When you have a great business, you want to have people experience you, love you, and keep coming back to you for more. There are tons of marketing efforts that you should consider employing, but when it comes down to building relationships with your consumers, customer loyalty cards often reign king.
Everybody loves getting something for free, even if it means they’ve spent a few dollars to earn that reward. Customer loyalty cards improve brand recognition and repeat business by putting your company at the forefront of shoppers’ minds. Companies both large and small, have historically benefited from the use of customer loyalty cards after experiencing stagnation in sales when other marketing efforts have flattened.
Restarting Stagnant Growth
According to Loyalty360, coffee giant Starbucks pointed to the implementation of its loyalty program for a 26% rise in profits in 2013 which came about from a boost in revenue that landed at $3.6 billion. Electronics superstore Best Buy also employed a similar strategy where it increased the points in its rewards program by 25%, thus boosting the company’s online sales in an effort to better compete with sites like Amazon.
Positive Return on Investment
Marketing efforts come in many sizes when it comes to expense. Some can be very costly, and measuring return on investment can be cumbersome at best. Customer loyalty cards however, are markedly affordable in terms of the revenue they can provide your company, and the return on investment is pretty easy to measure in cold hard numbers. Once you’ve laid out the structure and expectations of your customer loyalty cards’ program, you can easily put metrics in place to understand how much you’re putting into your program and how much money you’re getting back in return. This method of marketing costs significantly less than a lot of options, but the rewards are often far greater than expensive alternatives as well.
Retention Realizes Rewards
When people have a choice between two different stores, if all else is equal, they’re more likely to choose the one that will reward them for their visit. It doesn’t matter if you’re offering a certain percentage off of purchases for members of your program, or if you give away a free item after so many visits, repeat customers are more common when they have a reason to visit your establishment.
Reinforcing their Reason for Shopping
Customer loyalty cards have a large impact on the purchase of things that customers need to invest in anyway. Whether it’s a daily cup of coffee or a bag of dog food, people respond positively when they’re being rewarded for adhering to their normal routine. No matter what you sell or what kind of service you provide, you can benefit by positively reinforcing the behaviours that make up your target demographic.
Competing Doesn’t Have to Cost a Fortune
As a small business, it can be tempting to feel like you have to undercut the competition just to compete in the marketplace. Keep in mind that you still have bills to pay, and if you get caught up in the game of quantity versus quality, you can find yourself shoveling a lot of product out the door for lower-than-desirable prices just to get attention from consumers. Customer loyalty cards allow you to keep your prices at fair market value while rewarding shoppers for their patronage on infrequent and easy-to-budget-for occasions.
Are you interested in learning more about how customer loyalty cards can help boost your bottom line? Contact our team at Avon Security Products, and let’s talk about your company’s goals!