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.

Five Seductive Pick-Up Lines That Leave Your Visitors Wanting More

For many of your website’s visitors, the page that will greet them when they first arrive on the site is your homepage – and the section of your homepage that is likely to draw their attention upon arrival is the billboard.

Similar to roadside billboards that are meant to attract the attention of passing motorists and promote some company or service, homepage billboards are meant to grab the attention of a website visitor, welcome them to the site and convey some important message to them, and then send them forward to other content or actions within that site.

Take a look at just about any website today and you will see this “billboard” area. It is typically presented as a large, visually rich display that features striking imagery and/or powerful typography, important messages, and a subsequent call-to-action. Additionally, these messages can also be animated in some way to add an element of motion to the site and to allow you to use the billboard to display more than on message on your homepage.

While the purpose of the billboard is nearly identical on all websites, the way this section is executed varies from site to site. In this article, we will take a look at a few popular approaches to the website billboard.

1. Allow me to introduce myself.

Probably the most common billboard approach is what I call the “here’s who we are and what we do” technique. In these examples, the billboard message is all about your company.

Similar to an elevator pitch, this billboard approach quickly introduces your company and summarizes what you do. With attention spans online being as short as they are (many experts say that website visitors will scan a page and make a decision of what to do next, including leaving the site altogether, in as little as 3 seconds), this approach can be an effective way to get your message or value proposition across in a succinct fashion. If that message resonates with your visitors, you then have an opportunity to continue the conversation by driving them deeper into the website to learn more about what you have teased in the billboard message. You could provide links to read more about your services, products, or even just the company or organization itself.

A few examples of the “here’s who we are and what we do” method are below:

Studio1 Architects

This site uses very large images of the firm’s work (the images animate and multiple photos fade in and out over time), coupled with an opening message that explains what they do and a link to view their portfolio: http://studio1architects.com

AF Technology Solutions

This site’s concise billboard message summarizes what the company does (business and technology solutions) and who their audience is (small to medium businesses) and includes a link to learn more about their services: http://af-techsolutions.com

Raw Seafoods

This company uses their billboard to highlight their value proposition and then link visitors over to a page detailing what sets their products and services apart from their competition: http://www.rawseafoods.com

2. What can I do for you?

While the “here’s who we are and what we do” approach is the most common way to utilize a billboard’s messaging, there is a downside to that tactic – it focuses solely on the company or organization and not on the audience they serve. As a variation to that approach, you can consider the “how may we help you?” method.

With the “how may we help you?” technique, the messaging focuses on the website’s audience, not the company that owns the website. Instead of being about that company, their products, or services, it instead looks to its users and illustrates about how that company can help them. The focus turns from “us” to “you”.

A few examples of the “how may we help you?” variation are below:

2-1-1 RI

This not-for-profit site run by the United Way does not use any imagery in its billboard. It instead turns to bold colors and large typography to display its message – “Find Help Now”. The billboard does not explain what the organization does (that content is below the billboard). Instead, the focus here is on the user and the action is all about getting them the help they need by answering two simple questions (what do you need and where do you need it) or by clicking on a popular category: http://www.211ri.org

RIHCA

This site uses animated photos alongside a large message to attract their audience’s attention and address their main need – “Do you need healthcare?” The call to action is a simple and obvious button to “Get Started”: http://www.rihca.org

3. Tell me more about yourself.

Similar to the “how may we help you?” method, the “tell us who you are” approach speaks directly to your audience, but it does so in such a way so that it can ask that audience a specific question about who that audience is. The best example of this is a website that requires visitors to self-segment themselves.

Most websites have more than one audience and oftentimes there is different content on your website that is intended for these specific audiences. Having visitors “choose their path” by self-segmenting early on is one way you can drive them to content that is relevant for them, without worrying that they will have to get through pages that may not be necessary for them to see.

A few examples of self-segmentation on websites are below:

Traveler Beer Company

Any beer or liquor company will present this “Are You 21+?” message on their opening page to require that visitors confirm that they are of drinking age before entering the site. This is a form of self-segmentation: http://travelerbeer.com

Cosmed Group

This company knows that their customers fall into one of two groups – those looking for the pasteurization services that they offer or those who want to buy the equipment to do it themselves. Therefore, they present these two paths (looking for services vs. looking for products) in their billboard so that visitors can self-segment based on their needs: http://cosmedgroup.com

4. Let’s get personal.

Taking self-segmentation a step further are sites that already know who you are. These are sites that you subscribe to or have a user account on. Based on your preference or previous activity on the site, the content that is displayed is deemed to be most relevant to your needs.

The most prominent example of this method is Amazon.com. Visit the Amazon homepage and, as long as you are logged in, the products that you see will be based on your previous browsing or purchase history.

Another good example would be eBay. That site will show you results from searches you have conducted in the past in an attempt to present you with new auction items that you would be interested in.

Many news sites work in this way as well. Content that is most relevant for you, based on your preferences or geographic location, will be presented to you up front to try to best tailor your site experience to you.

One note here is that in these examples, Amazon, eBay, and the typical news site, do not present this information in a true, billboard-style fashion - but the same principal of filtering content based on a users’ preference or past behaviors on the site could also be applied to a billboard area.

5. What’s new?

The final approach we will look at in this article is the “latest news and announcements” method. This approach ensures that your site’s billboard is continually updated with fresh content. It displays current promotions, latest news, or important announcements (and usually a link to read more about that content) instead of general marketing messages.
The value of this approach is in the aforementioned freshness it brings to your content and your display. The downside is that it requires you to be publishing that new content on a pretty regular basis and you need to make a commitment to doing so.

If your organization is already producing relevant press releases or running promotions, then this method may be a great fit for you.

A few examples of this method are below:

Fame Foundry

This approach is exactly what we do on our homepage. Each month, our latest articles are highlighted in our animated billboard.

Honey Dew Donuts

Current promotions and seasonal menu items are featured in this site’s animated billboard. Those messages align with other marketing the company is doing - including print, radio, and television, to ensure that the latest content is always presented front and center: http://honeydewdonuts.com

Marvel

Upcoming films, new comics, and other announcements are the focus of Marvel’s homepage billboard: http://marvel.com

Mix and match

These billboard techniques are not mutually exclusive – you can mix and match them as you see fit. For instance, you may highlight a current promotion or announcement in your billboard, but then allow it to animate to a second and third and fourth, etc. message that is more generic – like the “here’s who we are and what we do” approach.

With so much space on your homepage being given over to the billboard’s display and understanding that the use of striking images, large typography, and animated messages will undoubtedly draw the focus of your visitors, it is important to make sure that the approach you choose for your billboard is the right choice for your business. Consult with your web design and development team to determine which approach, or which combination of different approaches, will best fit your overall goals and needs.

SPF for Your Website: Three Simple Steps to Protect Your Online Presence

As the days get longer and the mercury rises, we’re reminded yet again of the importance of remaining vigilant when it comes to applying sunscreen to protect ourselves from summer’s damaging rays. It’s a simple yet necessary precaution that if neglected has both short-term consequences – the painful agony of sunburn – and long-term ramifications – skin damage and increased risk of skin cancer. The same holds true for our websites. If we are not proactive in taking the necessary precautions to keep our online presence safe, problems will inevitably arise. Here are three simple measures you can take to apply SPF to your website that will safeguard the integrity not only of your brand’s online presence but its reputation as well:

(S)ecure your site against SQL injections.

Websites that feature data-driven applications can be vulnerable to attacks known as SQL injections, whereby malicious code is added to an entry field, then run and executed. These attacks exploit security vulnerabilities in problematic code, attacking your site’s database and performing any number of actions, from adding unapproved content to your public-facing site to allowing the hacker to download your entire database. This is a prime example of why rigorous testing is absolutely critical prior to launch. If your site is already up and running, consult with your web team to make sure that it has undergone thorough testing and is protected against such hacks. If you want to take additional precautionary measures, there are also security companies that specialize in detecting these types of website and database vulnerabilities, and they can provide you with a security audit.

(P)rotect your domain name.

It’s common sense that you must pay to acquire the domain name where your business will reside online. However, it’s important to remember that you have to continue to pay in order to retain the rights to use that domain name. Essentially, when you purchase your domain name, you’re not buying it outright. Rather, you’re renting that name for a specified period of time. Most registrars (Network Solutions, GoDaddy, Register.com, etc.) allow you to secure a name for anywhere from 12 months to 99 years. If you allow your registration to lapse, however, the domain name becomes available for purchase again and is open to the public for anyone to acquire. Bear in mind that there are actually companies that profit handsomely from business owners who neglect their domain registrations. They monitor domains that are nearing expiration, taking ownership of them the moment they become available. If you have the misfortune of having your domain acquired by one of these companies, usually you can negotiate having ownership transferred back to you, but it will cost you dearly. Unfortunately, while this is a shady practice, it is not illegal. If you allow your domain name to expire, it is fair game for anyone to register it – including these types of companies. Before your domain name expires, your registrar will likely send you many notices prompting you to renew. I start getting domain name renewal notices six months or more before the scheduled expiration date, and as that date gets closer, the notices start coming more and more frequently. Still, despite this barrage of email notifications, there are still many companies that are unaware that their expiration date is approaching, and they either lose their domain name altogether or are forced to pay a king’s ransom to get it back. Often when this situation occurs, it is because the person who initially completed the registration process for the domain name is no longer with the company, and therefore the email address they used to register the name is no longer valid, so the multitude of email notices go unreceived. The company innocently thinks they are protected until one day they stop receiving emails (yes, your email is tied into your domain name), or a customer mentions that they tried to go to the site, and it was simply gone. Even though there is a grace period after a domain has lapsed that allows you to reclaim your ownership before it becomes open to the public, the lapse isn’t always discovered in time to take advantage of this safety net. To prevent this, it is critically important to keep the contact information for your domain registration up to date. Either contact your registrar directly or speak with your web team to make sure you know when each of the domain names you own needs to be renewed, and double-check to ensure that the contact information for your account is valid.

(F)ortify your forms.

Web forms are a staple of doing business online. In fact, rare is the site that doesn’t include a form of some sort that allows the user to input information to be transmitted to the site’s owner, whether its purpose is to make a contact inquiry, sign up for a mailing list, complete a purchase, apply for employment, etc. As anyone who has a form on their site can attest, however, not all submissions received via these forms are legitimate. This is called robot spam, which is created by spammers who write programs that send out spambots to indiscriminately fill out any and all different types of forms on the Web, looking for entryways to expose a site’s security vulnerabilities (see SQL injections above). If you find your inbox filling up with indecipherable junk submissions, it’s these bots who are to blame. To combat these spambots, you can install a CAPTCHA system on your form, which generates an image with a random combination of numbers and letters that the user must enter in order to submit the form. The spambots can't interpret these CAPTCHA images, so therefore they can’t complete the process of sending the form. While there is legitimate debate as to whether or not CAPTCHA is the most effective way to prevent bogus submissions, it still remains the most popular solution for web form security. However, the reason it’s important to block these bots goes beyond eliminating the annoyance of a cluttered inbox. A few months ago, my company decided to remove the CAPTCHA requirement from our contact form. We knew we would get a flood of spam submissions, but we decided we could deal with a little extra hassle on our end in exchange for reducing the inconvenience to legitimate users of having to interpret those squiggly letters in order to simply get in touch with us. As expected, the amount of spam we received increased dramatically, but it was still manageable. Then, all of a sudden, we stopped receiving any submissions at all. We also began seeing some of our emails to other people bounce back. What we discovered was that our web domain (which is where our emails originate from) had been blacklisted as spam by Microsoft (which is what powers our email platform). Apparently, all the bogus submissions from our website (which resides on our domain) to our email caused Microsoft to identify us as spammers. This is because our form submissions came from an email address associated with our own domain name (many web forms are configured this way). Obviously, we were not the ones generating the spam, but this strange series of coincidences conspired to get us blacklisted! Fortunately, it was an easy process to get our domain removed from the blacklist, and we quickly re-installed the CAPTCHA system on our contact form, but we certainly learned an important lesson about security and spambots along the way. If you allow those bogus entries to make it through, there is a risk that you, too, could find yourself blacklisted and unable to send email to some of your most important contacts.

Seize the day and stay safe.

Since summer is vacation season for many of us, business tends to slow down slightly as our clients and colleagues enjoy much-deserved time off. That makes this the perfect time to seize the opportunity to apply these S-P-F practices today to ensure that your online presence is well protected all year long.