As 2022 began, in light of the post-pandemic recovery, many challenges remain for the final quarter of 2022. This year’s peak buying season, namely coming up to Christmas, brands prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM); many are also considering how inflation, supply chain despairs, and ever-increasing investment costs will affect their shoppers’ demeanor. BFCM inevitably draws first-time customers incentivized by heavy discounts. But when all is said and done after the shopping frenzy, intelligent businesses want to create meaningful and lifelong brand connoisseurs out of their holiday customers.
Loyalty programs and schemes offer customers exclusive deals, perks, gifts, and, most importantly, a personalized experience – something that is desired with the current market instability. It has been observed in a study conducted in the UK that customers prioritize shopping experiences and added value during BFCM. Furthermore, a recent study by Epsilon revealed that 80% of customers are more likely to purchase when presented with customized experiences.
Truly successful brand loyalty is built upon the pillars of:
- Direct communication with your most loyal customers
- Increased Customer-Life-Time-Value
- Lower churn rates than your competitors
- Encouraging higher spending during sales periods
With BFCM, brands can utilize this sale period to engage with their shoppers well after the dust has settled, furthering nurturing brand awareness and loyalty while steering them away from their competitors for future purchases.
So how do we ensure we can maximize the upcoming sales period and create the most loyal customer thereafter? Here are three potential answers:
Utilizing your loyalty program pre and post BFCM
Communication is critical as this is the perfect time to strike with your loyalty program, as brands can keep customers constantly engaged and at the forefront of their shopping ideas. This is achieved by your brand staying relevant by rewarding customers for social follows, SMS, and email sign-ups. You can also send messages about upcoming promotions opportunely before BFCM’s official launch.
Furthermore, you can use customer and transactional data accumulated from your program to remind loyalty members of their existing points balance to encourage more significant purchases before and during BFCM.
Post-BFCM can be highly stressful for many brands due to lower customer participation and overall lower consumer engagement. This, however, is an opportunity in itself as time away from your brand provides customer introspection about their purchases while inspecting competitors to see if they got the best deal.
Post-BFCM is also the perfect time to enlighten customers about why your brand is better than your competitors. According to McKinsey research, since the pandemic began, more than 65% of consumers have been trying various shopping behaviors and intend to include those behaviors as we progress into the future. Customers are readily exchanging for new brands. Still, a hole-proof loyalty program gives customers all the right reasons to stay dedicated.
Numerous brands reward customers for engaging with educational content, like blog posts or newsletters. This further creates a connection with your loyalty base and allows your brand to get in front of customers and explain why your brand is superior to competitors, particularly before the next sale rotation begins. Moreover, loyalty members get exact value from participating in a program, as it facilitates them to learn more about your competitive edge and unique value proposition.
Utilizing your loyalty program during BFCM
Loyalty members are the highest value target for brands, as over 83% of global customers say belonging to a loyalty program affects their judgment to buy again from a brand. During BFCM, guarantee you’re marketing the right way to your best customers.
One of the most important considerations to make is before your peak season starts, make sure you’re promoting your loyalty program effectively. On-site banners, social campaigns, emails, and SMS campaigns remind non-loyalty members of all they have waiting in store with your program. To promote BFCM sign-ups, consider contributing instant points for joining or double points for sales periods. New members instantly have the motivation to shop with your brand and cash in their points.
You can also offer loyalty member-only seasonal promotional discounts to boost early sales and check your discount offerings. Rather than offer seasonal deals to all customers, make them exclusive to loyalty members or even specific VIP tiers.
It doesn’t just stop at BFCM
By developing a loyalty program that regards seasonality, brands can convey directly with and increase purchases from their high-value customers independent of the time of year. Loyalty programs are a sure way to create an emotional and conceptual bond with your customer base.
Contact us if you want to work on your loyalty program, need consultation, or plan to implement gift cards. We will help you at every stage, thanks to our expert team here at Sparta Loyalty.
