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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Writer’s Block Be Gone! 9 Sources to Mine for Endless Blogging Ideas

“Content is king!” is the chief mantra of today’s marketing. And in the king’s service, many a business has begun blogging with fervor, only to have those efforts languish a few weeks or months later as the novelty wears off before the long-term benefits kick in. The challenge facing any business blogger is not only to produce top-quality content that people will love and share but also to establish a regular rhythm of publishing new content over time in order to build a following and develop a community around the brand. Perhaps you’re a sole proprietor – and therefore a solo blogger – juggling too many responsibilities and too little time. Or maybe you’ve been handed the torch of managing your company’s blog, and you have no clue where to begin. Perhaps you’ve been blogging for your company for some time now and are starting to feel the well of inspiration running dry. Wherever you currently stand on the blogging spectrum, don’t give up. Great content ideas are all around you; you just have to know where to look to find them.

Here are nine reliable sources you can always turn to whenever you need inspiration for that next great post:

1. Your company documents

In the course of doing business, your company cranks out tons of documents. While many of these might seem boring or commonplace, there are seeds of inspiration to be found if you look hard enough. Has someone from your company recently given a presentation at a conference or hosted a webinar? Find a way to mold the content into article form, and embed a video or audio recording (if available) for those who’d prefer to watch or listen rather than read. Has your company published an ebook or whitepaper? You’re in luck! Take that content and break it down into bite-sized snippets for near-ready-made posts. Even the most mundane documents can yield surprising gems. Your company’s annual report, for example, probably highlights the past year’s major accomplishments. Seek out the individuals responsible and interview them about the process of reaching those milestones. Ask them to share lessons learned along the way and advice that would be helpful to others (without giving away any trade secrets, of course). Transcribe your sessions and – just like that – you can check another blog post off your list.

2. Your coworkers

Every person within your organization brings a unique set of skills, experience, interests and expertise to the table. Tap into that brain trust to keep your blog humming with an interesting and diverse array of content. Recruit your coworkers to write posts inspired by their own particular strengths and areas of expertise. Different minds think differently, so you’ll likely discover that they’ll explore ideas that might never have occurred to you. Plus – as a bonus – having many voices and perspectives represented on your company’s blog will only make it that much more useful and appealing to readers.

3. Your customers

If you’re doing your job right, your customers are your blog’s readers. But they can also be an invaluable source of its content as well. After all, who’s better qualified to share creative and practical ideas for how your products or services can be used to make someone’s life (or business) better, easier, richer or more efficient? For example, Evernote regularly features customer interviews on its corporate blog as a way to tout the limitless possibilities its suite of apps offers for personal organization and productivity. Within each post, Evernote includes screen shots from the featured customer to demonstrate the software in action. The firm has even taken this approach one giant leap further, recruiting their best customers as brand ambassadors in areas relative to their particular expertise. For example, they’ve instituted a food blogger as their Home Cooking Ambassador, a workout guru as their Fitness Ambassador and a personal tech expert as their Parenting Ambassador.

4. Studies, surveys and polls

If there’s one thing we’ll never be lacking in today’s information age, it’s data. Every day, new research is being published on any number of topics. Find a recent study that’s relevant to your audience and digest what the results mean for them in practical terms. Do the numbers indicate a shift in trends? If so, how should your readers adapt their approach to stay ahead of the curve? Does the research suggest that the status quo is here to stay? If so, how can your readers respond to make the most of a proven winner?

5. News headlines and pop culture trends

A sure way to spice up any blog post is to find a tie-in to current news headlines and pop culture trends. The trick is to take two seemingly unrelated concepts – such as comedian Louis C.K. and customer service – and create an analogy that brings them together in a way that offers a fresh perspective on a topic that’s been covered countless times before. Whether it’s The Amazing Spider-Man or the Olympics, Tom Cruise or the presidential election, by linking subject matter that may seem either unfamiliar or unoriginal to something very familiar and timely, suddenly your topic – no matter what it is – becomes much more relatable and of the moment to your reader.

6. The calendar

Life – and business even more so – is cyclical. With every year comes tax season, summer vacation, the holiday rush and the lull that follows, a new year and new budgets...you get the idea. Think critically about what types of challenges each season brings for your readers, and write timely posts centered around useful tips and advice to help them through.

7. Your own blog

Just because you’ve written about a certain topic before doesn’t mean it’s off the table now. There’s always more to say or a different angle to explore. Perhaps the original was an entry-level, 101-style post. Now it’s time to delve deeper to help those readers who’ve mastered the basics and are ready to learn more. Perhaps enough time has passed since the previous post that new research has been released on the topic, or industry trends have shifted in a different direction. Revisit the topic and bring your readers up to speed on the latest developments.

8. Other blogs

You never have enough time in the day. Guess what? Neither do your readers. Sometimes the best way to solve both of these problems is not to create new content but to curate the great content that already exists. What does that mean? It means aggregating the best, most useful posts that you’ve found in your travels across the Web into a single post (giving due credit to the original sources, of course). This type of article can be organized either around a central theme (e.g. “Pinterest: 10 Articles to Help You Get Started”) or by timeframe (e.g., a “Week in Review” round-up of your favorite articles from the past seven days). Either way, you’ve done your readers a great service by sparing them the time to cull through all the riffraff to get to the good stuff, and you’ve published another great post that required minimal time and effort to compose.

9. You

We began with one mantra, so let’s finish with another: “Write what you know.” The best source of blogging inspiration will always be your own life experience. Readers engage more with true-to-life stories of obstacles overcome or goals achieved. Generally, if something triggers an emotional response from you – whether it’s excitement, anxiety, frustration or curiosity – you’re likely not the only one who’s encountered this situation or felt this way, which means it’s worth considering how to spin the event into a relevant article for your company’s blog. Also, you can harness personal challenges to put yourself in the shoes of your readers. For example, this article was inspired by my own strategizing process for a new company blog – how would I keep the content flowing when the obvious ran out? Keep in mind, too, that there are certain basic building blocks of life and of business that are universal. Every person who owns a business, for example, has to figure out how to win new customers, what they can do to grow their market share, the best way to manage employees and company resources, etc. If your target readers are business owners and entrepreneurs, any wisdom you have to offer in these areas based on your own personal experience will be appreciated. And don’t be afraid to share your failures as well as your successes; both offer equally valuable lessons for your readers. To make the most of life’s inspirational moments, practice actively paying attention to the events of your day-to-day routines. Keep a running log of content ideas – whether it’s in a physical notebook or just a simple text file that lives on your desktop. As you go through your day, write down every minor annoyance and small victory. Doing so will help train your mind to be aware, and soon you’ll discover that you’re finding blogging inspiration in even the most unexpected places.

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

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

Start with WHOIS

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

Provide some context with web selfies

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

New or used, check for backlinks

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

Anchor Text

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

Referring Domains

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

Follow-to-nofollow ratio

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

Check for Google penalty indicators

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

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

From the WaybackMachine:

• Note any redesigns or periods of maintenance

From Moz:

• Note dates of major Google algorithm changes

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

Is the website safe?

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

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