Customer Loyalty Program for Small Businesses

Customer loyalty programs are quite viable and effective in flourishing a business. Retail businesses have already been using this technique to keep their customers simply loyal to their brand by ensuring a world class shopping experience. The formula is pretty much the same for businesses that deal in other industries as well; keep your customers happy!

The whole idea behind creating a customer loyalty program for small businesses is to ensure that SMEs are able to retain the customers, much like bigger brands. Small businesses need a customer loyalty program specifically to be able to showcase their brand visibility to customers, which is not easy when bigger brands are much ahead of you.

When you show a gesture of love and concern to your customers while they make a purchase, the customers feel pleased. This makes them want to be associated with your brand in the future as well. And this is exactly what big brands do to retain their customers.

If your business has not adopted a customer loyalty program, then it’s probably time to initiate it now to avoid missing on profit-making opportunities in the future. There are numerous benefits of a customer loyalty program.

The biggest question is how to build genuine customer loyalty? There should be a way to thank your customers which keeps the customers attracted to your business. A brand that gives the customers a reason to stay associated with the brand, gives away rewards to the most deserving customers, automatically boosts customer engagement.  

Know how to initiate a customer loyalty program for your small business:

Give enchanting offers

Giving away freebies or carrying out promotional offers is a great way to attract existing and new customers. You can also give some special upgrades to exclusive and limited customers.

Give genuine offers which do not make your brand look shallow. It is also useful to think from a customer’s perspective. Does the free offer benefit your customer in some way? If not, make them an offer that they find hard to resist!  

Special occasions

Give special offers and discounts to the customers on their birthdays, anniversaries etc. This is a gesture that indicates your concern and love for your brand’s customers. Small businesses out there use this strategy to keep their clients/customers happy.

Initiating VIP programs

The exclusive customers/clients of your brand can be given special offers. VIP programs can be designed for customers who shop very often from your brand or those who spend large amounts of money at your store. These customers are given extra benefits over other customers depending on the protocols laid by your business.

Your customer loyalty program is bound to generate huge profits, if you give an amazing experience to your customers who would then share it with family and friends.

Social media

Social media is the best and easiest way to let the customers know about the exciting offers. In today’s distracting social environment online, you need to project your business on such social media platforms where your potential customers are present. Once your brand is all over on social media, it is bound to boost the online presence for your brand or business.

Here are the benefits of customer loyalty program:

Retain customers

Not only does a customer loyalty program attract customers but also helps retain your existing customers. There are several ways a brand ensures that a customer remains loyal. Customer loyalty programs do not only ensure that your old customers purchase from your brand but it is also very efficient in attracting new customers.

Boosts customer interaction

A well designed customer loyalty program makes the customers excited about rewards, points or similar benefits. Try promoting deals and offers that your customers are likely to be interested in and you are bound to attract loyal and genuine customers for your business.

Attracting the same customers

Design customer loyalty programs in such a way that you ensure repetitive visits from your existing customers. For example, giving credit or shopping points to your customers will encourage them to make another purchase in the future. Customer loyalty programs are the backbone of the brands generating revenue.

Business generation

A happy and satisfied customer is the best advertising a brand has access to. Word of mouth about your products and services can help your brand establish credibility, authority and trust. All that matters to a customer is the type of service they were offered. As long as the customers are happy and satisfied they are likely to stick to your brand over other brands.

Increases brand visibility

Promoting customer loyalty programs on social media increases your brand visibility online. Social media helps make your program go viral on internet and helps bring more prospective customers for your brand.

We hope this article gave you enough knowledge about initiating, implementing and executing a customer loyalty program for your small business. Try adding these loyalty marketing initiatives to your marketing campaigns to bring back the attracted customers. This will help in building trust and loyalty among customers!

RedAlkemi is always open to publishing unique, informative and original content on the RedAlkemi blog! Take a look at our guest posting terms.