Incorporating some gamification into marketing strategies has been popular since 2010, but there are still many businesses who are missing this opportunity to build brand affinity. In this blog we’ll look at how you can build and manage some simple customer loyalty programmes for your customers.
Gamification takes traditional loyalty programs and makes them more interactive for customers, helping to give them more of an incentive to continue shopping with you rather than the traditional membership style. These differences include lifetime spend achievements, membership levels based on points or ‘badges’ for completing certain tasks or length of membership.
Lifetime Spend
Loyalty programs based on lifetime spend are the most transparent form of loyalty. Customers understand that you want to reward them for coming back and they know they’re incentivised to stay loyal to your company.
You can display customers points status on your website once they’re logged in and remind them in emails by having their status and points totals displayed. Having goals like levels or free products at certain spend points are a great way to incentivise spend and help customers increase their spends per transaction.
Points Systems
Points systems are also beneficial as it allows you to incentivise certain products to customers to help them use brands which may have higher margins or other bonuses for your business. For example, incentivising your branded products with double points in a loyalty system helps people try your product over brands they’re loyal to and rewards them for it.
Points also allow you to segment your rewards systems. For example, you may want different points goals in different product categories to ensure your rewards system is viable.
Tiered Statuses
The most common use of tiered statuses is with airlines. Depending on the type and number of flights you take a year you can move up or down through tiers which give you different benefits. For airlines it’s usually things like lounge access or priority check-in.
In a retail context these tiers usually give you certain levels of incentives such as being invited to pre-sale pricing or product evenings. You can also incorporate things like fixed discounts on non-sale products or free products.
Unlocking Achievements
This is a less used system that gives customers incentives based on more than just spend. Usually something that a larger chain will implement, you can have things like badges which are awarded to customers for things like visiting multiple locations, making online and offline purchases or other actions that are personal to your brand.
This technique plays towards people’s desire for public status. Giving people the opportunity to share their achievements on social media and challenge their friends helps create an engaged audience as well as promotes friendly competition among your customers.
What are some of the best rewards systems you’ve seen or joined? Let us know in the comments!