4 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs a Loyalty Program

Posted July 12, 2019

Brands spend a significant amount of time and money crafting campaigns that will reel in new customers. It is an important move to expand one’s brand reach, but it often leaves small business owners with little to no time or funds left to spare on nurturing relationships with their existing customers.

It’s time to reconsider your strategies and show current customers their value through loyalty programs. After all, with limited funds to spend for offline and online business marketing schemes, you’ll find more returns of investment in loyalty schemes than other campaigns.

Of course, it might be difficult to work harder on campaigns for existing customers if you’ve already laid out ones targeting new clients. It helps to know how loyalty schemes can make a huge difference in your brand. Have a look at the 4 reasons why your small business needs a loyalty program:

It builds a strong client base through enhanced customer experience.

If you research online marketing strategies for small business, you’ll find how customer experience is often put on a pedestal. Often, entrepreneurs translate this to an easy-to-navigate website and a helpful and knowledgeable virtual assistant who offers impeccable customer support.

However, enhanced customer experience also means rewarding existing clients through loyalty programs. Giving people incentives when they buy more, remembering clients on special occasions like their birthday, and rewarding customers who promote your products on social networks enrich their experience. Even with competitors popping up around you, people will keep supporting your business if you show them your appreciation for their patronage.

It gives you concrete data for market research.

No need to look far and wide for market data when your current customers can readily provide it to you. Besides using online tools to listen to what customers have to say about your products, you can gauge important data through loyalty campaigns as well.

You can find out which products perform better, which campaigns resonate more with customers, and what needs your service answers by recording and tracking purchase history through loyalty programs. Because most loyalty campaigns are integrated with POS systems, it also gives you insight as to how much people are spending to maximize rewards points.

It’s more cost-effective in the long run.

Imagine if you craft campaigns every few months to attain new customers. It means brainstorming fresh ideas to attract people and utilizing tools that you haven’t tried before. Even the prospect sounds exhausting mentally and financially.

However, when you have a loyalty program in place, you give both new and current customers a reason to keep purchasing. People are inclined to prefer a brand when there’s a reward apart from the actual item purchased itself. This gives you more time and money to spend on developing your products instead of crafting campaigns to win new customers.

It gives you higher returns.

It may seem like attracting new customers will bring in more sales. However, a study showed that repeat customers actually make up 55%-70% of a company’s conversion on average.

Loyalty campaigns reinforce a customer’s decision to buy repeatedly from a brand. While new customer campaigns expand your brand reach, repeat purchases encouraged by loyalty programs are the ones that really that grow your business.

Have a loyalty program in place whether in the form of punch cards, exclusive membership, or points-based system. Take care of your current customers and they take care of your business growth.