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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Tune in to Everything

The greatest foe a writer must face isn’t actually writer’s block; it’s a much more nefarious enemy: “rut syndrome.” Every brand has its own voice, and every project has its own tone. But after you’ve thrown a few thousand words at something, it gets harder and harder to write anything original while staying within these established parameters.

Familiar phrases start to reappear with increasing regularity, and you may find yourself unopposed to using them again. “Tried and true” becomes “tired and clichéd.” Buzzwords turn into buzzkill. The walls of your rut begin to close in on you, and you get the feeling that your best work might lie behind you, at least in this particular field.

So how can you claw your way out of this rut while staying in your groove? By looking outward rather than trying to dig deeper into yourself. And by “outward,” I don’t mean industry blogs or field-related resources. Sure it’s important to stay informed, but often the fresh perspective that fuels a new direction in your writing will come from unexpected directions. The key is to turn your attention toward those unlikely sources – and let the creativity flow.

Living on “high-receive”

One of the creative sparks for this very article has been bouncing around in my head for a couple of years now. It’s an off-the-cuff bit of writing that appeared on the Facebook page of Fame Foundry’s chief architect, Kenneth Vuncannon. The title alone speaks volumes about why I enjoy working with Ken: “On creative design (and in stern defense of all creative people)”.

In this piece, Ken wrote, “Not even designers know where all the inspiration comes from, but they are the ones who sacrifice normal life and choose to live constantly on high-receive, subjecting their brains to everything in this world in the name of creativity.”

That bit about high-receive struck me at the time, and it remains with me still, informing my work process day in and day out. And here I was just casually spending five minutes on Ken’s page, looking at pictures and catching up – probably drawn to his profile by some quip that made me laugh.

Ken’s brief paragraph in praise of designers – “they are the ones” who draw inspiration from “everything in this world” – also serves as a great piece of advice for anyone wishing to challenge their own creativity: look outside yourself. Look everywhere, all the time. Be ready for that happy coincidence. Train your mind to make connections that can grow into your next great work.

The more you think like this, the more your ideas will begin to flow from moments that might otherwise slip by as ephemeral instances of random beauty or humor. And the greater the chance that something original can find its way into one of those dry assignments that threatens to drag you down into the rut.

Here are a few examples from my own efforts to stay tuned in to the greatness around us:

Crazy people

Here’s a piece that has stuck with me for some 20 years. I was at my grandmother’s for the weekend with the rest of my family, home from college, sometime in the early nineties. Grandma Whipkey’s was a fine place to visit, overflowing as it was with homemade cookies and cable TV – HBO to be specific. We were flipping through channels when I stopped for a few minutes on something called “Crazy People,” a movie starring Dudley Moore and Paul Reiser as advertising pitch men.

I hadn’t heard of the movie and had no interest in the premise. But the part that happened to be showing was Dudley Moore’s pitch for Volvo. The tag? “Volvo: Boxy but good.”

As a college kid only just discovering the verbal agility and wit of Monty Python, this bit struck me as funny. All these years later, I think of this clip often. There’s a bit right after it as well where Moore argues that he and his fellow execs should “level with the people.” Reiser’s reply is, “We’re in advertising. We can’t do that.”

It’s a sharp piece of satirical writing – one that serves as a great reminder that marketers can – and should – tell the truth.

A reverent – and irreverent – obituary

Here’s an opening line that has never before been used in an obituary: "If you're about to throw away an old pair of pantyhose, stop."

You read that right. But such a goofy first line couldn’t possibly be part of a well-written obituary, could it? Surely this is a misguided attempt at humor that falls as flat as a vulgar joke in church.

Wrong. This one, written by the family of Mary Agnes Mullaney, a Milwaukee native who recently passed away at 85, hits it out of the park. There isn’t a hint of typical dry obit tone, but the piece overflows with joy, grief, dignity and every other emotion that naturally occurs when a well-loved person passes away.

Take this passage, which recounts lessons to live by, as demonstrated by Mary the gentle firecracker:

“Go to a nursing home and kiss everyone. When you learn someone's name, share their patron saint's story and their feast day, so they can celebrate. Invite new friends to Thanksgiving dinner. If they are from another country and you have trouble understanding them, learn to ‘listen with an accent.’

Never say mean things about anybody; they are ‘poor souls to pray for.’

Put picky-eating children in the box at the bottom of the laundry chute, tell them they are hungry lions in a cage, and feed them veggies through the slats.”

The purpose of an obituary is to announce someone’s death and convey a few carefully culled facts about the life that was lived. This piece turns the conventions of this medium upside-down and, in doing so, transforms it into something every obituary should be: a very human, deeply powerful ode to grief and celebration.

This one inspires me to look again at any dry or unwelcome writing task set before me. There is always a new and different way to approach any assignment, no matter how seemingly routine.

Kids run roughshod through ruts

If you want a prime example of setting your brain to “high-receive,” my sincere hope is that there are children in your life. My wife and I have four kids, ages two, five, seven and nine. I call them the Popcorn Gang – they’re packed with energy and exploding all over the place with creativity (among other things).

One of my favorite bedtime storytelling techniques is to turn them loose on a basic comic book plot and let them fill in the fun bits. They are the crusaders for justice, and they choose their powers. My main responsibility is voicing a made-up villain (Rovoltin’ Molten is a favorite; he controls lava and maintains a sinister lair deep in a volcano) and subjecting the baddie and his minions to my kids’ incredible feats of bravery and might. My evil mastermind will try to take over the world; this much is certain. But make no mistake, he will be utterly defeated by the end of the tale.

It’s always a big gulp from the fire hose of originality. If I didn’t set limits on the numbers of powers, talking animal sidekicks and tricked out vehicles, the stories would last until dawn. One example among hundreds: I’ve never heard of a superhero who shot blue popcorn from his knuckles before, but darned if young Captain Abel didn’t thwart a whole battalion of lava soldiers with this devastating ability. They’ve come up with enough plots and powers over the years to populate a whole new superuniverse.

My daughter Evangeline, our youngest, will be three in a couple months. The other day she had this revelation for my wife while they cuddled up and looked out the window at a gorgeous late summer day:

“Mommy, you are the flower and I am the green grass. Cole is the raincloud and Abel is the raincloud and Gibson is the raincloud and Daddy is the sun. Grandpa is the blue sky and Grandma is the green grass with me.”

So yeah, that’s unquestionably my favorite thing of the week. I was amused to note that her brothers are the rainclouds, while bursting with joy over my status as the sun (all the while realizing that I’ll undoubtedly take a turn as a raincloud in 10 years or so).

Later on, because I spend a lot of time each day in the marketing world, I thought about what a great moment it would make in a campaign. Not a cynical moment designed to manipulate emotions. Not a too-cute, overdone moment that feels like neon unicorns prancing on cotton candy clouds. But a light, authentic moment that could find a natural fit with any number of family-oriented brands. I may never wind up using it, but into the hopper it goes.

Kids are at the heart of so many memorable ads, from Volkswagen’s Darth Vader Kid to AT&T’s recent series of ad-libbed interviews. And it’s not hard to understand why: Kids don’t know from ruts. You want a fresh perspective on something? Run it by a human under 10.

Storing up genius

Staying open to unlikely sources of inspiration doesn’t always come naturally, but there’s no reason why creativity and structure can’t go hand in hand.

Keep a file of intriguing items you run across. Bookmark video clips, images or articles that strike your fancy. If you have kids, pets or friends who do things that make you shake your head for any number of reasons, by all means fill a notebook with their quotes and stories.

By the way, if you don’t end up using anything in some capacity (you will, but let’s say you don’t), there is still a tremendous benefit to be found in a life spent deliberately looking outward in pursuit of the good stuff. In the end, it’s not just about helping yourself create better work and serve your clients better. That is simply an inevitable benefit to the habit of tuning into greatness. But you can be sure that as you expand your horizons, your work will be distinguished not by its similarity to other campaigns or articles in the same field but by the part that stands out as original. Your fresh voice and your sideways angle are what will set your writing apart and keep your creativity flying high, safe from the depths of the dreaded rut syndrome.

So here’s to all those disparate bits of stimulation that will make your work better, stronger and more inventive. Stay tuned – to everything – and be inspired.

Two-Faced: The Promise and Pitfalls of Facebook

With 250 million members and growing, Facebook is a siren’s song for marketers and business owners. Its allure lies in its promise of instantaneous access to legions of followers, but therein also lies the danger. With all the hype surrounding social media, misconceptions about Facebook’s capabilities as a marketing tool are rampant. It’s easy to latch on to the seemingly obvious benefits while overlooking the hidden perils. Before you steer your brand on a course to social media suicide, let’s take a closer look at some of the nefarious half-truths that permeate the buzz about Facebook and sort out perception from possibility.

Facebook is free advertising.

This much is true: It doesn’t cost one dime to create an account or set up a fan page on Facebook. But that’s where the free ride ends. In fact, Facebook is neither free nor advertising. Advertising in the most traditional sense of the word implies one-way communication. It represents a carefully polished, thoroughly sanitized version of a company’s image that is presented to a statistically favorable audience through structured media outlets. Social media by definition demands interaction. As a result, using any social media platform as a tool to grow your business requires a significant investment of time and effort – precious resources of which many companies today have little to spare – to nurture relationships and cultivate a following. You can’t approach Facebook as you would an advertising campaign with tidy short-term objectives and a finite lifespan. Instead, you must be willing to make a long-term commitment and have the patience to let the return on your investment develop over time. Furthermore, unlike traditional advertising, Facebook is not simply a vehicle for self-promotion. Creating a Facebook page is like standing on a soapbox. You can gather a crowd and take the stage, but if you do nothing but talk endlessly about yourself, your products and your achievements, everyone will quickly leave and go elsewhere.

Facebook is an easy way to connect with your customers.

Yes, your 10-year-old son and your 85-year old grandmother can set up a Facebook page. The developers behind Facebook invested untold hours and resources in a simple, user-friendly interface in order to ensure just that. Facebook is not the ends; it's the means. However, the act of creating a page is not the point. It’s not the same as putting up a billboard on the side of the road where the end goal is to gain attention by the simple fact of existing in the space. You must do more than establish a presence; you must commit yourself to being fully present on the site. The gift that Facebook and other social media sites have given to marketers and business owners is removing the middlemen of print and broadcast media that were once your only lines of communication with your customers. However, having the ability to communicate directly does no good if you do not use it to your advantage by actively engaging your followers. How do you do this? Offer them something of value, start a conversation, provide a forum for meaningful interaction, post diverse kinds of content. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about what you would respond to. Think about what all of your fans might have in common and build your following around that. Your Facebook page might not even focus on your business or industry at all. That’s fine, as long as what’s there is entertaining or thought provoking or relatable – something that people can latch onto and encourage others to do the same. In short, Facebook is not the ends; it's the means.

There’s no harm in trying Facebook.

You’ve heard all the chatter about Facebook, and you’ve decided to take the plunge, thinking you’ll figure it out as you go. Stop right there. The problem with taking a trial-and-error approach is that there are no take-backs in the world of social media. Your mistakes are on display for all to see and can be unearthed again and again. Post content that is poorly conceived or badly executed, and you take a chance at being the Internet’s next viral sensation (and not in a good way). Of course, that’s the worst-case scenario. But the indisputable truth of the matter is that your efforts can backfire if you don’t come out of the gate with a strong, clearly defined strategy and commit to sustaining your efforts over time. There are no take-backs in the world of social media. As a marketer or business owner, you can’t afford to enter into Facebook lightly. Lackluster communication will damage your brand. Just as easily as you can update your status, your fans can hide you from their feed. The more eagerly you flood your followers with content that’s not relevant or lacks creativity, the more you risk alienating your once loyal customers. Take a step back and think about how your activity on Facebook reflects on you and what it reveals to your customers about your motives. For example, focusing on self-promotion sends a clear message to your fans that you have no interest in them or desire to forge a meaningful connection. Remember, everything that you broadcast over Facebook becomes part of your brand legacy.

The more fans, the better.

As is the case in most areas of business, there is strength in numbers on Facebook. Or is there? Without question, Facebook has the numbers. Over 50 million new users joined in the past three months alone, leaving marketers who cling to the traditional media metrics of reach and demographics salivating. However, Facebook’s true strength is not in the exposure it offers to this vast sea of humanity. It’s in the platform’s strength as a channel of unobstructed communication between you and your customers as well as between your customers and their network of friends. The number of fans you have on Facebook is meaningless in and of itself. Just as it takes next to no effort on your part to create your page, it requires nothing but the click of a mouse for someone to “fan” you. But if that is the last interaction you have with them, then it does nothing to improve your bottom line. What you really need are loyal fans who are passionate about you and who are actively spreading the word about what you have to offer. You need to develop a following of people who are personally invested in your success. It’s not about quantity; it’s about quality.Wired magazine founder Kevin Kelly describes on his blog the importance of what he calls “True Fans,” defined as “someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce.” Once you have committed yourself to Facebook, it is imperative that you seek out these types of fans and feed them meaningful content that they can spread like wildfire throughout their various networks of family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. When it comes to fans and Facebook, it’s not about quantity; it’s about quality. All of this is not to say that you shouldn’t view Facebook as a powerful grassroots marketing tool or that the challenges outweigh the benefits. However, it is to say that you shouldn’t blindly follow the masses to Facebook because you think it’s cheap, easy and free of risk. Instead, be realistic about the investment of time and effort required, cultivate a loyal group of real fans and communicate with them in a way that is really engaging. As always, if you’re not sure where to start and need help making sense of it all, please feel free to call us. We can help you separate Facebook fact from fiction and put you on the right track to using social media as a tool for building meaningful customer relationships.

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