Mobile Loyalty Program Apps are a great way to build customer affinity and grow your small business’s revenue. 79% of consumers said that customer loyalty programs make them more likely to continue doing business with a brand. So it’s not if you should build a loyalty program, but when. Read on to find the best tips for setting up a successful loyalty program.
What is a Mobile Loyalty Program?
A mobile loyalty program is a strategic initiative implemented through mobile applications to enhance the overall customer experience with a brand – this enhancement encompasses various aspects, such as shopping and customer care interactions.
The fundamental idea behind mobile loyalty solutions revolves around surpassing client’s expectations, offering additional perks to users, and establishing a meaningful connection with customers through consistent and tailored communication.
The mobile channel is a versatile platform that enables brands to engage with their clients virtually and through various channels. Leveraging personalization techniques and carefully crafted push notification messages, brands can reach out to their customers precisely when needed and deliver messaging that resonates with them. As you might surmise, this direct and personalized relationship becomes crucial for brands that distribute products through multiple resellers, ensuring a seamless and unified brand experience.
One of the significant advantages of loyalty programs integrated into mobile applications is the wealth of behavioral data they generate. The insights gained from these programs empower organizations to make informed decisions, tailor their offerings to specific preferences, and refine the overall marketing strategy. In this way, mobile loyalty programs contribute to customer satisfaction and businesses’ strategic development and expansion.
7 Best Tips on Creating Customer Loyalty Apps
1. Start with a Goal in Mind
First and foremost, it’s essential to have a goal in mind before starting anything – otherwise, you’ll just be wasting time. The same goes for loyalty programs and point reward systems.
The key to a successful points system is to identify your goals and work towards them. Once you know what you want to achieve, you can start thinking about how to make it happen.
Here are a few questions to consider when planning your loyalty program:
- What’s the main goal of your program? What do you hope to achieve by implementing a loyalty program?
- Who is your target audience? Who do you want to enroll in your program, and what motivates them?
- What type of loyalty program do you want to create?
All loyalty programs are designed to encourage specific customer behaviors. When you first start designing your loyalty program, choose one or two key goals so that you can track progress and then build from there. This will help you create a more effective loyalty program that will benefit your business in the long run.
2. Decide How Customers Will Earn Points
Secondly, you will need to decide how customers can earn rewards. Besides transaction-based point-earning missions, consider giving your customers more ways to earn their points without feeling pushy:
- Place an order
- Sign up
- See what’s new in stores
- Leave a product review
- Celebrate a birthday
- Follow on social
- Share on social media
- Play game
- Refer a friend
3. Choose How You Will Reward Your Members
When choosing rewards for your customers, remember that they are the main motivator for earning points.
As a first step, you need to make sure the integration with your eCommerce checkout, and POS is seamless to make it easy for customers. The next step is to set a timeline for how your rewards system will work. When will customers be able to redeem their points? Will they receive a voucher or code for their next purchase, or will you send them something for free? Setting a timeline will help you track your progress and ensure your rewards program is working as intended. Finally, it’s important that you think about the form of the rewards (we will talk about this later). It could be something other than points to spend in-store. It could be access to exclusive sales or early bird tickets to events.
4. Decide on the Value of Your Rewards
The value of your loyalty point currency is one of the most important aspects of customer loyalty. You can offer many ways to earn points and coveted rewards. However, if an unrealistic number of purchases are required over a long period to earn a single reward, it’s unlikely that anyone will remain a member of your program.
For example, if you require $5,000 in purchases over 4 years to earn a single reward, your customers will likely become discouraged and leave your loyalty program.
5. Add a Catchy and Memorable Name to Your Loyalty Program
Starbucks is the king of customer loyalty programs. And why? Because they know how important it is for a loyalty program to feel like it’s a natural extension of their business, not just a random outside thing.
Starbucks has built an impressive brand around its loyalty program, making it one of the most well-known and effective coffee rewards programs in the world.
Your rewards program is one of the many details your customers pay attention to. To make sure it’s the one they remember best, put some effort into the name and design of the program. Come up with a catchy name, give your currency a memorable name and design your program. Then you are sure to stand out from the noise!
6. Launch and Let Customers Know about Your Program
You have worked hard to develop a great rewards program, and now it’s time to let your potential customers know about it.
After you have launched your loyalty program, you should email your existing customer database to remind them about the rewards program. It would be helpful if you let them know what your program offers and how they can benefit from it. If people know about your program and think it’s great, they will be more likely to sign up and participate.
Here are some tips on how to promote your points rewards program online:
- Create an explainer page that explains exactly how to earn and spend points.
- Create excitement around your program by hosting events, awarding prizes, or making exclusive offers to participants.
- Inform your customers about your program by publishing posts on social media.
- Use an omnichannel marketing platform to integrate your POS with your online points rewards program.
7. Never Stop Improving
As a marketer and also as a business owner, it’s your job to continually improve your customers’ experience. It can be tempting to see positive results and stop there, but it’s important to know your customers’ reactions and interests – it never hurts to try something new.
Ideally, you should develop a rewards program that takes customers’ experiences into account and makes it easy for them to contribute. Remember that point reward schemes work best when they are tailored to your customers’ interests and experiences, not just yours.
Conclusion
A reward points system is an effective way to increase your revenue. It rewards your most valuable customers and goes beyond a transactional relationship. By branding your loyalty club, designing an easy-to-follow system, and promoting it for every new and returning customer, you will see incredible ROI on your rewards program.
At BKPlus Software, we’re all about helping e-commerce businesses succeed — we want to see you take on the big brands and win! Our loyalty program software is designed to help you grow. When you choose our platform and loyalty know-how, we’ll help you keep hold of your customers – and win you new ones too. From that, you can realize the long-term value of those who buy from you. If you’re ready to explore what a loyalty program could do for your brand, book a demo with one of our specialists.
