Promote Your Loyalty Program with These 11 Helpful Tips

Mensen blijven loyaal aan bedrijven, horecazaken en merken wanneer de verwachting steeds weer wordt waargemaakt of zelfs overtroffen en de ervaring persoonlijk is. Met een loyaliteitsprogramma leer je steeds beter wie je klanten zijn. Je weet wie je beste klanten zijn en je kan je beloningen en berichten perfect personaliseren. 

Maar alleen een loyaliteitsprogramma ‘hebben’ is niet genoeg. Mensen moeten ook weten dat je programma bestaat. Je moet het lanceren en promoten via de juiste kanalen, en zorgen dat je klanten zich aanmelden.

Uit onderzoek blijkt dat deelname aan een loyaliteitsprogramma kan leiden tot 22% - 68% meer aankopen. Reden genoeg dus om je loyaliteitsprogramma te pushen. 

Het goede nieuws? Met je bestaande kanalen kom je al een heel eind. Lees hoe je die op de juiste manier inzet, zodat je snel veel aanmeldingen krijgt voor je loyaliteitsprogramma.

People stay loyal to companies and brands when expectations are consistently met or exceeded and the experience is personal. With a loyalty program, you gain a better understanding of your customers with every interaction, not just purchases. You know who your best customers are and you can personalize your rewards and messages perfectly. 

But just "having" a loyalty program is not enough. People also need to know that your program exists. You need to launch and promote it through the right channels, and get your customers to sign up.

Research shows that participating in a loyalty program can lead to 22%-68% more purchases. So, reason enough to push your loyalty program. 

The good news? Your existing channels are already the perfect pathway to gaining new loyalty sign-ups. Read how you can use them to get subscriptions in no time.

1. Promote your loyalty program on your website.

Does your website get a lot of traffic? Then make sure that customers can easily sign up via the homepage, landing page or even a pop-up.

Basic tips

Make it easy for customers to sign up using a form on your website. You can create your own fields in no time under ‘Forms’. Think of name, email address and possibly other fields such as date of birth. Note: the more you ask, the less people will convert. So keep the number of fields limited. Then make your form easy to find - think of website banners linking to it, landing pages and more.

Advanced tips

With a landing page for your loyalty program, you can convince people even better. For example, take a look at how O'Neill does it. 

• A login button

• Explanation of how it works

• What you can save for (tiers)

• How you can earn points
  
  

Another simple example: When customers immediately understand and see what they can save for, they are more likely to join.

Furthermore, you can also tell your customers how they can redeem their points, how long they’re valid for and more - transparency is key.

2. Train your staff

Your employees are the main promoters of your loyalty program. If they don't sell it, it will be difficult to make it a real success. 

Whether you have a physical location, such as a restaurant or store, or an online business - in all cases customers need to be motivated by your staff. 

In a physical location, this can include enthusing at the checkout during checkout, when taking the order, etc. Online, you can think of customer service, chat or other telephone contact with customers. 

Ask your customers if they want to join your loyalty program and tell them about the benefits. The same applies, of course, to having an online business. With every purchase, the customer should have the opportunity to become a member of the loyalty program.

Organize a launch meeting and provide regular updates to tell your staff more about the program. Consider points such as:

• The savings rules of your loyalty program

• The rewards they can save for

• How people can participate in the savings

• Possibly the different tiers

• Pitch practice to get people enthusiastic about participating

• FAQs
  
  

3. Widget on your website

As mentioned before: make sure your participants are onboarded quickly and have the opportunity to sign up for your loyalty program quickly and easily.

The longer the sign-up process, the fewer customers you’ll see signing up. Make sure communication is simple and that you explain the rules and conditions of the loyalty program clearly.

A good tool for this is to install the widget on your website. As soon as someone visits your website, they’ll see a widget in the bottom right corner that they can click on. There, a form with text opens where people can sign up. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy 🍋

This example from Brownies&downieS is the perfect example of making something simple work wonders.

4. Announcement on socials

Now that you have the basics down and people can easily sign up, it's time to promote your program. You probably already have some followers on your social channels.

Put these to use. 

People spend a lot of time on social media. They enjoy viewing useful, engaging, funny or beautiful content. 

Use quality images and catchy texts and promote your loyalty program on your social media. Clearly explain the benefit to your potential customer. For example, that everyone who joins receives an immediate 10% discount, that with the 100th purchase you receive free shipping forever or a seat at the Chef's table at 1000 points. Whatever the major benefit of your program is, advertise it - make sure people understand quickly but clearly why they should join. 

Pre-announcement:

To really get people excited already you can do a pre-announcement - "In 5 weeks we are launching a loyalty program". 

Or: 

"Come to the store soon and save with us for a nice garden set".

Once your loyalty program is live, make sure to link to your landing page, where customers can sign up. Here are some sample texts you can use. 

Eg. "Sign up for our loyalty program now and earn 10 points and 15% off your first purchase." 

Eg. "Sign up for our loyalty program now and earn 10 points. Continue to save for a free Nike t-shirt."

You can use both organic and paid posts - remember to link your landing page under each ad to make it as easy as possible to sign up.

5. In-store reminders 

Not only store, restaurant and hotel staff should advertise it. You can also create reminders and other promotional materials to place across your premises, storefront or window.

Consider: a window sticker, loyalty keycards or flyers at the cash register, a QR code on the menu, on beer mats or the receipt, or even writing a little something on a chalkboard.

Put it in a place near the cash register or point of sale. Make a small sign or card where the structure of your loyalty program is clearly explained.

This, of course, also applies to webshops - provide reminders to sign up at the online checkout by means of a hyperlink or by making it possible to tick it as an option.

6. Use your mailing list to promote your freshly launched loyalty program

If you have a database of customers who have given permission to contact them for marketing purposes, introduce them to your campaign through this avenue. If a customer has already left personal information with you, they are already engaged with your brand and this is exactly the kind of audience you want!

7. Offer a sign-up reward

A great way to kick off your loyalty program is to offer loyal customers a welcome reward for signing up.

Think, for example, of 30 points on their brand new account as a welcome bonus or a free product that can be picked up directly in the store. It gives them instant value within the savings program, which boosts the overall attractiveness of your marketing campaign and also encourages them to join your program. Moreover, people are usually sensitive to a nice offer or discount.

For example, H&M offers 10% off your next purchase if you sign up for their club. Right on target. Or take TGI Friday's, who give you 25 points as a gift in your account when you complete your registration.

8. Make your rewards attractive

This may be an open door but it is oh so important. Make your rewards really worth saving for and joining your program.

The key is to find out what your customers really want from your loyalty program. Sometimes customers are only interested in discounts on future purchases, sometimes they value exclusive merchandise from your brand that is not available anywhere else. It depends on the brand, product type and target group. You just need to know what your customers are looking for and if you offer what they want, the chances of them joining your loyalty program have just increased.

9. Offer bonus points

Work with special bonus points or multipliers on special days or just to collect more data from customers.

For example, think about extra points during Christmas. Create fomo (Fear Of Missing Out 🥸), make it exciting and fun.

But you can also think of extra points for provision of extra data via forms, such as birth dates or favorite dishes. This is how you use your program to get to know customers better and subsequently optimize and personalize your campaigns, rewards and communication.

You’ll be surprised how many more signups you will get when you run a campaign around a special day or event with extra points that can be earned by customers and promote it.

Customers love easy-to-earn rewards and nothing sounds more enticing than "extra points".

Take some inspiration from the example above on how you can entice your customers to join the loyalty movement.

10. Launch a mobile app for your loyalty program

According to Technology Advice, people are 59% more likely to join a loyalty program that offers a mobile app - no wonder! It's easy at checkout (and it doesn't get lost as easily as a loyalty card) and customers can get push notifications about events and discounts. It's much more attractive than a simple loyalty card.

Want to go all out? Create a gamified loyalty program with a mobile app. Your customers will love it! And you know what the beauty of this is? With Piggy, it comes standard in your own app!

11. Don't underestimate the promotional value of your packaging

An often overlooked opportunity to spread the word about your program is the packaging and materials you already send or give to customers. 

If you are considering using your packaging, think of a shipping box with a QR code or in a store you can place QR codes on your coffee mugs, the menu, napkins, etc.

Brands can learn a nice lesson on this from Amazon, as all their shipping packaging is an advertisement for their paid subscription service Prime. Not to mention the many Prime trucks that can be seen in every neighborhood in the US. 


The boxes you use can be an insane advertisement for your loyalty program. For your in-store customers, you can add tickets in the shopping bag with a QR code to sign up. 

Some other unique ways to promote your loyalty program with or around your product packaging is to leave handwritten cards for customers. This is sure to create an indelible, positive impression that your brand will leave with every customer. 

You can also incorporate discount codes into your packaging, which can lure plenty of customers along with potential cross-selling opportunities. 

There are multiple roads that lead to Rome. There is no single right way. In fact, you can best optimize your loyalty program promotion by combining these tips in an appropriate way for your business. 


If you follow these 11 tips, your loyalty program will be successfully promoted to your customers and your loyal customer base will grow week on week.

 

We hope that these useful practices in the promo kit will get you started with your new loyalty program. Now it's your turn to make sure your program is promoted successfully. So, what are you waiting for?

If you still have questions that are not answered - that is always possible - please contact our Customer Success team.