Leveraging the Power of Custom Rewards For Loyalty Programs
- Posted on May 20, 2024 by Robert
- Reading time about 6 minutes
We all know how important a loyalty program is for business long-term success and customer loyalty. However, choosing the right custom rewards in your customer loyalty program can be difficult with so many types of reward options available in the market today. The secret is to use rewards that resonate well with your customers without hampering your budget.
Bond’s 2023 brand loyalty report found that the top driver of customer loyalty in the U.S. is the brands that make customers feel valued and important. Business owners often struggle with the never-ending pressure to make customers feel valued and increasing customer acquisition costs.
In this blog, we’ll find out how a custom-made rewards program for small businesses can help your customers feel valued and boost customer retention at lower customer acquisition costs.
Custom Reward Ideas That You Can Steal for Your Loyalty Program
We cannot deny the power of reward customization when it comes to loyalty programs. If you want to build a strong relationship with your customers, you must consider custom rewards. Customers today want personalized rewards and many are even willing to share their data for an enhanced and relevant experience.
This indicates the power of personalization in achieving greater satisfaction with a loyalty program. Before you hire a SAAS loyalty program provider, make sure that you check out the custom reward ideas that you can implement in your loyalty program to help create tailored rewards that cater to your specific audience and drive meaningful engagement.
1. Offer Experiences
One of the most effective ways to provide unique rewards is to offer exclusive experiences over products, discounts, & services. The best thing about this approach is that it is less likely to impact your product margins but helps in building customer relationships by delivering rewards that are not transactional.
2. Tailored Product Bundles
By making use of customer data, you can offer curated and personalized product bundles based on their preferences and order history. Additionally, you can make use of a well-planned loyalty program to make the offer more engaging with guaranteed point-based rewards on purchasing product bundles.
Many stores in the fashion and beauty industry are already making use of this strategy to boost engagement with product bundles.
3. Access to Limited Editions
Another way that will make your customers feel more understood and valued is to give them early access to buy new or limited edition products before it is available for the general public.
By offering early access to your top and loyal customers, you can ensure that they don’t feel disappointed in seeing their favorite products sell out quickly and have to wait for the next restock.
4. Sustainable Rewards
The next aspect that is gaining huge popularity is sustainable products. Research by Deloitte says that one out of four customers are ready to pay more for brands that commit to environmentally sustainable and ethical practices.
This shows that customers are likely to stay loyal to the brands that align with their personal values and related causes. These sustainable rewards will not only help in building stronger relationships but also increase your customers’ spending potential.
5. Gamification Based Rewards
To keep your customers engaged with your program, one way is to offer gamified rewards with challenge-based methods. By adding gamification elements to your loyalty program, your brand can increase engagement with customers.
This will also encourage customers to take part in different activities like challenges and earn rewards to unlock the next level of loyalty.
6. Tiered Custom Rewards
Offering customized rewards in the loyalty program tiers is becoming a great way to help customers unlock a wider range of personalized rewards with increasing loyalty levels. One example is AU vodka which makes use of a tiered loyalty approach and offers unique experiences in each tier.
Another brand is Greenpan, a cookware brand that offers surprise rewards to its highest-tier members. Adding this element of secrecy and exclusivity will not only make your loyalty program unique but also more effective.
7. Recognition Rewards
Another way is customer recognition and exclusive VIP treatment, which enable brands to offer custom rewards that don’t get tied up to product profit margins such as free priority delivery, premium customer support, exclusive discounts, etc.
The motive of such rewards is to recognize and reward the most valuable and loyal customers by making them feel valued and important, which helps boost relationships further.
8. Subscription Upgrade Rewards
The next thing that we will talk about is a subscription-based loyalty program, which is a form of loyalty program that offers rewards specific to customers subscribing to products.
To make it possible, you can offer subscription upgrade options as customized rewards. For instance, you can offer discounted and free upgrades to higher product subscription orders & even offer discounted rates on upcoming subscription orders.
9. Add Elements of Social Recognition
The last thing that will be discussed is the custom rewards that offer elements of social recognition enabling customers to share their rewards or achievements on their social media network, which helps in promoting brand advocacy.
Some of the best ways to create such rewards are to offer points in exchange for social media engagement or make use of a referral program. You can offer some rewards to customers who follow your brand on social media, write reviews, and refer friends.
Final Takeaways
After going through the blog, we know using custom rewards in the loyalty program is the key to creating a bespoke program and unlocking a wide range of benefits. From higher average order value, increase in average spending, better customer retention rates, and stronger customer bonds to reducing customer acquisition costs, your business can achieve amazing results with a customized loyalty program.
With Novus, you can unlock the power of bespoke loyalty programs for small business that align with your specific brand image and customers. If you are ready to take your loyalty program to a new level, connect with our loyalty experts to learn how Novus can help with the best solutions at flexible pricing plans.