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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The Six Types of Website Visitors – And How to Serve Each of Them

Every website’s audience is comprised of different kinds of visitors, and those people can almost always be broken down into one of 6 distinct categories. Visitors in each of these categories share similar needs and goals on the website, which means that by understanding the needs of each category and ensuring that your website does what it can to meet those needs, you can better serve those individual users. In this article, we will take a high-level look at the 6 categories of visitors common to almost all websites. We will also explore some of the characteristics of each of these categories and what you can do on your website to cater to each of them.

1. The Browser

The first group of visitors we will look at are those that are “just browsing” the site and in their earliest stage of research. These visitors may have need of the products or services that you offer, but they are far away from the point of purchase. Currently, they are seeing what is available so that they can learn what their options are. These visitors are looking to be educated and there is a prime opportunity for you to establish a strong, early-stage relationship with these visitors. To serve the needs of this “early stage research” group, your site should include content that educates visitors. By offering this content, you answer your visitors’ questions and become a trusted source of information. This is a great way to begin building a relationship with people, one that you hope will eventually turn them into customers! Many companies do not like to accommodate this early stage research group because they are so far away from the point of purchase and many visitors in this category will never turn into actual customers. Those companies prefer to focus their efforts on some of the categories which we will cover shortly, those where people are closer to making a purchase and therefore much easier to sell to. This is another reason why this group of visitors offers you a unique opportunity. Not only can you establish an early relationship by offering helpful information, but many of your competitors may have elected not to cater to this group, setting your company and your site apart for these “just looking” researchers. Make basic information easy to find on your site. Consider including some kind of “search tool” that allows these early stage researchers to query the information that they are looking for and find the exact pages of your site for that content. You can also consider adding a “101-style” page of a “FAQs” page that contains the basic questions and information this group of visitors may be after.

2. The Comparison Shopper

The next group of website visitors are those that are further down the road of being ready to make a purchase. They have been educated and largely know what they are looking for in terms of the product or service they need, now they are trying to determine who is the right company to provide that to them. They want to know what sets your company apart and why they should work with you instead of with someone else. In a way, these visitors are also looking to be educated, but not on the general aspects of what you do. Instead, they want to know about your company specifically. These people are motivated and will likely make a commitment soon. Now is your chance to show them why that choice should be you. To cater to this audience, consider adding pricing to your website. This is not always appropriate or even possible, but price is one of the deciding factors in almost all purchasing decisions, yet many companies elect to leave pricing off their website because of fears that they will show their hand to competitors (more on that later). If you can add pricing to your site, do so! Even if you are not the lowest, adding pricing has value because so few of your competitors have pricing on their sites! This sets you apart and, for some visitors, it may immediately answer a major concern for them (“what is this going to cost me?”) and, if that price is what they were hoping for, you may be able to seal the deal right then and there. Besides pricing, other helpful information that you can consider adding could be warranty or service information, average timelines for the work that you do, or any other content specific to your organization and offerings.

3. The Decider

The next logical group to cover are those customers that are absolutely ready to buy. They have been educated on both the products or services that you offer as well as on what sets your organization apart. They have decided that you are the right fit for them – now you need to make the purchasing process as easy as possible so you can close this deal! If your website actually coverts business online, meaning you allow for online purchasing or registration and that is how you gain customers, then make sure that the check-out or registration process is simple and working! I am always amazed when I see a website that does a great job educating visitors and differentiating their company, but a technical glitch prevents visitors from taking that final step and becoming actual customers! Error messages that come up during checkout or registration will destroy the relationship you have been working hard to forge, so be sure that your site is up and running as intended! You should have some kind of “regular checkup” planned for your site. Waiting for customers to report to you that something is broken is waiting too long, because many customers will never report that problem to you - they will simply take their business elsewhere. This is why your site needs to be working as intended always – and you need to have a process in place to review the site’s functionality regularly. If you do not allow customers to convert online, but they instead need to call to schedule an appointment with your company, then make sure that it is obvious that they need to do this and make sure your contact information is easy to find! Furthermore, consider doing away with automated phone systems whenever possible. A motivated buyer who picks a phone and is greeted with a too-long, robotic welcome message is often as much of a deal-breaker as a website that throws errors. You’ve convinced this person that your company is the right fit for their needs, now greet them with a human touch and stay away from the automated systems.

4. The Familiar

So far, we have looked exclusively at net new customers, but one of the best sources of new business for any company are their existing clients. While your site needs to appeal to new customers, it should also speak to existing ones who are familiar with your company and happy with your services. In many cases, customers may work with you for one specific product of service, unaware of other services you offer as well. Your site can make these customers aware of your full range of offerings and strengthen the relationship you have with them. Your website also allows you to inform existing customers about important updates or announcements that may affect them. These could be simple hours of operation changes for your company or other updates that they should be aware of. Remember, if you started out a relationship by being a thought- leader and provider of useful information, that should not stop once you are engaged with those customers. Consider adding an ‘Existing Customers’ section to your site with this type of information. You do not necessarily need to password protect this information, assuming it is not client-specific and sensitive, but rather allow anyone to view it. In this way, you can give existing customers useful information and show other visitors your commitment to long term relationships with your clients!

5.The Applicant

Stepping away from the ‘customer’ side of your website’s audience, there are other visitors to your site that you should consider. One of these is potential new employees. If you site has a ‘careers’ or ‘job openings’ page, then this is likely where potential new employees will be looking. You do not need to give these pages front-and-center, top-level billing - most job seekers are motivated enough to find this content even if it is not given the same level of prominence that you give you customer-oriented content (and if that job seeker is not motivated enough to find the link, you probably don’t want to hire them anyway). In addition to the actual job listings, however, you may also want to consider adding some content about what life is like at your company – your ‘company culture’, for instance. When you are looking to recruit the best talent out there, they will want to know more about your company than just the hard facts covered in a job listing. This is where a little information about your company culture can really come in handy and help you appeal to the best of the best.

6. The Competitor

Earlier I mentioned that many companies do not put pricing on their website for fear that their competition will find it. This doesn’t end with pricing. I have seen companies “hide” content behind registration systems, or elect to leave it off a site altogether to prevent competitors from gathering that information. In almost all cases, this is a bad idea. After all, if you make your information difficult for competitors to find, you also make it difficult for actual customers to get that same information. Yes, there are times when the information you provide to customers is so individualized or sensitive that you could not make it public on your site, but that is an edge-case. For most businesses, the only reason they elect to leave this content off their site is that aforementioned “fear of competitors getting it”. Here’s the reality, however – if your competition wants that information, they will get it. If they are motivated to get that info, they will jump through the hoops you set up. Customers, however, will not generally go to those lengths. So by “hiding” content from competition, you really only keep it away from the very people you want to speak to – new customers! Do not be afraid of your competition. Be bold and put your content out there for all to see. One of two things will happen. Either your competition will follow suit and put their info out there as well, which allows you to compete on a level playing field, or they will continue to hide it away, which shows customers how open you are and often makes you the more appealing choice. Either way, by making your content easy to access for all categories of visitors to your site, to do the best job of serving the ones that matter to you most.

Appealing to all visitors

By understanding the needs of the visitors your website has, you and your web or marketing team can make the right decisions to best meet the needs of all visitors.

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Worth a Million Words: How to Boost Your Blog with Great Video Content

So your company blog is perking right along. You’ve nailed the voice, tapped into a steady stream of ideas and inspiration and settled into a good rhythm of posting and extending your content through your various social media networks.

From here out, maintaining your momentum is as easy as lather, rinse, repeat, right? Au contraire. Now that you’ve mastered the basics, it’s time to shake things up and take on a new challenge: video content.

Why video? In today’s digital age, your followers’ brains are programmed to crave constant excitement and stimulation. Video content can engage them in different ways and offer a much more interactive experience that your standard text-based post.

Not convinced? Check out Wine Library TV, the video blog that helped Fame Foundry friend Gary Vaynerchuk skyrocket to success. On this vlog, Gary reviews wines:

It’s a straightforward concept, and he could just as easily write up his reviews as deliver them via video. But you can get stuffy, formal, written wine reviews just about anywhere. That wouldn’t be special. What makes Wine Library TV a destination point for his many thousands of loyal fans is seeing Gary V on camera in all his larger-than-life, in-your-face, uncorked, ad-lib glory.

Because video by its very nature is a more engaging medium, video-based content is also much more likely to be shared by your readers via social media. Furthermore, multimedia content gets huge points with Google. In fact, keyword searches on Google often include video posts in at least one of the top five results, making your keyword-enriched video much more visible to Web surfers.

If you’ve never made a video before, the process can seem intimidating in its unfamiliarity. However, if you can master just three key elements – content, production and optimization – in no time, you’ll be publishing great video content that will take your blog to the next level.

Conquering video content

Content is king, so there’s no reason to tackle the technical aspects of producing a video for your blog until you’ve ironed out your video content strategy.

Don’t just produce a video for video’s sake. Your videos should be a natural evolution of your blog’s content that are highly relevant to your target audience.

As with any type of content that you’d publish to your blog, the number one rule is to provide value. Whether it comes in the form of information, entertainment or both, value is the one and only reason why someone will invest their time in watching your video and pass it along to others as well.

That being said, the medium opens the door to all types of fun, engaging, creative content that simply wouldn’t pack the same punch in written format. While the possibilities are nearly limitless, here are a just few basic ideas to get you started:

Reviews

As you can see from the Gary Vaynerchuk example, video is a great medium for delivering product reviews because your words seem more authentic when your audience can watch you manipulate the item and can witness your natural reactions.

Let’s say you own an athletic goods store. The next time Nike releases the latest version of one of its running shoes, give us a video review that demonstrates what’s new about that model and how it performs in action.

Tutorials

What’s a more effective way to teach your customers how to use your products: by explaining it through words in painstaking detail or by capturing your demonstration on camera?

On their blog, Brooklyn Kitchen publishes instructional videos that run the gamut from shucking oysters to cleaning a blade grinder to sabering a bottle of champagne.

These are the types of unique how-tos you can only get from a passionate group of foodies, and their readers place a high value on this level expertise.

Ask the expert

Speaking of expertise, get your customers in on the act by having them submit questions (whether by video, social media or good old-fashioned email) that you can answer on-camera as a voice of authority on the subject.

Series

When it comes to any kind of blog content, series are great because they automatically create anticipation for the next entry and give your followers incentive to come back time after time.

Let’s say you run a yoga studio. You could produce a series of video posts, each of which takes a specific pose and breaks it down in detail, demonstrating the proper form and the muscle groups that should be engaged when executed correctly.

Crowdsourced content

Are you camera shy? Then why not leave the work of creating your video posts up to your customers? YouTube is nothing if not a testament to how much we love to see ourselves on camera.

Challenge your customers to send in a video showing the creative ways they use your products. Or ask them to submit their own video reviews, which carry the added benefit of being great word-of-mouth marketing for your company.

Polishing the production

While it’s important for your videos to look professional, you don’t need the resources of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster to produce great content for your blog. With a little practice, you can master the fundamentals of shooting, editing and publishing high-quality video content that will engage your followers.

Recording

There’s no need to break the bank, but do shoot in HD if you can. These days, the price difference between HD and non-HD cameras is minimal, and the improvement in quality is substantial.

The most important factor in recording, however, is stability. Use a tripod – whether real or improvised – to avoid the dreaded, motion-sickness-inducing Blair-Witch-Project shaky camera effect.

To avoid jarring transitions, don’t try to pan the camera to follow the action. Instead, film in one spot, move the camera, then film in that spot, and weave these scenes together later during the editing process.

If your video involves demonstrating something on your computer, use screen capture software such as HyperCam or CamStudio to yield the best quality end result.

Lighting and blocking

Natural lighting is always best, but even if you need to use artificial light, make sure that you’re not under- or over-lit.

If you wear glasses, remove them during the shoot, as reflection on the lenses will be distracting.

Before you dive in to filming, do a couple of quick test shots to make sure you’ve got it right before you waste a great take only to discover that your face is obscured in shadow or the top of your head is cut off.

Sound

The quality of sound in your video can make or break the viewer experience. If your voice is muffled or there’s too much background noise, your viewer will quickly get frustrated and move on.

A microphone is the easiest way to make sure that you can be heard clearly and distinctly. You don't have to use the latest greatest, but get something that will allow you to keep the mic close to you. Some people use a lapel mic, while others prefer shotgun mics and others use inexpensive mics that can be purchased at just about any department store. It's really up to you and your budget, but any mic is better than none at all.

Setting

Find somewhere to record your video that’s quiet and offers minimal background noise. And don’t forget to silence all of your various devices. A ringing phone or an email alert will ruin a great shot.

If possible, film your video against a solid backdrop to minimize visual distractions. You don’t want viewers to miss out on great information because they’re checking out all the knick-knacks on your desk and your walls.

Intro

Don’t risk tripping your viewers’ itchy browser-closing finger with a long, rambling introduction. Just tell us who you are and what your website is, then dive right into the substance of your video.

Editing

Your computer probably came with some basic editing software, so use that until your level of production savvy demands more sophisticated tools.

Keep in mind that it’s okay to leave good stuff on the cutting room floor. Inevitably, you’ll record more video than you use. You focus should be on capturing the essence of your story in about two to four minutes – the time-tested sweet spot for web video.

Publishing

To save bandwidth on your website, it’s best to upload your video to a sharing site like YouTube or Vimeo and then simply embed the video in your blog post from there.

This approach also has the added benefit of making your videos available to anyone who might be specifically searching one of these channels for content related to that subject matter.

For more great production tips, here a video from a blog owner who shares a few of the lessons he’s learned along the way:

Optimizing your videos

Just as with textual content, videos can be optimized for search engines through the use of keywords.

Choose a either a single keyword or keyword phrase to focus on, and incorporate this keyword in the title of your video, the URL, the tags and the text of the post where your video will live.

Google gives even more weight to text/video combos, so be sure to include your target keyword in text both before and after the video. For instance, start your post with a brief paragraph introducing your video, then embed the video and include a full transcript below, which coincidentally is also tremendously helpful for those who may have found your post but cannot view your video due to issues such as office firewalls.

Make sure as well to create a dedicated YouTube account for your blog that is linked to your website, and when you upload your video, use the same keywords in the title, description and tags that you used on your blog post.

Once you’ve published your video post, link to it and share it with your social media followers just as you would with your written posts.

By boldly venturing into the world of video content, you can help your blog rise above the competition and create a deeper level of engagement with your fans and followers. Over time, you’ll see the results of greater exposure and know that your learning curve and hard work have paid off.

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