Customer loyalty can secure increased and long-term growth for a business – but it requires a loyalty marketing strategy.
When you think of loyalty, you probably think of that faithful, four-legged friend who always looks so happy to see you when you walk through that door, or that friend that you know will always show up with cake and wine when times are tough.
Yet, the loyalty that we treasure so much in our lives didn’t just happen. We feed, walk and care for our pets; we invest time and effort into our human relationships.
The same applies to marketing. Customer loyalty can secure increased and long-term growth for a business – but it requires a loyalty marketing strategy.
Here are five ways you can get started on loyalty marketing today.
What is loyalty marketing?
Loyalty marketing is a marketing strategy aimed at retaining current customers and increasing the number of purchases they make and their value.
Loyalty marketing involves garnering a deep understanding of your customer’s aspirations and what they respond best to, and then choosing the right channels and tactics to effectively market to them.
5 tactics to boost your loyalty marketing efforts
There are some things you can do to boost your loyalty marketing efforts. Try these:
1. Start a customer loyalty program
Customer loyalty programs offer explicit benefits for frequent customers. These marketing programs can be based on points which customers accumulate with every visit and then convert into discounts or exclusive offers. Or it can be as simple as a card that’s punched by your barista with every tenth coffee being free.
Offering customer loyalty programs is a great way to collect data from your customers, such as email addresses, which you can use for future marketing.
2. Offer customers genuine benefits
For loyalty marketing to work, the benefits have to be real and felt by the customer.
They can include free products or services, or cash back offers where the customer actually receives financial benefit, such as refer-a-friend programs where customers receive a cash discount when they send another customer your way.
3. Deep dive into customer data
To best know what loyalty marketing strategy will work for your customers you need to know your customers well. What do they want from your company? What do they respond to?
Analyse their purchase history, the frequency of their engagement, their feedback, and even their pain points.
Also look back on past marketing efforts – what did your customers respond best to, and what fell flat?
4. Choose your loyalty marketing channels
Now that you know your customers and their behaviours well, you can start strategising about how to best market them, and that involves choosing the channels you use to communicate to them.
Here are some examples:
- Email newsletters: Email marketing is a highly effective way to reach out to your customers. It allows you to personalise content and deepen customer relationships with exclusive offers.
- Social media: The strength of social media is that it allows two-way communication, with customers able to ask questions or respond to messaging immediately. It’s particularly effective for referral programs because customers are able to quickly and easily share information with their friends and contacts.
- Mobile apps: Apps can be the one-stop shop for exclusive content, personalised recommendations, and real-time feedback. They are carried around everywhere by clients on their phones and can enable instant notifications.
- Content marketing: The content you create – articles, social media posts, infographics – helps entrench in the minds of your customers your expertise and values.
- Physical events and experiences: In-person events help make real connections and deepen relationships with customers, as well as make the brands that run them highly memorable.
5. Review data, tweak, and iterate
Times change and so do our customers. Things they care about grow in different directions and the way they interact with your brand changes with technology, so in loyalty marketing, it’s important to continue to grow and analyse your customer data and develop your loyalty marketing strategy accordingly.
To maintain a current and informed picture of your customers, it’s worth including extra data-gathering activities and functions, such as surveys and feedback forms, and remember to stay on top of the messages coming in via social media.
Understand the benefits of customer loyalty
Once you roll out your loyalty marketing program, it will become clear why you did. Increased sales are one benefit, but with repeat customers the cost of bringing in these sales are low – there’s none of the costs associated with lead generation and nurturing new customers.
Loyalty marketing also turns these customers into marketers, with referral programs and by sharing posts on social media.
Speak to the marketing experts
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, and we understand how loyalty marketing can help your business achieve brand growth and an increase in your bottom line.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.