Halloween is a great time of year to incorporate some play and fun into your loyalty program without the fright or spookiness. You can take advantage of some fun ideas for treating your loyalty program members (while avoiding any possible tricks.)
In order for loyalty programs to properly appreciate and treat their members well year-round (not just at Halloween), they need to:
Provide Value To Customers
Customers may love your brand but if they don’t get any value from the loyalty program then there’s little to no incentive to participate. Ensure your program perks, benefits, and rewards are remaining relevant to your ideal audiences.
Offer A Unique, Branded Program Experience
Not all loyalty programs should look and feel the same. Like your company, your loyalty program should have it’s own unique aspects and appeal. All loyalty programs will share some similarities but you can help your loyalty program stand out by infusing it with your brand’s identity, culture, and personality to make the experience feel special for customers.
Be Fun And Easy To Use
As part of the loyalty experience, your program should be easy to use and enjoy. Earning rewards, redeeming points, and taking part in member activities should be as seamless as possible. The easier it is to use your program, the higher the rate of customer participation, and the greater the opportunity is to grow long-lasting customer loyalty.
Provide Bonus Points For Products or Actions
Give a little extra treat this Halloween by offering limited-time bonus points for purchasing certain products or taking certain actions, like referrals or product reviews. This is a good opportunity for members to ramp up their points total to use for the upcoming holiday shopping season.
“Surprise and Delight” Your Members
Everyone loves getting surprise gifts and the same goes for your loyalty program members. Find ways to give them a little “surprise and delight” reward as a Halloween treat. This can be in the form of free points, a redemption code to get a bonus reward on their next purchase, or a treat unique to your brand and products -- such as pet brands including a free surprise pet toy with every purchase made during the month of October.
Fun Experiences
Unique experiences are some of the top reasons loyalty programs members work to achieve VIP status. Members who reach Ambassador status in Nordstrom’s Nordy Club get access to invite-only events and Nordstrom in-home stylists; members of North Face’s XPLR Pass™ program are able to spend their points towards outdoor experiences and trip adventures. You can create unique experiences as a way to give all your loyalty program members a special treat. Got a fun collaboration coming up? New product about to launch? Holiday or sporting event that aligns with your brand? All good opportunities to brainstorm a way to craft a unique experience your loyalty program members can take part in and enjoy.
Add Gamification
Along with unique experiences, gamification is also a great way to give loyalty program members a fun treat this Halloween. In 2021 Chipotle rolled out a new ‘Extras’ feature to its loyalty program, which gives members personalized challenges that lets them earn additional points and collect achievement badges. This type of gamification gives additional motivation for new customers to join the loyalty program and provides existing members with more reasons to engage, participate, and spend with the brand. Come up with ideas for your brand to incorporate gamification into your loyalty program.
Making It All Work
The key to ensuring your loyalty program is actually treating your loyalty program members the right way is to make these treats completely appreciation-based and condition-free, with little to no hoops to jump through. You'll build stronger customer loyalty by showing genuine appreciation and avoiding any "tricks".