Digital Incentives: 13 Top Tips to Reward Your Loyal Customers
By Matthew Richardson on April 18th, 2017
Whether you run an eCommerce business online or a brick-and-mortar store, offering digital rewards to your loyal customers is a must to keep them coming back. From digital entertainment to eGift Cards, digital rewards allow you to get creative and tailor benefits that really suit your customers. In addition, they are cost effective, can be delivered quickly, and can’t be casually misplaced by the recipient.
Not only will a clever digital rewards program help you keep existing customers, a well-marketed campaign will help attract new customers too. With so many digital rewards programs to choose from, it’s important to tailor a program to suit your business and your customers.
Here are some of the different digital rewards programs on offer and our top 13 tips to make the most out of digital incentives.
Types of digital rewards
Some of the most common digital rewards include:
- Music downloads, digital movie rentals and eBooks
- Free shipping or free access to high-value content
- eGift Cards for major retailers, supermarkets, restaurants and many more
- Digital movie tickets.
Benefits of digital rewards
Digital rewards programs offer many benefits for your business, here are just a few:
- Maximise your return on investment
- Boost sales and revenue for your business
- Create customer loyalty
- Increase brand engagement and awareness
- Fast gratification for your customers
- Create positive word of mouth, which helps attract new customers
- Build stronger, long-term relationships with your customers
- Easy to implement with low distribution costs
- Allows you to offer products at a fraction of their perceived value
- Helps incentivise customers to complete a task, such as entering a competition or making a donation
- Gain insight into customer preferences and purchasing patterns.
Tips for rewarding loyal customers
Here are our top 13 tips to create an online rewards program that works:
- Choose digital rewards that are useful and relevant to your customers. Giving personalised rewards based on a customer’s previous purchases is a sure-fire way to make them feel appreciated.
2. Send digital rewards via email for quick delivery and instant redemption.
3. Where possible, your digital rewards should also be redeemable on mobile devices.
4. Make sure they are clearly marked, easy-to-understand and easy-to-access from anywhere – including at home or on the road.
5. Giving your customers a reward after they’ve made a purchase shows your appreciation for their business and rewards them for spending with you.
6. Rewards based on quantity of purchase are a great way to encourage more spending. For example, $5 cashback when you spend $50 or more.
7. Incorporate digital rewards into your social media campaign to reward those customers that follow your brand’s social pages. Rewarding social media interaction – such as sharing and liking – will get them talking about your business and expand your social media presence.
8. Make the most of the holidays by sending holiday-specific deals – on Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, for example. Emailing your customers on their birthday with a special offer is an effective way to make them feel appreciated.
9. Use digital rewards when responding to customer complaints or requests. This is an effective way to appease cranky customers while encouraging brand loyalty.
10. An exclusive offer with a trusted retail brand like Dymocks or JB Hi-Fi will generate trust in your brand. Giving the customer double points when they buy from both stores or follow both pages on Instagram are examples of how you can use alliances with reputable brands to increase your sales and image.
11. Creative ways to redeem points are important too, for example gift cards, cash or in store experiences.
12. Make the most of online connectivity by rewarding customers that refer people to your business or ‘tag’ people in your social media posts. This will allow you to reach more customers with little effort on your part.
13. Finally, listen to customer feedback and monitor how your rewards programs are impacting your revenue. Sometimes it takes some trial and error to find a digital rewards program that really takes off – but when you find what works, it will have a huge impact on revenue with low distribution costs – making a serious impact on your bottom line.
Maintaining brand loyalty
Offering digital rewards to your existing customers is a great way to ensure they remain loyal to your brand, and an effective way to attract new customers and keep them. If you want to include a digital rewards program in your sales and marketing campaigns, Edge can help. We’ll work with you to develop an incentive program that not only generates maximum engagement and sales at a low cost, but keeps your customers happy and coming back for more.
Matthew Richardson
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- Digital Incentives: 13 Top Tips to Reward Your Loyal Customers - April 18, 2017
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