A loyalty program is like the phrase “pouring fuel on the fire”. They’re a wonderful, low-cost way to incentivize your customers in more ways than you might think.
The thing is, retail stores have known this for a LONG time.
It’s evidenced in just about every single coffee shop around the world when they hand out cards giving your 5th coffee free. This is a basic loyalty program in action. Fortunately for us online store owners, we get to be a bit more sophisticated than hole punches and cards.
For example, loyalty programs did extremely well during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to research gathered by Antavo, 62.1% of respondents stated that loyalty programs assisted in the survival of their online business.
Also, because of its massive help to store owners, the global market for loyalty programs is expected to reach $216 billion this 2022 according to statistics collected by SaveMyCent.
1. You Can Incentivize Customers To Shop
If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ll know that customers generally need a good bit of prodding to get them to do something.
Loyalty Programs can provide this incentive on a very base level and in a way that is easy for them to understand; earning points for spending money which can then be used later.
The core concept is, you’re basically incentivizing people to shop. Who doesn’t want that, right?!
The most basic loyalty program online would be for a customer to earn points for making an order. They can then put these points to use towards other future purchases.
2. A Loyalty Program Is A Non-Discounting Type Of Promotion
What I really like about loyalty programs though is that it’s not your typical discount promotion.
So much marketing these days is based on ramming-based offers down people’s throats in the hope that this will get them to buy.
Be honest, how many of these crappy offers do you receive in your email inbox each day? How many do you actually accept?
And store owners wonder why they’re only getting a 1% response rate on their offers…
A loyalty program, on the other hand, is a different type of promotion. It’s unusual. It’s attention-grabbing. It’s not the “normal” thing that stores send so customers pay attention.
If you can be different, you’ll stand out.
3. Encourage People To Spend More
As mentioned, the basic version of a loyalty program is to give points for money spent.
But it doesn’t have to stop there, you can also encourage people to spend more on your loyalty program in a couple of ways.
Set A Threshold Before They Earn Points
By setting a threshold, you’ll be ensuring your profit margin before “giving away” any points to customers. This has the double effect of encouraging people to spend over the threshold.
It’s a similar concept to cart subtotal coupon offers or free shipping offers over a spend amount.
Bonus Points Over A Threshold
You could also give bonus points for spending over a certain amount on top of what they would normally earn in points.
These bonus points are excellent for boosting the order size or getting them to add just a little bit more to their cart to claim the bonus.
Bonus Point Offers During A Specific Period
If you want to run a promotion but don’t want to run a discount, using bonus points to incentivize customers during a promotional period is another new way you can incentivize people to order. They might even make multiple orders if you remind them again when the bonus period is ending.
A Loyalty Program Gives People Points For Completing Tasks
As a store owner, there are lots of subtle ways you can use reward program points to further the relationship and build loyalty. Giving people points for completing a specific task is a non-purchase type of way that people can earn points.
Examples of this might include:
- Writing a blog comment
- Leaving a product review for something they’ve bought
- Registering for an account
- Making their first order
4. Loyalty Program Is The Trifecta Of Marketing Initiatives
Lastly, the good thing about loyalty programs is that they’re the trifecta for marketing:
- Totally hands-free and doesn’t require much maintenance from a store owner’s perspective.
- Great from a customer’s perspective & is the type of thing they’ll actively try to take advantage of
- A more interesting way to engage your customers without just giving them more special % offs
There’s something special about loyalty programs and I believe that these three points are why they’re so effective.
Conclusion
For a long time and in the coming years, businesses will continue to develop fresh strategies for their loyalty programs to keep their customers genuinely happy. Happiness forms a relationship that leads to trust and loyalty. With that expect repeat purchases that will make your business a success!
But beware. Some loyalty programs failed because they focused more on the accumulation of points with fewer rewards. Remember, to make your loyalty program a success, consider it as a flourishing relationship with compromise and fairness.
If you want to start a reliable loyalty program for your WooCommerce store, we are proud to present our WooCommerce Loyalty Program plugin.
Our 5-star rated plugin is preconfigured using the best practices and industry standards plus, it only takes 2 minutes to set up. Here are some features of the Advanced Coupons Loyalty Program for WooCommerce that will excite you:
- a full admin dashboard showing the number of points in the system, how many have been used, and what is working.
- a self-service redeem points for coupons option for customers and as admin, you have the power to set a sensible expiry period so they have limitations.
- an easy earning action that allows you to turn and set how many points the users will receive in actions like making purchases, completing their first order, commenting on your blog post, leaving reviews, making an account, spending over a certain amount, etc.
If that amazes you, wait until you purchase Advanced Coupons All-In-One bundle. Aside from providing you with a reliable and flexible loyalty program, our business bundle guarantees to make your store grow.
