Customer loyalty programs are extremely effective in winning over loyal customers and creating meaningful relationships, but it is not a set-and-forget strategy. Simply setting up a loyalty program is not enough.
Customers today are skeptical about anything that doesn’t offer them value and with many brands leveraging the customer loyalty program marketing model, convincing customers is harder than ever. Hence you need to encourage customers to join your loyalty program for it to really be successful and realize its full potential.
To help you understand how to promote your customer loyalty program we listed all the different ways you can go about it, both on your website as well as through other channels.
Let’s dive in!
How to promote your loyalty program on your website?
One of the most obvious places to start promoting your loyalty program is your website itself. There are a few different ways in which you can promote your customer loyalty program from your business website. Let’s look at them in detail.
Homepage banner or slider
One of the best and most obvious places to promote your customer loyalty program is on your store website’s homepage itself. You can do this by displaying a banner or slide on your homepage.
These banners and sliders should be catchy, prominent and capable of grabbing visitors’ attention instantly to inform them about your customer loyalty program and the benefits of joining it. It is also important that you have gripping visuals as well as a clever, clear and convincing Call to Action button, encouraging customers to sign up for the loyalty program.
Dedicated landing page
Besides promoting it on your homepage, have a dedicated landing page for your customer loyalty program.
A dedicated loyalty program landing page will ideally contain all the important information related to the loyalty program. This way, customers will have a clearer understanding of the benefits of the loyalty program, how the program works and how they sign up for it.
Pop-up or modal
Another effective way to promote your loyalty program on your homepage is by greeting them with a pop-up or modal when they land on your website.
Your pop-ups can be used to provide customers with a peek into the benefits of the loyalty program. You can prompt customers to either directly sign up for the program or get to know more about how the program works.
Header or footer bar
Across all your website pages add a persistent and compelling header or footer that can effectively promote your loyalty program all the time on the website.
By doing this, you ensure that information on the loyalty program is always there for all customers to view while they navigate through your website.
Checkout process
Customers who are already buying from you are more likely to sign up for your loyalty program for the additional benefits. To leverage this, prompt non-members to sign up for your loyalty program during the checkout process.
You can even offer them a chance to earn rewards and discounts on their current as well as future purchases by signing up right away. Check out the below loyalty program marketing example.
Floating Widget
Another way to promote your loyalty program is to have a loyalty program widget appearing across all the website pages. These floating widgets can appear on the web pages when the customer is browsing, highlighting all the benefits of the program.
How to promote your loyalty program on other channels?
Other than through your website, you have various ways to promote your brand loyalty programs and get more people to join.
You can utilize the marketing channels that you are already present, set up referral programs, partner with other brands, or even use a mobile app to do so. Here are some of the most effective ways to promote your customer loyalty program:
Email marketing
One of the most traditional but highly effective and relevant ways to promote your loyalty program is through email marketing. Share targeted email campaigns with your existing customers who are yet to join your loyalty program.
Email platform allows you to share personalized messages, exclusive discounts, offers and more, which can be the right nudge needed to convince customers to enrol and participate in your loyalty program.
SMS marketing
Similar to email marketing SMS can also be an effective communication platform to promote your loyalty program. SMS has a very high open rate of 98% and hence your loyalty program promotion has a higher chance of being signed up for by customers, with an SMS campaign.
You can also personalize your SMS campaigns, provide additional perks and offer incentives for customers who are newly signing up for your loyalty program.
WhatsApp marketing
WhatsApp being an extremely popular channel for business communication, offers an easy way to promote your loyalty program to a wide audience. Use the platform to send personalized bulk promotions urging customers to join your loyalty program.
You can further enhance the message and make it even more compelling by incorporating rich media and detailed information on the loyalty benefits your program has in store.
Social media
Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X) and LinkedIn are all great channels to promote your loyalty rewards program. Social media doesn’t limit you to a particular contact list or subscribers list whose consent you need to share promotions, as you will be posting publicly.
You can share engaging posts related to the rewards program, post stories and promote user-generated content, all of which can help attract more customers to sign up for your loyalty program.
Paid advertisements
There are countless paid digital advertising channels and services like Facebook ads, Google Ads, Instagram Ads etc. that you could use to get your loyalty program’s popularity up. By paying for such a service you can easily reach a broader audience and win over more members.
Keep in mind that it’s better for your advertisements to target specific demographics and interests, as this can help achieve the best results.
In-store promotions
Your brick-and-mortar store can also be a great place to promote your customer loyalty program. This is a more hands-on approach compared to the rest and it can work at different levels.
You can use methods such as in-store signage, displays, POS materials or handout brochures about the rewards program to those who visit your physical store. You can also train your staff to encourage customers to sign up for the loyalty program and inform them about the benefits of doing so.
Mobile app promotions
Many businesses have dedicated mobile apps that are used for everything from purchasing to customer support. If your brand has a mobile app, it is only practical to use it to promote your loyalty program there.
You can do so using in-app banners, messages, push notifications or even a dedicated section for the loyalty program. With a mobile app, you can make processes such as sign-up, reward redemption and loyalty program tracking much easier for your customers. Starbucks’s mobile app is a very good example of this.
Print materials
You don’t necessarily have to stick to the digital medium to promote your loyalty program. You can do the same using print materials like brochures, flyers and direct mail sent to both existing as well as potential customers.
You can include unique URLs or QR codes that can lead customers directly to your customer loyalty program sign-up page.
Referral programs
Referral programs are a go-to loyalty rewards program promotional strategy, and for good reason. Loyalty programs are designed to build brand loyalty and promote brand advocacy, and it is only natural to use referral programs to further reach more customers by rewarding these brand advocates.
Urge existing customers to refer your loyalty program to their peers so as to gain more members. Word-of-mouth marketing is generally a very impactful marketing method and can do wonders when it comes to attracting new loyalty program members and improving program participation. Dropbox’s referral program is a great example of this.
Partnerships and cross-promotion
Join hands with other brands and organizations to cross-promote the loyalty programs of both businesses. This solidarity between businesses not only is a great way to build customer interest but also gives you access to a whole new audience that the partnering business has garnered over its course.
This allows you to expand your reach to a whole new section of customers while appealing to customers who might not have been aware of your programs. You can further gamify and apply rewards-based strategies to make your cross-promotion efforts more exciting to customers.
Events and sponsorships
Events have a way of creating talk and anticipation that positively contribute to any brand’s popularity. This is why sponsoring relevant events or hosting your own events can be a highly effective tactic to promote your customer loyalty program.
These events are not only extremely impactful but can be used to engage with customers, collect sign-ups and attract more members. To sweeten the deal, you can even offer exclusive deals and discounts to attendees as well. Take a look at this customer loyalty program marketing example from ECS Coffee:
Content marketing
Content marketing has been a tried, tested and proven way for brands to market products and services for quite a while now. You can promote your customer loyalty program using the same method to convince your audience about its benefits.
You can create effective, engaging and informative content about your loyalty program in varying formats such as videos, blog posts, podcasts, eBooks etc. The content can be further shared through email, social media, store website etc. to reach more customers and attract more loyalty program members.
Customer support and communication
Your customer service agents can also promote your loyalty program by informing customers about it. The agents, or chatbots, can provide customers with all the information relating to the program and provide assistance if the customers have any queries on topics such as enrolling in the program, moving up the tiers, earning points or redeeming rewards.
Conclusion
For your loyalty program to achieve the goals you have defined for it, you need to know how to promote your customer loyalty program by utilizing all the means you have at hand.
The market is highly competitive and capturing customer attention has become much more difficult than before. Hence it is important that you keep promoting your loyalty programs aggressively in order to get more customers to join, and increase your loyalty program engagement rate. And this becomes significantly easier if you use a loyalty platform like Flits.
Set up an engaging, effective and high-converting customer loyalty program with Flits.
