According to McKinsey, 81% of shoppers have changed their consumption behaviours in the face of soaring prices and inflation levels.
- Two-thirds of shoppers are making less impulsive purchases
- More than half are spending longer researching and considering purchases
- 47% are holding out more for potential sales
In this, it further means that customers are staying loyal to those brands they have spent so long finding. If their prices are well within their budget, offer a great all-around experience, and have great quality products, why would they stray away? Brand loyalty is on the rise.
Now we’re on a mission to keep those loyal customers who found us in times of economic crisis. Blackhawk Network (BHN) and Money.co.uk have conducted research that has found that 70% of shoppers are more loyal to a brand that offer them rewards, great customer service, and personalised marketing.
Let’s dive into BHN’s e-book, ‘Customer Promotions Handbook: Driving Loyalty & Revenue with Rewards-Based Promotions’. These findings will guide us through how to navigate gaining and maintaining those loyal customers by gifting them. Rewards equals retention!
Why should you use rewards-based promotions?
We’re simple creatures: we like positive reinforcement. If we do something good and receive a compliment for doing so, we’re more likely to do it again. And it’s the same for customers. If they purchase from your business and receive a reward, they’re more likely to come back for more.
According to the BHN e-book, 93% of people are rethinking purchasing habits as high inflation continues to affect the affordability of goods and services for households. Tough times call for smart solutions. Short-term benefits can simply provide:
- Encouraging people to purchase from you
- Boosting sales and purchase frequency
- Increasing cross-sell and upsell revenue
- Enabling you to collect more customer data
Alternatively, rewards-based customer promotions and incentives improve customer lifetime value, increase average profit margin per customer, and increase annual revenue. The number 1 reason businesses use rewards-based promotions is to elevate their premium brand.
What type of rewards do customers prefer?
There’s many benefits to using rewards for your customer. As the market leader in the business of customer incentives, BHN really know and understand the importance of providing the right rewards to attract the right type of customer.
According to their research, the overwhelming majority of people want rewards as gift cards. These are the number one most requested gift, and are popular across all generations. When asked if they’d used gift cards in the past 12 months, the following percentages said ‘yes’:
But why gift cards? Well, customers value their freedom to make a choice. That’s why customer loyalty can be hard to maintain, as they utilise their choice to change brands when necessary. People want to make their own decisions, and multi-store gift cards are perfect for this.
Almost 90% of consumers prefer digital rewards, including e-gift cards, online promotions, and personalised discounts (e.g. discount codes for customer’s birthday). In today’s climate, digital rewards are also greatly valued in the bid for more sustainable business practices.
How to build a rewards-based customer acquisition campaign
Rewards-based promotions can help acquire new customers by building awareness of your brand, improving engagement with your brand, and driving loyalty toward your brand. This comes into the customer engagement process as set out by BHN: awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, advocacy.
The BHN customer promotions handbook e-book is a great resource for the tools and tips it provides. This includes BHN’s top 10 customer promotion ideas that will attract the right type of customers and enhance their experience of your brand:
- Sign-up incentives
- Contests and giveaways
- Customer referral programmes
- Social influencer collaborations
- Incentivise customer reviews
- Spending milestones
- Trial period incentives
- Onboarding rewards
- Lead generation incentives
- Events and trade shows
You can learn more details about each of the 10 ideas in the BHN e-book.
Ready to enhance your customer experience?
Downloading the BHN e-book is a great place to start! This is an invaluable resource filled with research-backed insights, serving as brilliant tools to assist your customer experience programmes.
Download BHN’s e-book, ‘Customer Promotions Handbook: Driving Loyalty & Revenue with Rewards-Based Promotions’ for free on the CXM website today. Take these tools and transform your business initiatives to customer loyalty today. Your customers will thank you for it!