part of brands. More consumers are opting in to loyalty programs, but they are also weeding out the programs they don’t value. In 2014, buyers were active in 7.8 loyalty programs, but have reduced activity to just 6.7 programs on average this year.
A new report from Bond Brand Loyalty notes that today’s buyers are more interested in realizing the benefits of brand loyalty programs now than they were even just a year ago. If buyers are more interested than ever, than now might be the perfect time for you to launch or revitalize your own loyalty program.
4 Benefits of Loyalty Marketing Programs
Repeat Business and Long-Term Relationships
83 percent of U.S. consumers surveyed said that loyalty programs made it more likely that they would continue doing business with a specific company. Customer retention is about more than just repeat purchases. It also brings more benefits like reduced marketing costs since customer acquisition costs far more than retention marketing on average.
A Better Customer Experience
76 percent of people said that for them, loyalty programs were an integral part of their relationship with the brand. Customers that participate in loyalty programs often perceive themselves as insiders compared to the average customer. They are more likely to be interested in new product rollouts and – as insiders – more willing to weigh in with constructive criticism and feedback and give you time to fix things when something goes wrong.
Operational Efficiencies
Seven out of ten consumers said that they have modified their buying behavior in terms of when and where they buy, in order to maximize the benefits they could receive from the program. When a business has the ability to better project when and where customers will buy, they can improve efficiencies and cut costs associated with inventory and distribution. They can also drive traffic to locations they want to bolster or help to increase business during slower hours, on slower days, or during slower seasons of the year.
Stimulating Sales
Consumers said that loyalty program benefits influence not only where and when they buy, but what they buy. Effective loyalty programs can help to stimulate sales of new product lines or bring shopper’s attention to products that they might not have otherwise considered.
4 Ways to Improve Your Loyalty Marketing Strategy
Make It Integral to the Overall Brand Experience
Make the loyalty program and/or its rewards a meaningful part of the brand experience, not just a tack-on discount or freebie. Examples of experience-based rewards could include loyalty program member-exclusive shopping opportunities, the chance to participate in focus groups or help guide the brand through surveys, or getting a chance to choose their own reward or ‘save up’ for something bigger.
Make It Exclusive to Your Brand
In the Bond Brand Loyalty study, one-third of respondents said they would not be loyal to the brand without the loyalty program. Be sure that your loyalty program is perceived as something only available to your customers as a dividend of doing business with you.
Measure Satisfaction
Though up from 2014, less than half of loyalty program participants are ‘very satisfied’ with the loyalty program experience. Measuring satisfaction and surveying constituents for feedback could provide you with valuable insights to improve your program and make it more valuable to customers.
Use it to Your Advantage
Your customers are likely to be willing to alter their buying behaviors (when and where they shop) as well as their buying decisions (what they buy) in order to maximize the benefits of participating in your loyalty rewards program. Knowing this, go beyond traditional basic rewards and be more strategic, purposeful and specific in designing a rewards program that helps you improve efficiencies, better predict and even drive demand.
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You might also like: 6 Signs Your Customer Loyalty Program is Working
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