Factors that Help Gamify Your Retail Loyalty Program

Gamify retail loyalty program

In today’s highly competitive world, the marketing team of any retail company has to put a lot of effort to woo its targeted customers and retain its existing ones. Customers continue being more curious and less patient these days. This means that a slight window of doubt about your product can move them away from your business.

A result-oriented strategy to keep customers glued to your products/services or maintain their loyalty is to employ gamification into your marketing mix. Didn’t ring a bell? Well, gamification denotes engaging your new and existing customers by incorporating the raw concept of games in your marketing strategy. Here, the games should be more in line of rewards and incentives. These incentives would act as a motivating factor for the customers to continue staying engaged with your business. Let’s check out some vital factors that can drive the gamification endeavors of your company’s retail loyalty program.

Social Factor

Most of the viral games are kind of social in nature. It means that people of almost all ages and from all sorts of backgrounds can play those games. So, your aim should be to integrate your business incentive with such social online games.

A classic example is Samsung that blends social and user interaction by rewarding users for participating in Q&A session, watching videos, reviewing products and other such activities.

Time Factor

I believe that the concept of “limited-time offer” delivers results most of the times. It definitely plays with the mind of the customers, and pushes them to go for the bait. So, when you design a gamification program for your customers, then make sure the first incentive or reward come to them really easily. It should be close enough instead of making it very tough, so that the customers find hard to say no to it.

Challenge Factor

Customers get skeptical when something is easily achievable or accessible. For this reason, it is important to include a little bit of a challenge in the gamification of your loyalty program. Keep a big reward at the end, and the reward should be valuable enough, not just in terms of money. At the same time, remind the customer from time to time about how close he or she is to earning an incentive.

Game / Fun Element Factor

Obviously, fun is the biggest reason why people play incentive based games. It is the fun factor that makes an incentive based game popular and successful. For this reason, from time to time, try to come up with surprises for your customers in the form of freebies or limited offers. This will definitely keep them glued to your loyalty program.

Recognition Factor

The incentive you offer should always be in the mind of the users. If they are not able to recognize what they are running after, then sooner or later they will lose interest in your gamification program. So, always remind them about the forthcoming incentive or reward waiting for them to earn, even if it is a small one.

Do write in to us and let us know how you plan to utilize the immense potential of gamification to enhance your business visibility online.

Provide Traction to Your Small Business Loyalty Program through Mobile Apps

Small business loyalty programs apps

Mobile apps have totally changed the way we interact. Small businesses out there have recognized the fact that potential consumers are easier to attract through well-designed and highly functional apps. Gone are the days when “buy ten and get one” offers were used to attract the loyalty of existing consumers. This is the era of faster apps and equally prompt in customer purchase decisions. Smartphones and business loyalty applications are loaded with administrating features and unlimited ways to create, explore and manage the consumer behavior. Emerging businesses can easily manage the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns or business loyalty initiatives by bringing these valuable apps to the scene.

The rationale behind loyalty programs

‘When we are closer to our long chased goals, we put in 100% of our efforts to reach there’, says Professor Oleg Urminskey who teaches marketing research at the University of Chicago Booth school of Business. For example – when you are closer to winning a prize from some random retail store, you frequently visit the same.

According to a recent market survey done by Manta and BIA / Kelsey, only 14 % companies admitted to spending their budgets on acquiring new customers. Nearly 61% said that they get their major business from the existing customer base and around 34% accepted that they have a well-developed customer loyalty program in place. This provides ample proof of the degree of traction loyalty programs has gained in the retail segment.

Some Known Names

Digital media is offering free trial issues of online magazines and newspapers that could be read through their exclusive apps. Some leading international newspapers offer cash coupons and also free mobile recharge on installing their app on your phone. Applications like – Belly, Foursquare, FrontFlip, KeyRing, Loyal Blocks, Perka, Slyde and SpotOn are being used by small businesses all over the world. These applications identify the loyal consumers, give points and also reward them depending on the campaign criteria. Through these applications, bulk messages and emails can be sent to the ‘listed’ loyal consumers.

How these help small businesses –

Small businesses can monitor their consumer’s buying behavior and encourage them to buy more. Messages in forms of discount emails, sale, and special offers can now directly arrive in their consumer’s ‘inbox’, from where they have the maximum exposure. Smartphones and apps are saving small businesses from putting in precious manual labor that was used extensively in designing, executing and managing small business loyalty programs earlier.

What you can expect as a consumer?

Being a consumer, you get reward points or earn coins when you buy specific product. Later on, these could be redeemed to buy a free product from the same company or retail store. In addition to this, reward programs treat special customers by giving them advance information about sale, new stock arrivals and lucky draws.

The traditional business loyalty programs involved more physical cards and they were given to consumers on random basis. Majority of these consumers kept these on their refrigerator only to find later that the reward program has expired. With applications especially meant for rewarding consumers at the right time, and influencing their purchase decisions, this scenario has definitely improved. Newer apps that will come to the scene in 2015 will be more targeted, user friendly, specific and meaningful, says a leading industry expert.

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