It’s easy to say customer loyalty, but what is the right way to go? Well, there are many alternatives today, and it can be complicated to identify the most suitable solution.
The fact that so many customer loyalty programs and tools on offer risks confuses you, so, in this article, we have collected the most popular strategies on the market, some traditional and some more innovative.
Examples of customer loyalty: bonus gifts and discount coupons
Let’s start with two tools that, while considered traditional, are still highly relevant today: gift bonuses and discount coupons.
Gift bonuses
Let’s start with gift bonuses. To understand how they work, here is a quick example. Your friend just got married, and you want to give him something for the new house. However, you may not know their preferences, or you may not know what the style of choice is among the four household walls. So you might buy a product that does not reflect your friend’s needs or requirements. Result? Wasted money and dissatisfied friend.
You can brilliantly solve the problem with a gift bonus, to be given directly to your friend in paper or digital form. This solution generally takes the customer out of the embarrassment of giving a gift to someone that you do not know very well.
Discount coupons
Let’s focus now on discount coupons, which are excellent tools for customer loyalty since the issuing retailer entitles the customer to access a discount during a specific period. Unfortunately, many retailers generally apply discount coupons in “dead” periods, where purchases are few, so there is a need to incentivize them with “ad hoc” solutions.
In a severe crisis, consumers are much less “loyal” to brands than before. Therefore, they do not mind switching to a competitor brand if product prices are lower.
Customers today follow convenience, so they always aim for maximum savings without sacrificing quality. Therefore, the discount coupon is the ideal solution for physical stores and e-Commerce that intend to build customer loyalty with practical techniques.
Discount coupons are beneficial for:
Low-demand items. Do you have a valuable product that costs a lot, and not everyone can afford it? By applying discount coupons, you will entice customers to buy, taking advantage of the excellent value for money, thus reducing inventories and avoiding the risk of unsold items, which results in substantial losses;
Out-of-season items. Coupons are also beneficial for products whose seasonality means a stock of unsold products at the end of the period. This happens not only in the grocery sector but also in other sectors such as the fashion industry. In this case, a decision is made to sacrifice some margin on the product to be able to exhaust all the inventories, sometimes even having a negative margin on the product.
Less profitable periods. As already anticipated, it is a good idea to launch discount coupons during periods when sales are struggling to rise. But, again, the decision is made to sacrifice product marginality in favor of higher sales volumes.
This tool does not lead to losses; it incentivizes the customer to buy in the store by increasing the loyalty rate and reducing stock. In addition, the coupon is also a great way to relaunch and reposition a product that has lost some appeal and visibility.
How to build online customer loyalty with a giveaway
Are you looking for a modern, fresh loyalty tool that appeals to a younger audience? Then the giveaway is the ideal solution for you.
Giveaway means “to give away,” although compared to gift certificates, it has a different meaning in the context of customer loyalty. Therefore, it would be correct to associate the term with the sweepstakes concept.
In essence, the giveaway is sweepstakes where participants can win the ultimate prize or prizes. An increasingly popular tool in inbound marketing, it aims to attract customers naturally. It is the customer who moves to the company, and not vice versa.
Giveaways have been around for a few years and initially developed among bloggers and YouTubers in the United States who started offering branded gadgets to increase followers’ engagement.
Engagement is the key word closely related to the giveaway, whose main task is to arouse followers’ interest to generate viral enthusiasm about the initiative. In addition, it benefits brand awareness, which sees its appeal and visibility increase.
Users must perform a few simple actions to participate by sharing the contest, commenting on a post, tagging a friend, or following the page.
People need to be able to trust, especially if we deal with online payment methods on an e-Commerce, gaming platform, or online booking site.
Also, online gambling platforms are mobilizing by offering various attractive bonuses for any game. For example, if you live in India and you love blackjack, there are many platforms where you can play online blackjack in India. They offer great welcome bonuses specific to each game, in this case, blackjack. Finally, these platforms scrutinize the bonus terms and conditions to ensure you get a fair deal.
The welcome bonuses are easy to claim, risk-free, and most importantly, they allow you to try out a new online casino to let you know if it is right for you and if you can trust it.
So you will understand that this is a great way to retain new players, who usually do not directly trust investing money in these platforms.
Conclusions
Building customer loyalty means preventing your clients from “cheating” you with other competitors because they can become your “ambassadors.” A user who has a happy experience with a brand, regardless of whether it is a purchase or a loyalty program, is likely to speak well of that brand both online and offline, increasing its authority and appeal.
