How to Increase Sales and Improve Marketing Using an Integrated Loyalty Program

In today's highly competitive market, it's not enough to simply offer a loyalty program; it needs to be integrated seamlessly with other tools and software used by a company. An integrated loyalty program provides brands with several benefits, from acquiring a more complete 360 degree view of their customers to creating a more omnichannel experience across digital and physical spaces. For companies looking to boost revenue, integrated loyalty programs are a powerful tool that can strengthen a brand's marketing and sales efforts while providing customers with a personal and enjoyable experience. 

What Is An Integrated Loyalty Program? 

An integrated loyalty program is more than just a basic points system for customers to use for earning and redeeming rewards. Essentially an integrated loyalty program is one that can seamlessly connect and work with the other tools and software used by a company to run their business - including POS, CRM, ERP, eCommerce, marketing automation, OMS, etc. - in order to more effectively fulfill its purpose of growing a loyal customer base and increasing customer lifetime value.

Integrated loyalty programs are able to combine customer data from different silos under one location without little to no manual importing/exporting, which minimizes inconsistencies and provides more accurate insights and reporting. Integrated loyalty programs are also more accessible and user-friendly for customers; they allow for a more omnichannel experience across digital and physical spaces, which makes it easier for customers to earn and view rewards, make purchases, and engage with the brand. A basic loyalty program that has little to no integration abilities will struggle to provide all that’s listed above. 

Read on to discover 3 ways an integrated loyalty program helps brands increase sales and improve their marketing.

1. An Integrated Loyalty Program Is More Appealing & User-Friendly to Customers 

What is important about an integrated loyalty program is that it naturally fits with the modern consumer’s omnichannel lifestyle, which most likely consists of them going from online to offline, using one device and then another, and across different locations. A shopper can start their journey online doing research, exploring options or reviews, or select products for BOPIS (buy-online-pickup-instore). When they are in-store they can check for product information or location, see product deals or offers, item availability, and more. At checkout (whether that’s in-store and online) they can add any special bonus offers or discounts, use coupons, or redeem their loyalty points or rewards.

The ability to seamlessly start shopping online and finish offline, or vice versa, is crucial to keeping customers happy and increasing sales. An integrated loyalty program helps create the omnichannel customer experience that is more of an ongoing uninterrupted journey rather than a clunky fragmented one.  

2. Integrated Loyalty Program Can Provide Brands With A More Complete 360-Degree View Of Their Customers 

Understanding your customers is crucial in today's markets but companies still struggle with streamlining their data across all their various channels and sources. While customer activity like purchase history or favorite products is easy to capture for online purchases, research shows that a large percentage of consumers still prefer to shop in-store for a number of reasons - such as being able to physically see and touch products, immediately acquire a desired item, and avoid shipping fees or delays. If a company only is able to track or capture customer activity across certain sales channels, they lose out on valuable insights that can help them understand and serve their customers better. 

An integrated loyalty program solves the data gap issue by being able to capture transactional purchase data from any POS, connect individual transactions with unique customer ids, and combine this data with customer data collected across other channels as well. Unifying this data in one location with analytics tools and reporting can give brands a more 360-degree understanding of their customers and more effectively determine customer lifetime value. 

3. Integrated Loyalty Program Empowers Brands To More Effectively Market And Sell To Customers

The benefits listed so far of an integrated loyalty program include attracting more customers and capturing valuable behavioral and transactional data. Integrated loyalty programs also empower brands to actively utilize the data insights they’ve acquired to grow their business. Integrated loyalty programs with strong data segmentation tools can identify certain desirable customer attributes, personality traits, or behaviors that they can then use to create different customer segments.  By segmenting customers into specific groups brands can send more targeted, personalized communications, recommendation, offers, and rewards that are more relevant to an individual and thus more likely to be positively received. Customer segmentation also enables the brand to target key customer audiences for driving specific goals, such as increasing cross-selling or repurchase frequency. 

Understanding The Importance Of Integrations

The long-term success of a loyalty program depends on its ability to evolve and adapt as technology, markets and customers change. As such, an integrated loyalty program is a must-have for businesses looking to build stronger customer relationships and drive revenue growth long-term. Being able to integrate with other software and systems empowers a brand to provide a more user-friendly and omnichannel experience that increases customer loyalty, lifetime value, and boost sales. Customers can easily buy, earn rewards and engage with the brand across different channels, while brands gain deeper insights into their customers' shopping habits, needs, and preferences.

As more brands look to find ways to market and sell more effectively to customers, an integrated loyalty program can give them the tools they need to succeed in today's competitive marketplace.