Summary
There is nothing that can stop a passionate customer from promoting your product or brand. But as time passes and after a certain number of purchases, they’ll start to fall out of love and interest and start looking at other products in the market.
This is a normal cycle that every single one of your customers will go through and without a safety net that will catch them from falling towards your competitors, your business is bound to suffer a great loss.
That’s exactly the reason why the most successful businesses and brands implement customer reward programs and other promotion and marketing strategies. When the right strategies are in place, there’s a big chance that you’ll be keeping your old customers hooked up with your brand. If you’re wise enough, you can even turn them into efficient brand ambassadors who are willing to go great lengths to defend, testify for, and promote your brand!
But what can you do to make customers love you more? How can you nurture that atmosphere of passion and trust for your brand among your long time followers and believers? This is no secret at all but giving them the right reward at the right time and in the right place is a strategy that even the most successful brands employ in their marketing efforts! Read on the find 5 of the best customer reward practices that we’ve found which has high chances of boosting sales and improving your business’s overall customer retention rating.
1. Special Day Rewards
Depending on the type of product that you sell or the kind of service that you offer, your customer base will either belong to a specific group or a general crowd composed of people coming from all walks of life. If you have different products in your shop then definitely offer rewards and discounts for special days and occasions like “Mother’s Day”, “Grandparent’s Day”, “Thanksgiving Day”, or even your top customer’s birthday.
This is a practice that all the big e-commerce brands are already doing and they have found success in it so far so why not do the same or even find some points in it that you can innovate. There will always be a chance for you to insert some creativity and wittiness to this which your customers will love so go ahead and take time to see what they are and definitely implement them as you go.
2. Top Fan Discounts and Offers
Don’t ignore those customers who have spent big bucks on your product/s or service/s. They are the ones who can bring in some serious buyers through their authentic endorsements. Studies have revealed that referred customers have a higher chance of making those crucial repeat orders and when they do, the likelihood that they’ll turn into your most loyal customers becomes even greater.
So take that extra time to filter out those top fans and leading customers and offer those special discounts and offers which will amp up their passion and interest for your product or brand. You can do this by sending them a thank you email along with your sweet offer or even sending them a special notification in case you have a shopping app for your brand.
3. Special Privileges and Priority Access To Your Latest Products
If you’ve got a core team of super loyal customers who do some ambassadorship for your product or brand then definitely give them special privileges like those free courses or seminars which they can attend to better increase their knowledge about your business. Better educated ambassadors are your best assets in terms of marketing and promotion.
You can also go the extra mile and offer those samplers and giving them access to your upcoming products before they are released so they can make those teasers and unboxing videos that will boost public interest about your product or brand. You can do even better if you partner with influencers who share the same values and interests with your brand.
4. A Chance To Be Featured
By this we mean giving those customers and influencers the chance to be featured in your shop’s blog or website or even in your company’s Youtube channel. Your product needs as much exposure as you can get but with the help of influencers who are in the same product or business category as your brand, your chances of boosting sales and overall profit is higher. This is mainly because of the fact that you are actually targeting the right people!
So go ahead and start looking for influencers around social media and in video streaming and content sites like Youtube then discuss with them what you have in mind and as well as listen to every idea that they contribute. Collaborations are common these days and the most successful ones gained millions of views. Imagine if it’s your product or brand that got promoted there! That sure is a great reward not just to your business but also to your customer turned influencer who helped in with the project!
Combined Best Practices Produce the Best Results
There are several other techniques and strategies out there but we’ve only listed 4 of the most effective ones that we’ve seen in popular brands and e-commerce platforms in our era so you can learn what they do, how they do it and when. While implementing one of these can bring good results, being able to find the perfect mix of best practices to implement in your business would surely bring your product or brand to greater heights.
Customer rewards should be one of your key marketing and customer retention strategies but make sure that you’re offering the right kind at the right time and in the right way. Look into the rewards that your competitors offer to their customers and learn from them. It’s a good starting point for you to build upon. Remember, customers are your greatest business asset. Keep them rewarded and they will reciprocate that by keeping those sales and profit levels on their highest!
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