Gone are the days when businesses could make handsome profits and sustain their operations for a long time just by publicizing attractive offers, deals, and discounts. 

No doubt, using them, they manage to attract great hordes of customers for a brief time, sell their products at a faster pace, and clear out excess or old stock. But the approach won’t be effective in the long run and definitely not in today’s era.

At present, businesses need to think beyond offers and discounts as well as focus more on keeping their existing customers loyal by using brand loyalty, channel loyalty, and influencer loyalty programs.

That’s because the cost of retaining an existing customer is five to seven times less expensive than the cost of attracting a new prospect.

 Moreover, there is no guarantee that the new customers who are lured by an enticing offer or discount will stick with the brand. After all, they came looking for a deal in the first place. It will just take a better offer from another brand to make them switch in no time.

At LoyaltyXpert, we believe that each and every business needs to adopt strategies to create lasting customer loyalty that transcends offers and discounts. 

That’s where we come in. We have designed successful loyalty programs for various businesses across industries and we can do the same for your business.

Understanding a Loyalty Program – Go Beyond Offers and Discounts

In this blog post, we have discussed how businesses can go beyond offers and discounts by building effective loyalty programs that will keep customers loyal for a lifetime. Read on to know more about it.

1. Capture mindshare to enhance loyalty lifecycle and build lifetime value 

If you search the term ‘mindshare’ on the Internet, you will get the result “customer awareness of a brand or a product.” 

This is the most crucial step for a business to ensure lasting loyalty from its customers. If you take the example of some most successful brands in the world, you will find one thing common in all of them: how they have managed to capture the attention of their target customers and create robust brand awareness. 

It is not surprising to find businesses with strong brand awareness enjoy great customer lifetime value and loyalty lifecycle. To command strong customer loyalty, you must focus on capturing your customers’ mindshare along with crafting well-designed rewards.

2. Drive product adoption

While launching a new product in the market, a business needs to focus more on getting its target customers to use its products or services. Irrespective of the magnitude of discounts and offers, a business cannot succeed in the long run without creating effective strategies for enhanced product adoption, which is the Holy Grail to lasting loyalty. 

The very first thing a business must do is build a comprehensive loyalty program that encourages customers to adopt its products or services. Businesses that have a strategic approach and take all necessary steps to get their target customers to try out their products and services are more successful than those focusing on only discounts and offers. 

For greater product adoption, a loyalty platform can be extremely useful.

3. Leverage database marketing or sophisticated market research techniques 

Successful businesses focus more on high-value customers and leave no stone unturned to make them feel special.

 Now, the question arises “How do they do it?” Well, they use special tools and techniques to study their customers and find out the ones that are extremely valuable for their business. 

You need to take a leaf from their book and leverage database marketing and other sophisticated market research techniques to find out who are your most valuable customers and target them.

4. Reward customers with customized loyalty rewards

Not all customers are equal, so how can the loyalty programs be? Standardized loyalty programs are so outdated and a one size fits all technique won’t work at all. 

With all leading businesses creating more targeted loyalty programs than ever before, it’s no longer a matter of whether or not to create tailored loyalty programs but how to create them. 

As discussed in above point, database marketing and advanced market research techniques can help you in knowing your most valuable customers personally and craft personalized rewards for them.

5. Focus on the creation of real value and consistency

When it comes to loyalty, nothing can replace the value a business provides to its customers and various stakeholders. 

All successful companies believe in creating immense real value and delivering that consistently, which turns first-time buyers into repeat customers and brand ambassadors, which enhances the business’s profitability over a period. 

If your brand and your rewards have a huge aspirational value, then a majority of your high-value customers would stick with your brand for a long time, even for a lifetime.

In closing

Previously, businesses used offers and discounts to attract more customers and drive high-volume sales. But the two attractive marketing tools are no longer sufficient to ensure customer loyalty. 

To keep customers loyal, businesses need to think beyond offers and discounts, devise new strategies, and take the help of effective loyalty programs. At LoyaltyXpert, we help all types of businesses with just that. If you want to know how we do it, contact us today.