4 Emails For Engaging Your Loyalty Program Members

Email marketing is one of the best methods for incentivizing customer behavior. This is especially true for loyalty programs, whose success depends on regular customer engagement. Regardless of your program type, 4 types of emails will help you stay connected with your customers:

• Rewards Available For Current Point Balances
• Next Tier Levels
• Anniversary Emails
• Reminders Of Program Benefits

Rewards Available For Current Point Balances

Sometimes all it takes is a simple prompting for customers to redeem their points. Usually, they just need a summary of their current point balances. Other times all they need are a few reward options.

You can do both using your program data and rewards. By establishing specific point balance increments and using data to identify basic rewards for each, you can create targeted emails incentivizing customers to redeem their points.  

You can also use segmentation data to identify products repeat customers purchased. Then tailor available rewards to match. Applying the same process to redemptions lets you narrow in on rewards a customer might enjoy based on their previous redemption activity.  

Friendly advice: Don’t cause frustration by sending emails about completely out-of-reach rewards. At best you’ll seem out of touch; at worst you'll discourage customers from purchasing. Instead, make sure your suggestions are customized to your customers’ balances and activity.

Next Tier Levels

If you have a tiered rewards program, you should send reminder emails when a customer is within reach of the next tier. Individuals can forget the spend amount required for each tier level.

Getting a notification that they’re close is a great way to keep them engaged in the program and encourage them to continue. The email should contain their current balance and the amount they need to spend. You can also eliminate some of the work on the customer's end by using past purchase data to include product suggestions & links to your website within the email.

Friendly advice: make sure program members are indeed close to achieving the next tier before sending the email. If a program member is over $500 away from the next tier and their average spend per transaction is $20, asking them to spend $500 at once just to reach the next tier level isn’t the best idea.

You must take into account your products and customer spending habits. Trust us, program members are more responsive to “Next Tier” reminders when the next tier is within easy reach.

BONUS: If timing allows, bundle the email with current calendar events. Like this:

“Hello (Name), you’re so close to becoming a Gold Level member! Why not celebrate the New Year by treating yourself to some new goodies and all the perks a Gold Level member receives?”

Anniversary Emails

We’ve written before about the best time to celebrate with loyalty program members. Anniversaries are a great time to do so! As with all relationships, loyalty between brand and customer takes investment from both sides. Anniversary emails show your brand recognizes and values key dates concerning customers.

While the most common types of anniversaries are customer enrollment dates and birthdays, you can also celebrate brand anniversaries. Founding dates are a great opportunity. Even celebrating the “birthday” of your own loyalty program is a fun way to get program members engaged.

Anniversaries are also prime times to reward and thank your customers. Coupons or customer’s choice of free items from a roundup are just a few ideas for rewarding customer loyalty.

Reminders Of Other Program Benefits

Not gonna lie -- customers are busy people.

There are frequent demands on their time and attention, and unfortunately loyalty programs are another fighter in the ring. We can’t expect customers to remember every detail of a program. We can, however, help them stay informed.

It’s worth reminding your program members about the benefits available to them besides reward items. Just as discounts won't guarantee customer loyalty, rewards aren’t enough to keep loyalty program members engaged. You give customers additional incentives to choose you over competitors by providing other types of benefits or perks.

If you offer free shipping, first access to exclusive items or events, or product samples to program members, send periodic reminder emails of all program perks available. A customer should also receive a congratulatory email recapping specific new benefits each time they advance to the next membership tier.

It’s relatively easy to identify which customers could use reminder emails. You can spot who isn’t taking advantage of program benefits simply by analyzing customer utilization data. You can also use this data to pinpoint which benefits are most popular, which in turn helps develop further engagement and reward opportunities.

We can't emphasize how important regular customer communication is to maintaining a successful loyalty program.  Contact the customer loyalty and rewards experts at Brandmovers today to see how we can help your program thrive!