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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3 Simple Rules for Navigation That Will Boost Your Website's Performance

At the outset of every new website design project, I ask clients to list a few adjectives that would describe their ideal new site. Inevitably, “easy to use” is almost always at the top of the list. Naturally, no one wants their website to be difficult to use. After all, in today’s era of unlimited choice, a great user experience is an absolute necessity. You work too hard to attract visitors and prospects to your website only to drive them away because that site’s interface presents them with frustrations and challenges. In that vein, the ease with which visitors can navigate through your website and its content will have a significant impact on the success of your site. If users can’t quickly identify how to accomplish their goals – whether it’s obtaining more information or making a purchase – they are likely to make a quick exit, taking their business with them. It’s up to your site’s navigational structure to do the heavy lifting in supporting their objectives and answering their questions, guiding them through the site to find what they need and complete the actions appropriate to those needs. This could be purchasing an item, filling out a membership or information request form, or simply finding your phone number so they can call you and open the lines of communication with your business. Regardless of your site’s “win,” an intuitive navigation structure is what will lead them there, so make sure your website follows these three Cs of good navigation in order to ensure that you make the most of every opportunity to capture and convert new customers.

1. Be concise.

In his book The Laws of Simplicity, renowned designer and current President of the Rhode Island School of Design John Maeda offers the following advice as part of his First Law of Simplicity: “The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.” When weighing various options, the fewer choices that are available, the easier the decision process becomes. Give me four items to choose from, and I will be able to select one much more quickly than if you present me with eight. The same principle holds true for website navigation. Presenting your audience with fewer choices will allow them to more easily identify the one that pertains to their specific needs. Considering how impatient typical website visitors are, this can have a very positive impact on your site’s user experience. Look again at John Maeda’s quote, and you will notice that he is not an advocate for arbitrary editing but rather “thoughtful reduction.” Paring down the elements of your website’s primary navigation structure from nine or 10 choices down to four or five is great, but you need to be strategic in how you do it. Start by looking at the pages outlined in your sitemap and deciding how they can be categorized or grouped together in order to reduce the number of topline options. One of my favorite examples of this practice is the common testimonials page. Businesses love to include a testimonials page on their websites, but based on traffic numbers, these are typically among the least visited pages on any site. Traffic numbers are the ultimate arbiters of value and importance. If your visitors aren’t accessing certain content, then that content shouldn’t be given the same prominence as those pages that they actively seek out and use. In the case of testimonials, removing that link from your primary navigation and establishing it as a subpage under your “Our Company” or “About Us” section works very well. The same applies to any pages that you have that are dedicated to company history, management team profiles, staff bios, your company’s mission statement and the like. While these items are valid information for someone who’s really digging in to vet your qualifications, the majority of your visitors will never look at them, so let them take a back seat to the content that’s really going to seal the deal. Of course, this is where the “thoughtful reduction” principle comes into play. While each of the examples above could be grouped together, that doesn’t mean it is the right choice for your site. The goal is to examine your sitemap with a critical eye and decide which elements are truly important to your audience, which ones are secondary, and how you can treat them accordingly to provide as few choices as possible within your site’s primary navigation.

2. Be clear.

Everyone wants their website to be unique. Sometimes, this leads to the temptation to try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the organization and presentation of its navigational structure, whether that’s by replacing links with icons or coming up with clever names for major content areas. While this may sound like a great idea that will help set your site apart from your competitors’, it can easily backfire. Visitors want to make quick, logical choices as they navigate through your website, which means that the options presented to them need not only to be concise but also to be clear. The navigation on your website needs to conform to the expected conventions that your visitors instinctively know and recognize. This does not mean that your primary navigation should be designed to look like large, beveled buttons with faux‐3D effects. That treatment may make for an obvious “button,” but it is also not in keeping with the aesthetic of today’s Web. On the other hand, you don’t want buttons or links that are so subtle with so little contrast that they fade into the design to the point of becoming invisible. There is a happy medium to be achieved where all links can be obvious and attractive at the same time. Labels are also an important part of clear navigation. Having a navigation link labeled “About Our Company” directly conveys to users what they can expect to find on that page. Trying to be creative and instead name that link “Unlock the Magic” is anything but clear and will confuse and frustrate visitors who simply want to find more background information about your company. That’s not to say that exploring interesting and innovative avenues in the design of your website is always a bad thing. It can certainly help differentiate your site from others and make for a memorable experience. Just make sure that you are not sacrificing clarity for creativity and confusing the user experience in the process.

3. Be consistent.

The final rule of website navigation is consistency. If you’ve designed a clear, concise navigational structure that your visitors can quickly and easily understand and use, then it’s important to maintain that structure throughout the rest of your site. Your website is not a video game, where each level provides new challenges that are the purpose of the game itself. Your users do not wish to relearn how to use your site at every step along the way. They are there solely to obtain information or complete an action, and anything that gets in the way of their mission is reason enough for them to abandon your site. Consistency is about more than just your primary navigation, however. The way that submenus are presented on the interior pages of your site should remain the same from section to section as well, and the same holds true for treatment of text links or buttons. If you use a certain color for text links, consider using that same color for buttons. Users will quickly learn which color – red, for instance – denotes a clickable area, which will help them to continue moving through your site quickly and intuitively rather than being bogged down by simply trying to locate the pathways to their desired destination.

How does your site measure up?

While there are many factors that ultimately contribute to your website’s performance, a well‐designed navigational structure goes a long way toward ushering your visitors from point A (your home page) to point B (the point of conversion, whether that’s placing an order, sending you an email or picking up the phone to initiate conversation). Look at your site and evaluate its navigation based on the principles covered in this article.

1. Is there anything you can do to make your navigational structure more concise through thoughtful reduction?
2. Are there any changes you can make to make your navigation clearer to your audience?
3. Are you consistent throughout your entire site with the way navigation is designed and presented?

Even if you are not ready to undertake a major site overhaul, you can still refine and tweak your existing site to improve its navigation and realize the rewards of presenting a better user experience to visitors that have found your website and are looking to do business with you.

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The Unsexy Side of Marketing

These days, everyone wants to build an app. Everyone is publishing their own e-book. Everyone is pinning their hearts out on Pinterest. They all want to be first on the latest, greatest marketing bandwagon with the hottest buzz.

And while these are all valid and effective tactics, that’s no reason to abandon the proven standbys. Sometimes the less glamorous road is the most efficient and effective pathway to reach and connect with your particular target audience.

Let’s take a look at a few of these tried-and-true methods and how you can put them to work to help you reach your business growth goals:

Blogging

A company blog is an excellent way to engage your customers on a personal level and to provide some very relevant information to your target audience. Your target audience will be much more likely to find you if you are writing about topics that interest them. Just be sure to follow these pointers:

• Blog about topics that interest your target audience. You could provide how-to articles, inspirational round-ups, updates of your company, a contest or event you are hosting, etc.
• Blog with consistency. Each post can and should be varied, but they should always reflect the values of the company.
• The blog should be personal and authentic. If it achieves both of these, then the general public and (most importantly) customers will trust your company.
• Always link within the content of each post to one other post on your site. But only do this if it fits within the context of the article. Remember, you always have the "Related Articles" section at the end in which you can point readers to more. A link within your content, however, weighs a bit heavier as far as SEO is concerned.
• Do not forget an RSS feed and newsletter sign-up form. Make these easy to find and any forms short with as little information required as possible.

Another way to use blogging is to write for other blogs that are related to your company but that are not competitors. For instance, a landscaping business could submit guest posts to "green" blogs, home and garden blogs, other landscaping blogs that are not affiliated with another landscaping company, and any other blog that has readers within your target audience description. You will just want to make sure that blogs allow you to place a keyword phrase embedded with your link either in the content of the article or in the "About the Author" section. Not only does guest blogging build up your company as an expert in your field, but it also increases your page rank on search engines.

Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter aren't the new kids on the block they used to be, but fact is, most of your customers probably still use them day in and day out.

Keep posting on these networks regularly, but make sure that updates are written on an individual basis. Avoiding mass updates will give the perception that your company is relatable and values individuals.

Your updates can be your latest blog post, a countdown to a company event, discounts or coupons, a drawing or contest for a drawing. Do not update about how you are feeling today, rants on the latest political news, your opinion of competitors, or anything else that could annoy or distract your customers from their relationship with your company. Before posting an update, ask yourself if this is something that you as a customer would want to see from a company you love.

Online directories

Add yourself to as many applicable online directories as possible. Online directories increase your popularity on search engines. This means that it is more likely for you to be discovered through general search entries.

Google Maps is not generally considered a directory, but it may be the most important place to get your company listed. If you have a “headquarters,” post its location on Google Maps. Mark it as headquarters. Then, if there are satellite sites, include those as well.

Direct mail marketing

Direct mail does not necessarily mean via the postal service. Direct mail marketing can also mean email. These emails should be as personal as possible, so consider using customers' names in the subject and throughout the content of the email.

For postal mailers, include a flyer or use postcards. Both print mail and emails can contain a mixture of new developments in the company, things to be looking forward to, promotions and coupons, and any other sort of relational news. Try to avoid including too many statistical reports or numbers. These turn people off, and they will promptly throw away your letter or delete your email.

Keep direct mailers short and simple. Here are a few points to consider when planning for a direct mail marketing campaign:

• Postcards are still incredibly effective so long as they’re clean, unique, and have memorable graphics, along with the other important pieces of information below.
• Include just a snatch of information, enough to make them curious.
• Tell them what you want them to do with a strong, actionable call to action (i.e. buttons that say Purchase, phrases such as "Visit our website or scan our QR code to find out more").
• Provide irresistible incentives, such as limited time offers for free items with a purchase, a discount, or a chance to win a drawing for a prize.
• Include a URL, Twitter name, QR code, purchase button, or another source for them to find out more information.
• Be sure that you cater to your recipients. Consider age, race, ethnicity, gender, sex, and religious orientation.

Yellow Pages

Both online and off, the yellow pages is a valuable marketing avenue. If your business relies on both local and online customers, purchase ad space in both your local yellow pages as well as for the online yellow pages. This will not only improve your chances of being found when prospects complete an online search but also when they are looking through the local phone book for businesses who offer your services or products. Just be sure that your ad is large enough to be seen next to other marketing giants in your industry. Also, be sure to advertise yourself as unique. What niche services do you offer that your competitors do not? Are you family owned and operated? Do you give individualized attention to each customer? Creating a unique angle on your ad will make you stand out to your target audience.

Remember that while adapting to new ideas and technologies is essential, it doesn’t necessarily render the old methods invalid. Your job is to find the right combination to reach and resonate with your target market so that you can build your own community of fans and followers. No matter how they come into your circle, their loyalty and their advocacy of your brand is a result that will stand the test of time.

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