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.

Full Speed Ahead: Nine Creative Ways to Connect Using Hyperlapse Video

Cat lovers everywhere rejoice: Hyperlapse from Instagram is here! Now you, too, can create and share captivating high-speed videos of your cat’s most adorable tail-chasing sessions and other curious behaviors right from your smartphone.

Of course, the magic of Hyperlapse is not exclusive to crazy cat ladies. This powerful stand-alone app – currently available exclusively for iOS devices – puts high-tech built-in stabilization technology in the palm of your hand, allowing you to transform your shaky, amateur smartphone footage into an amazingly smooth finished product. Hyperlapse differs from traditional time-lapse in that the camera is also moving, opening endless possibilities for experimentation and creativity.

Within mere hours of the app’s release, brands of all sorts immediately began experimenting to see how they could pack the most meaningful marketing punch in a 15-second super-speed clip. Here are nine creative ways you can follow the lead of these early adopters to use Hyperlapse video to connect with your fans and followers:

1. Showcase your product.

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Time-lapse video is a unique way to show off your products or services. After all, are there any number of flowery words and descriptive passages that could match the allure of watching the waves roll in at the Trump Miami?

2. Sell the experience.

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There's good reason behind the familiar saying, “Show, don’t tell.” If you could give your customer the sensation of having a first-hand experience without having to put down their tablet or get up from their desk chair, wouldn’t you?

Mercedes-Benz created a Hyperlapse video that does just that, putting the viewer in the passenger’s seat on a closed-course test drive to let them feel how the car handles curves.

3. Create buzz.

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Hyperlapse is a great way to generate excitement among your fans about your latest product. Footlocker used the app to create an unboxing video of the new Kobe 9 “Bright Mango” before it was released to the public, giving just enough of a sneak peek to whet the appetite of any sneakerhead.

4. Convey authenticity.

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In today’s trust-driven marketplace, authenticity reigns supreme. And what better way to prove just how authentic your products are than by showing how they are meticulously crafted – sped up for the benefit of the viewer with a fleeting attention span, of course – as in this Hyperlapse clip from Mazama?

5. Appeal to the senses.

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Video is a visual medium (obviously), but when done right, it can engage all of the senses to create an overwhelming appeal. Just take this example of a Hyperlapse video from Budweiser that will make any viewer want to drop whatever they’re doing to grab a beer, prop up their feet and fight off the onslaught of pumpkin-spice everything to squeeze just a few last drops out of summer.

6. Pull back the curtain.

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Mike’s Hard Lemonade’s first foray into Hyperlapse came in the form of a video tour of their Chicago office, which was revealed to reflect the same sense of vibrant, in-your-face fun that the brand is known for.

Do the same for your fans: pull back the curtain and let them see that your brand values permeate your company’s culture through and through.

7. Get creative.

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Sometimes you don’t need high-flying cinematic acrobatics. Sometimes all you need is a simple concept with a clever spin that creates a memorable tie-in to your brand, like this Hyperlapse video from Naked Juice that shows people rushing by a person standing on the sidewalk sans clothing accompanied by the caption, “Don’t let life pass you by. Get Naked.”

8. Add a sense of fun to the mundane.

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For dog owners, a game of fetch is a commonplace daily activity. But Nature’s Recipe’s time-lapse video that literally captures the game from a dog’s-eye-view and conveys his unbridled enthusiasm is a fun, unexpected pick-me-up that’s almost too good not to share with friends.

How can you use Hyperlapse to create unique content that will surprise and delight your fans and get their sharing fingers clicking?

9. Co-create content with fans.

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As part of its #MiniDelivery promotion, Oreo is sharing videos from fans who received their special packages, such as this one from fan @ashleighmn that lets viewers share in the experience of unwrapping her delicious delivery.

You can likewise use Hyperlapse to get your fans to do your marketing for you by challenging them to create their own time-lapse videos showing how they enjoy using your product or how your products play a role in their day-to-day life.

When planning and shooting your Hyperlapse videos, here are a few factors to keep in mind to ensure a high-quality end result that has the desired effect on your viewers:

1. Story

Consider how your brand’s story fits into the element of time-lapse and how that can best be used creatively to promote your brand. Just because Hyperlapse exists doesn’t make it the best medium for every message.

2. Context

Where you share your Hyperlapse video will have an impact on how it’s viewed and received by viewers. Keep in mind the expectations of users on different platforms and how your video will fit with a given platform’s interface.

The technical limitations of different social media platforms are another element to consider. Regardless of camera orientation, Instagram forces square formatting on Hyperlapse videos and will crop the areas that don’t fit within their frame. Facebook currently accepts videos from Hyperlapse in landscape format.

3. Filmography

Although Hyperlapse is designed to allow the camera to move while shooting, videos actually turn out better when the camera is held steady and even better still when the camera is stationary. Lighting greatly affects the quality of the end result as well, as videos that are too dark or have fast variations in lighting are difficult to watch. Close-up shots, especially when multiple large objects enter the frame, render blurry unprofessional-looking results because the camera can’t process a quick change of focus.

4. Capacity

Remember, Hyperlapse makes your smartphone work hard. Shooting a lengthy video will use up a lot of memory and quickly drain the battery, and sometimes large videos won’t be able render completely unless other items are deleted from the phone to free up memory.

Happy Hyperlapsing!

Is Your Website Ready for the Tablet Revolution?

The revolution is here.

When Apple launched the iPad last year, it carved out a new category in the mobile device marketplace. With the release of the iPad 2 and newer challengers like the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy now joining the fray, the market continues to heat up as more and more users opt to perform everyday tasks like browsing the Web, sending email, watching videos and playing games on tablet devices rather than their desktops, laptops or netbooks.

In fact, according to a recent study conducted by Nielsen, 35 percent of tablet owners polled said they now use their desktop computer less or not at all while 32 percent of respondents said the same of their laptop. The top five reasons cited for preferring the tablet over a desktop or laptop were portability (31 percent), easier interface (21), start-up speed (15), convenience (12) and size (12).

Additionally, Forrester Research forecasts that tablet sales in the U.S. will continue to climb sharply, from 10.3 million in 2010 to 24.1 million in 2011 to 44 million in 2015. The firm also projects that by 2015, 82 million people in the U.S. will own a tablet, a figure which represents one third of the total online population.

What do these numbers mean for you? With each passing day, the likelihood that consumers will be interacting with your brand via a tablet rather than a desktop or laptop is increasing. As we demonstrated previously, not all brands can or should release a native app, and even if you do, you shouldn’t neglect those users who will be surfing your primary site on a tablet-based browser.

As a result, it’s up to you to make sure that your website evolves to provide these users with a high-quality, hassle-free experience, or else you’ll risk losing them to competitors that do.

Here are nine critical elements you must examine now to make sure your site will continue to serve the needs of your customers and support the growth of your business in the era of the tablet:

Balance of content vs. interface

Tablet screens are much smaller than desktop or laptop screens, yet the primary use of tablets is for consuming content. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that your website’s interface is clean and clutter-free so that you make optimal use of the available real estate and allow your content to take center stage.

Typography

The type on your website must strike a happy medium for tablet users. If it’s too small or condensed, it will be illegible without zooming in. If it’s too big, users will be forced to scroll more than necessary.

You must find the ideal balance of font face, font size, line spacing and line length so that your content is pleasant and comfortable to read at the distance at which a user would naturally hold a tablet.

Color and texture

Color and texture are more than cosmetic niceties. When applied in strategic ways, they can go a long way toward improving the usability of your site for tablet users. For example, a subtle gradient on top of a button can provide a visual cue to users that it is an actionable object.

Keep in mind as well that with tablet users, you’re fighting finger smudges and glare for visibility. Bright background colors and patterns can reduce interference from these elements, while solid black tends to make them more distracting.

Buttons and links

When it comes to the tools your visitors use to travel around your website, size matters.

For tablet users, the clicking and scrolling of a mouse are replaced by touching and swiping gestures. As a result, navigation actions are less precise on touchscreens. You must allow a greater margin of error by creating buttons that are the size of a fingertip rather than a cursor.

Also, make sure to allow a little breathing room around your buttons and links, especially those that live in your site’s main navigation. Nothing will frustrate a user faster than being directed to a different page than the one they wanted because your links are crammed together too tightly.

Interface cues

If your website’s interface currently relies heavily on rollover effects, you’re going to be in trouble on a tablet. In the world of the touchscreen, there is no such thing as a hover state. If, for example, you have “previous” and “next” buttons that appear only when the mouse is nearby, those elements will be unavailable to your tablet users.

To create finger-friendly navigation, all elements must be big, bold and obvious. Replace buttons that require users to mouse over them to get a sense of action with style enhancements that draw attention to their “pressability.”

Menus

If your site contains drop-down menus, make sure there are visual cues (such as small up and down arrows) to indicate that the menu is expandable and that the menu remains open on tap.

Alternatively, you might consider streamlining your navigation to eliminate the need for drop-down menus altogether. Instead, you can create a showcase page for each main section of your site that acts as a gateway to the subpages contained within.

Scrolling

Screens on the tablet devices that are currently on the market range from approximately 7 to 10 inches and allow viewing in both vertical and horizontal orientation. As a result, there’s no way to be able to accurately predict what a tablet surfer will see without having to scroll.

The good news here is that tablet device users expect to scroll – not just vertically but horizontally as well. There’s no need to worry about trying to force all your important information to fit “above the fold.” Clean, streamlined design that promotes easy content consumption is the name of the game.

Forms

Many of the most critical interactions between your website and your customers occur through forms, whether it’s subscribing to email updates, requesting more information, logging into a secure account or completing a purchase.

Examine your forms closely to ensure that all fields render clearly. Also, make sure your forms are as streamlined as possible. Trying to complete a long form with many fields on a tablet is cumbersome. While the marketer in you wants to collect as much data as possible from your site visitors, the danger of requiring users to complete too many fields is that they’ll get frustrated and give up, leaving you with no data at all or, even worse, a potential sale lost.

Flash

Apple’s iOS does not – and probably never will – support Flash. Android does support Flash, but the performance of Flash content on Android devices thus far has been less than ideal.

If you have Flash anywhere on your site – whether it’s in the introduction to your site, your navigation menus or video – get rid of it now, or else your tablet users will be plagued with problems. Today there are better, more tablet-friendly options available, such as HTML5 and JavaScript, that can replicate the same effects that once required Flash.

When in doubt, test it out.

The only way to be confident about how well your site performs on a tablet is to put it through the paces on actual tablet devices. While there are some web-based simulators, they aren’t 100 percent reliable since they are ultimately limited by using your desktop browser to render your site.

If you don’t already own a tablet, borrow one or – if all else fails – make a trip to your local retailer and use the display models there.

Be sure to evaluate every element and every page of your site carefully. If possible, recruit other friends, colleagues or family members to do the same, and observe them as they navigate through your site. Because they aren’t as intimately familiar with your site and its nuances as you are, they may uncover stumbling blocks that you might have overlooked.

If you identify any problem areas, seek out the help of a trusted website design firm to address them. While you may have to make an investment in upgrading the infrastructure of your site, it will be money well spent to make sure current and prospective customers can access your site on their device of choice – which is more and more likely to be a tablet.