Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

It’s easy enough for a customer to join your loyalty program, especially when you’re offering an incentive such as discounts. All your customer has to do is give out some basic information, and voila! They’re in the fold, a brand new loyalty member with your company. From there, it’s happily ever after. You offer the perks; they stand solidly by you, bringing you their continued business. Simple. Or is it? In reality, just how many of those customers are act ively participating in your loyalty program? Do you know? Sure, loyalty program memberships are on the rise according to market research company eMarketer, having jumped 25 percent in the space of just two years. However, that figure may be a bit misleading. The truth is that, while loyalty program sign-ups may be more numerous, active participation in such programs is actually in decline. At the time of the study, the average US household had memberships in 29 loyalty programs; yet consumers were only active in 12 of those. That’s just 41 percent. And even that meager figure represents a drop of 2 percentage points per year over each of the preceding four years, according to a study by loyalty-marketing research company COLLOQUY.

When discounts just aren’t enough

So what’s a brand to do? How can you make your loyalty program worth your customer’s while—as well as your own? After all, gaining a new loyalty member doesn’t mean much if your customer isn’t actively participating in your program. Consider this: Does your customer loyalty program offer members anything different from what your competitors are offering? Chances are your program includes discounts. That’s a given. And what customer doesn’t appreciate a good discount? But when every other company out there is providing this staple benefit in comparable amounts, it becomes less and less likely that customers will remain loyal to any one particular brand. Frankly, it’s all too easy for customers to get lost in a sea of loyalty member discounts. They’re everywhere. In fact, just under half of internet users perceive that all rewards programs are alike, according to a 2015 eMarketer survey. The key to success, then, is to differentiate your business from the crowd. If you can offer your customers something unique and valuable beyond the usual discount, chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with your brand. Here’s some inspiration from companies who get it.

Virgin: Reward more purchases with more benefits.

That’s not to say you need to get rid of discounts entirely. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers still love a good discount. The goal is to be creative in terms of the loyalty perks you offer. Take the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, for example. As part of its loyalty program, the airline allows members to earn miles and tier points. Members are inducted at the Club Red tier, from which they can move up to Club Silver and then Club Gold. Here, it’s not just a discount. It’s status. And people respond to feeling important, elite. Still, even where the rewards themselves are concerned, Virgin is motivating loyalty customers with some pretty attractive offers. At the Club Red tier, members earn flight miles and receive discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels and holiday flights. But as members rise in tiers, they get even more. At the Club Silver tier, members earn 50 percent more points on flights, access to expedited check-in, and priority standby seating. And once they reach the top, Club Gold members receive double miles, priority boarding and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can get a drink or a massage before their flight. Now that’s some serious incentive to keep coming back for more. Discounts are still part of the equation – but they are designed with innovation and personal value in mind, elevating them to more than just savings.

Amazon Prime: Pay upfront and become a VIP.

What if your customers only had to pay a one-time upfront fee to get a year’s worth of substantial benefits? It may not sound like the smartest business idea at first glance. But take a closer look. Amazon Prime users pay a nominal $99 a year to gain free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase. And that’s just one benefit of going Prime. It’s true that Amazon loses $1-2 billion a year on Prime. This comes as no surprise given the incredible value the program offers. But get this: Amazon makes up for its losses in markedly higher transaction frequency. Specifically, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 a year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 spent by non-Prime users, a ccording to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Patagonia: Cater to customer values.

Sometimes, the draw for consumers isn’t saving money or getting a great deal. The eco-friendly outdoor clothing company Patagonia figured this out back in 2011, when it partnered with eBay to launch its Common Threads Initiative: a program that allows customers to resell their used Patagonia clothing via the company’s website. Why is this program important to customers? And how does it benefit Patagonia? The company’s brand embraces environmental and social responsibility, so it was only fitting that they create a platform for essentially recycling old clothing rather than merely throwing it away. The Common Threads Initiative helps Patagonia build a memorable brand and fierce loyalty by offering its customers a cause that aligns with deep personal values. OK, so their customers get to make a little money, too. Everybody wins.

American Airlines: Gamify your loyalty program.

If you’re going to offer your customers a loyalty program, why not make it f un? After all, engagement is key to building a strong relationship with your customer. And what better way to achieve that goal than making a game of it. American Airlines had this very thing in mind when it created its AAdvantage Passport Challenge following its merger with USAirways. The goal: find a new way to engage customers as big changes were underway. Using a custom Facebook application, American Airlines created a virtual passport to increase brand awareness while offering members a chance to earn bonus points. Customers earned these rewards through a variety of game-like activities, from answering trivia questions to tracking travel through a personalized dashboard. In the end, participants earned more than 70 percent more stamps than expected – and the airline saw a ROI of more than 500 percent. The takeaway: people like games.

Stand out from the crowd.

Your approach to your customer loyalty program should align with your overall marketing approach. Effective branding is about standing out, not blending it. Being memorable is key. To this end, keep in mind that loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.

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How Warby Parker Conquered Social Media (And You Can Too)

Warby Parker is an eyewear company on a mission. In 2010, co-founders Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Jeff Raider and Andy Hunt set out to revolutionize their niche by creating boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point.

Today, they sell frames and lenses together for a flat low price of $95. Not only do they produce a high-quality, affordable product, but they also do so with a conscience: for every pair of glasses sold, a pair is given to someone in need.

It’s an indisputably great concept. But how did they skyrocket to success so quickly? Well, they had a little help – from the community of followers and evangelists they’ve cultivated through their activities on key social media networks, specifically Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

While their business model may be unique, their approach to community building offers great lessons in social engagement that you can implement to fast-track the growth of your business:

Facebook

How they did it: Warby Parker is currently just shy of 100,000 followers and still growing daily. The strength of their appeal on Facebook lies in their prolific use of images through status updates, albums and user engagement campaigns.

Since the arrival of the Facebook timeline, images are more important than ever. According to Facebook Marketing, “photos and videos get 120% and 100% more engagement respectively.”

How you can do it: The equation is simple: more images means more interaction, so it’s time to get visual.

Here are a few simple ways you can amp up your use of photos and videos on Facebook:

Attending an event? Snap a photo or video and post it to your page. For greater convenience, install the Facebook Pages app on your smartphone so you can share on the spot without needing to be near a computer.

Published a new blog post? Share the photo you used in the post, then caption it with a catchy hook followed by “Read more here:” and the URL.

Just released a new collection of products? Create an album featuring a photo for each new item in your link along with a quick description and a link to your e-commerce site to drive sales.

Twitter

How they did it: With nearly 28,000 followers to date on Twitter, Warby Parker (@WarbyParker) has a well-branded page and a strong team of community-builders behind their tweets. One of their strongest assets is their consistency in responding to customers, potential customers and fans.

Take a quick peek at their Twitter page, and you’ll instantly notice an unending list of tweets in direct response to another Twitter user. According to Carol Rozwell, vice president and analyst at Gartner, “The dissatisfaction stemming from failure to respond via social channels can lead to up to a 15 percent increase in churn rate for existing customers.”

While it’s impossible and impractical for a growing company to respond to every mention on Twitter, it’s an important practice to engage as much as possible with the community. From my own personal experience I can say that I’m much more likely to be a loyal customer of and an evangelist for a company, product or service that responds to me than one that doesn’t. Not surprisingly, my personal choice of eyewear is, in fact, Warby Parker, and much of that has to do with the responsiveness and excellent customer service they provide through Twitter.

How you can do it: Responsiveness is the name of the game. You should try to over-serve your customers at every turn.

The most efficient way to do this is to assign a specific person — ideally a customer service specialist who is also socially savvy themselves — to monitor your Twitter feed on a daily basis. By delegating the task to one person, you can ensure that your responses are consistent, timely and safeguard the value and reputation of your brand. With the pace at which the social media world moves, if a comment or concern from a follower lingers for even a few hours unanswered, people will take notice and will perceive that you have ignored their tweet.

One important cautionary note: if a follower brings up a problem, acknowledge it publicly, then resolve it privately via phone or email.

Pinterest

How they did it: Much like they’ve done with their Facebook presence, Warby Parker has used the power of images to connect with their customers on Pinterest. They currently have over 6,000 followers, 27 boards, 1,800 pins and more than 1,600 pin likes.

It’s worth noting that they are using Pinterest in exactly the right manner – not as a tool for shameless self-promotion but rather as a vehicle to provide greater value to their customers and to create an overall image for the brand that people gladly want to identify themselves with. For example, one of their boards is called “Jasper: A Vintage Outlook,” and simply features vintage-inspired images that echo the brand’s look and feel.

Another technique they use is cross-promotion. On their “Bespectacled Bloggers” page, they feature bloggers wearing Warby Parker frames. This serves to not only add credibility to the brand, but also to increase traffic to blogs that support Warby Parker. It’s a win-win.

How you can do it: Focus on providing value first and foremost, and allow promotion to happen organically as your followers take your great content and run with it.

Self-promotion need not be avoided completely; however, it’s important to do so in a tasteful fashion and not to let your social media sites be solely focused on you. This will allow you to generate a real community around your brand, product or service, because you’ll become a source rather than a salesperson.

Much like Warby Parker has done with their Pinterest page, think about the kind of things your consumers are interested in (other than your product), and provide valuable content based on that. People will be more inclined to engage with what you post when it’s valuable to them, rather than when they feel like they’re being sold something all the time.

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Buyer Beware: Your CARFAX Guide to Choosing a Web Domain Name

After days of brainstorming and hours of searching, you’ve finally found the perfect domain for your business – and it’s even a “dot com.” Win! Before you hit the checkout button, be forewarned: the domain you’re about to purchase may a cesspool of spam and other nasties. And don’t count on your registrar to tell you that in advance. Unlike the purchase of a vehicle, used domains don’t come with a Carfax to tell you its mileage, provide insight into its value and essentially advise how well the previous owner treated his or her property. In fact, you won’t even necessarily be notified that the domain has a previous owner! So, how do you determine whether your domain is pre-owned? And if so, how do you uncover any potential SEO risks? Here’s your “Carfax” guide to buying a web domain name:

Start with WHOIS

When you register a domain for the first time, the information you furnish to the registrar is stored in a database. Except in the case of a private registration, that information is publicly available and accessible using a query called WHOIS. When used, WHOIS returns database information so that the site’s domain name, owner, creation date and expiration date, for example, can be viewed. If you’re purchasing your domain from an auction or directly from another consumer, then your domain was obviously pre-owned. However, if you are utilizing a registrar like GoDaddy or NameCheap, then you will need the WHOIS from domaintools.com to pinpoint the domain’s birth date. Enter your newfound domain into http://whois.domaintools.com WHOIS LOOKUP. If the domain has had one or more previous owners, you will see a Registrar History, NS History (Name Server), IP History and Whois History. Next to Whois History is the domain’s “birthday.” If no Whois or Registrar history is shown, then you are the first person to register this URL. But don’t get your hopes up too fast. Even new, unused domains can carry a shoddy SEO history.

Provide some context with web selfies

In its WaybackMachine, web.archive.org provides website snapshots over time. These selfies can provide contextual understanding of how your website was used as far back as 1996. This is particularly useful for understanding anchor text and backlinks.

New or used, check for backlinks

Backlinks pass link juice to a website, which can positively or negatively affect a site’s SEO metrics including PageRank (PR), Domain Authority (DA) and Trust Flow. Even domains without a birthday may have inadvertently acquired links. This is particularly common if a website’s name is close to the spelling of another more popular site. So with each domain purchase, you may be inheriting a blank slate, a goldmine or a deathtrap. As a starting place, OpenSiteExplorer.com or BulkDaChecker.com will provide a quick DA check. DA is Moz’s “best prediction for how a website will perform in search engine rankings.” Many elements, including the domain’s age and its backlinks, are factored into determining DA. And, the higher the DA the more likely you will rank highly in Google SERP. A DA of 1 (out of 100) usually suggests a site has done no link building. However, the only way to be certain is to investigate further with MajesticSEO.com (in both Fresh and Historic Indexes) or ahrefs.com – both websites offer free and paid subscription options. At first glance, the information can be overwhelming.  So, here are the tabs/pages you need to explore:

Anchor Text

The purpose of anchor text is to give readers clues about a link’s content. When a site has been spammed or intentionally implemented Black Hat SEO, the anchor text is usually a dead giveaway. Irrelevant anchors If the domain you’re interested in purchasing is cell-phone-provider-online.com, for example, “Versace shoes” anchor text does not make sense. If you happen to purchase this domain, you’ll want to disavow or manually request removal of these links. Poker, porn, payday loan or prescription anchors Usually bad company does not come alone – if you see one Viagra or Online Poker anchor text, you’ll see another. Also watch for unexpected women’s names like Lucinda and Lolita; this typically indicates pornography backlinks. Non-English anchors Unless the site previously targeted non-English-speaking customers, you should not see any foreign anchor text. Repetition of exact-match anchor When a site acquires links naturally, it is rare to find repetition of the same anchor text over multiple sites.  For example, if you sell desk chairs, one website may link to you from their content using your domain name, another will use “office chairs,” and a third may lead in customers with the word “website.”  If the occurrence of a single anchor text over multiple sites stands out to you as appearing unnatural, then it likely is – and this may have been the result of old-school link building tactics that are now being penalized.

Referring Domains

A referring domain is a site that links to your domain. On both MajesticSEO and ahrefs.com, referring domains are sorted in order by number of links for your convenience. Unnatural distribution of links As a general rule of thumb: if greater than 50 percent of your links come from less than 10 percent of your referring domains, then this is a red flag. As an example, let’s say you have 5,000 total links. Of that 5,000, 3,000 come from a single domain, another 1,000 are from a second domain followed by one, two and three links from a series of other domains. This concentration of links from one or two domains may indicate the presence of a link network or site-wide links – two things that will position you for Google penalties. Foreign top-level domains (TLD) When in high volume, foreign TLDs like .ru, .br, and .fr will point to spam. You will likely want to disavow these domains.

Follow-to-nofollow ratio

A quick check of the follow-to-nofollow ratio (available from MajesticSEO and ahrefs dashboards) will help identify if your site has accumulated comment, forum or user-generated profile spam. A link portfolio of more than 50% nofollow links is worth additional investigation. In such a case, dig deeper into the actual nofollow links to determine their origin.

Check for Google penalty indicators

SEMRush is a favorite tool among many Internet marketers. It’s known primarily for its support of keyword research. However, with a little deductive reasoning, you can use those same tools to identify if a site has been penalized. Here are the dates you’ll need from the exercises above: From WHOIS:

• Use domain birthday (creation) as your starting point
• Note dates where there were changes in domain ownership

From the WaybackMachine:

• Note any redesigns or periods of maintenance

From Moz:

• Note dates of major Google algorithm changes

From the SEMRush.com home page, enter your domain. In the traffic viewer, select “2 years.” A normal traffic pattern for a website will appear similar to sine wave with natural dips for seasonality and having an upward-and-to-the-right trend. If your two-year view does not show enough data to see this, expand to “All Time.” Dips in organic traffic are expected when a site is down over along period for maintenance, for redesign or for change in ownership. If in addition to these natural changes you still a significant drop in organic traffic, Google may have penalized the site. And while there is no way to confirm the penalty without access to the site’s original Webmaster Tools, traffic patterns have historically proven the best litmus test – rapgenius.com is a recent example.

Is the website safe?

Worst than penalties is malicious content. A site marked for hosting malware will have been blacklisted by search engines, Internet browsers and the like – and is therefore not a domain you should invest in. Use Google’s Safe Browsing to determine if your future domain has been sited for hosting malware in the last 90 days. To inspect, replace yahoo.com in the link below with your domain. http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=yahoo.com If you decide to take on a site with a soiled SEO history, get ready for many rounds of research, link removal requests and inclusion requests. Based on your findings, you’ll have to determine if it’s worth it. If it’s the domain of a lifetime, then maybe it is.  But if not, there are many more domains out there, and with a little bit of time, you can find the right one for you.

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