An important component to having a successful loyalty program is to develop a powerful plan to engage with your members.
In the ongoing exploration of loyalty programs, this article focuses on the next step in the Customer Connection Cycle: Member Engagement.
According to a NACS loyalty research study, nearly three-quarters of convenience shoppers feel valued by retailers where they are loyalty members and 61% were willing to go out of their way to leverage their membership at a specific convenience store.
How do you keep those members coming back? Be relevant, rewarding, and interesting.
Step 2 in the Customer Connection Cycle: Engage Members
In the last several “Lessons in Loyalty” articles we explored creating and running a successful loyalty program. Today, we will talk about retaining those members.
The Liquid Barcodes Customer Connection Cycle illustrates how to strategically recruit and engage customers through various channels, converting them into loyal program participants.
First, we looked into loyalty program foundations with the 3 E’s (having easy, empowering, and engaging programs) and the 3 C’s (clear, compelling, and consistent promotions and communications). Then we talked about solidifying the customer relationship by giving an overview of the Customer Connection Cycle. Recently, we covered recruiting members into your loyalty program. Now, let’s dig into member engagement, the second step in the 7-step cycle.
Strategies for Engaging Loyalty Members
It’s pretty simple: make your program rewarding so members feel special. Don’t focus all your efforts on just getting sign-ups, you also need to take care of the members you recruited. Prioritize offering personalized value and staying connected in a variety of ways, not just one or two. Make the program fun and relevant while ensuring members feel special and recognized.
Retailers Who Successfully Engage Customers
The marketing team at Maxol, a long-time Liquid Barcodes customer with more than 26,000 members, ties in-store promotions with social media marketing. Maxol strongly promotes the value of the program offer and leans on holidays and special occasions to draw members into the store.
U.S. retailer Enmarket’s Marketwash subscription app offers users a daily opportunity to win a free car wash in the “slot machine” game. Users can play every day and win while also seeing the available car washing packages they can purchase.
7 Strategies for Engagement
Give a Warm Welcome
When a new rewards or subscription member joins, greet them and offer something to kick off their experience. Gift them with a free item or a digital stamp to get them started earning rewards. Throw in some bonus points for good measure. Then, introduce them to a game where they can win a prize, helping them understand how things work while adding a bit of excitement to their journey.
Play Games
Games are fun and winning is even more fun. According to marketing company Snipp Interactive, incorporating gamification into loyalty programs can lead to a 47% increase in customer engagement, a 22% boost in brand loyalty, and a 15% rise in brand awareness.
Short, quick and easy games can be a fun break from reality. Offering a mix of prizes, including free products, coupons, or points, ensures high engagement while managing prize availability. Collaborate with suppliers for cost-effective prizes, leveraging their products to enhance rewards and maintain brand visibility. Also, don’t make it too hard to win or they’ll just stop playing.
Celebrate Holidays and Big Events
Create stronger connections with customers by connecting with what they love. Games and promotions around championship football and baseball games, Christmas countdowns, and summer demonstrate that you’re timely and present.
This NFL Super Bowl game featured the teams playing in the 2024 big game. Members picked their favorite team and felt connected to the game.
Make Birthdays and Anniversaries Special
Everyone loves their birthday. Celebrate valued members and show how much you appreciate them. Offer a birthday gift and allow a choice between free items or gift points that allow them to spend on something they want. Reward them on their program joining anniversary, too. Be sure the reward offers reflect their habits and tastes or it doesn’t feel like you know them.
Sharing is Caring
Allow your members to share points, stamps, coupons, and rewards that they can’t use themselves. They instead share with friends or family, creating a feeling of a shared community and driving word-of-mouth referrals too. Also, reward members for referring friends to the program.
Keep in Touch
Members trust you to keep on top of their points, expirations and more. Push notifications can remind members to use rewards before they expire. In-app reminders are helpful, too. In their busy everyday lives, relevant and engaging messages can truly drive exceptional levels of engagement, so make sure you automate and leverage this tool for success.
The Customer Connection Cycle Explained
This informative video explains more about the Customer Connection Cycle in this edition of the Liquid Barcodes Convenience Retail Loyalty Playbook video series.
Achieve Loyalty Excellence
Large or small, retailers have found that having a functional, sleek, easy-to-use loyalty app is the optimal way to stand above the competition.
Developing a distinctive loyalty program is essential in the dynamic landscape of convenience retail, where challenges abound. The Liquid Barcodes Convenience Retail Loyalty Playbook is your hands-on tool to make this happen.
We developed the Liquid Barcodes Customer Connection Cycle framework to illustrate how to strategically engage customers through various channels, converting them into loyal program participants. The framework uses proven loyalty mechanisms to ensure customers return sooner, becoming habitual purchasers.
Recognizing the significance of a strong customer base in driving revenue, the key principle of the Liquid Barcodes Customer Connection Cycle is simplicity, ensuring your program is easy to understand, join, earn, and redeem. It’s not just a proprietary approach; it’s our shared strategy to elevate your loyalty program and drive your business to success.
Click here to download the first few chapters within the Liquid Barcodes Convenience Loyalty Playbook.
About Liquid Barcodes
Liquid Barcodes is a leading global loyalty and digital marketing technology partner specializing in the convenience and foodservice industries. The proprietary, cloud-based technology platform allows retailers to create and manage their digital marketing campaigns with the “customer connection cycle” process to engage, promote, and reward customers’ activities in real time across digital and media channels.
Liquid Barcodes loyalty platform is powering loyalty programs for industry partners across several global markets, by offering unique subscription and mobile payment programs, machine learning, personalization, gamification, loyalty, and other capabilities.
Learn more about Liquid Barcodes at LiquidBarcodes.com.
About the Author
Carolyn Schnare, Chief Content Officer, Liquid Barcodes
Carolyn Schnare has been involved with the convenience retailing industry for two decades with extensive knowledge of customer engagement and marketing, sustainability, and community outreach. Before Liquid Barcodes, Schnare worked at NACS (National Association of Convenience Stores) in a variety of roles from event production to membership and most recently as Director of Strategic Initiatives and host and producer of the popular industry podcast, Convenience Matters. Schnare currently anchors the popular Future of Convenience podcast, produced by Global Convenience Store Focus media group.
