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Creating a successful loyalty program can be a challenge—one that doesn’t end when your program launches. Managing and optimizing your loyalty program is just as important as planning it.

To be successful, your program needs to create engagement with members.  From acquisition to reactivation, here are 4 key moments to ensure your program is successful.

Acquisition

The first step to a successful loyalty program is acquiring new members. This starts by promoting your program—because customers need to know its value proposition. It may sound like an obvious step, yet many customers never even know all the benefits offered by their favourite brands loyalty programs.

Make sure your program promotion is visible at every customer touch point, offline and online. Every interaction new customers have with the program should be an opportunity to sign up. Be sure to keep the onboarding quick and simple, and think about rewarding customers for joining. You should also invest in training employees to speak about the program and its benefits. After all, they are some of your best brand ambassadors and in the best position to enroll new members.

Activation

Signing up for the program is just the first step. Next customers need to activate their membership and get engaged with the program. A newly enrolled member is much more likely to stay active in the program in the first days and weeks of their membership.

Setting up a welcome cycle will encourage members to engage in the program. This can include a welcome email series, a bonus for completing their profile, an invitation to download the app, or a quiz to help them share their preferences—all of which encourage members to get to know your program better. It’s also a great opportunity to invite interaction, learn more about new members, and encourage them to make a purchase.

Engagement

It costs 5 to 25 times more to acquire a new client than it does to maintain an existing one—which makes retention the ultimate goal of any good loyalty strategy. That’s why it’s essential that you set up strategies that encourage customers to engage with the program, take advantage of benefits, and claim rewards—all while increasing their purchases.

You can offer different bonuses aimed at increasing purchase frequency or basket size, or set up challenges with the goal of getting members to try new products. Engagement also goes beyond transactions, with ideas like quizzes, connected objects, badges, and other gamification mechanisms to keep members engaged with your program. Make sure the engagement incentives you use are in line with your brand, your clients’ preferences, and your business goals.

Reactivation

Despite your best efforts to keep members active, you will nonetheless lose some members after a certain time. That’s why it’s so important to set up a strategy to reactivate these members over the long term. A solid loyalty program is a great tool for keeping in touch with clients in a more personalized way.

Communication campaigns aimed at reactivating inactive members are both effective and profitable. Plan a series of multiple communications, adapted to your clients’ visiting frequency. From a simple “We miss you” to more generous offers (such as doubling or tripling points, bonus points with next purchase, or gift with purchase), you can test communications to see what works best for you and measure the ROI of every offer.

Launch a successful loyalty program

Companies with successful loyalty programs use a dynamic management approach. Once launched, the program lives and evolves on an ongoing basis. To ensure your program’s success, make sure you put strategies and tactics into place that create engaging experiences that are relevant to your customer base.

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