How to Increase Loyalty Program Engagement With Promotions

Written by Barry Gallagher | 09/02/25

How this guide was prepared. Last updated October 2026. It draws on Brandmovers' experience running loyalty programs and promotions together, including the program example cited below. It also draws on a national loyalty survey and Federal Trade Commission guidance, each checked at its source.

Loyalty program engagement is the share of members who take part in a program within a set period, by earning, redeeming or completing actions, and how often and how deeply they do it. A program can have millions of members and low engagement if most of them joined once and never came back.

Deloitte's 2025 survey of 5,564 US loyalty members found that "the average consumer enrolls in eight loyalty programs, yet actively participates in only five" (Deloitte, 2026). Deloitte does not define active participation, and the figure describes consumers across programs rather than members of one program, but it shows how easily a membership goes quiet. Promotions run inside the program, such as sweepstakes, instant wins, challenges and bonus events, are one way to give members a reason to come back. This guide covers where members disengage, which promotion fits which problem, how to design promotions that build the program rather than one-off entries, the rules that apply and how to measure the result.

Key Takeaways

Define engagement before trying to raise it: the share of members active in a set window, and how often they act.
Find where members drop off first, such as after enrolling, between purchases or far from a first reward.
Match the promotion to the problem: welcome bonuses for new members, challenges for long gaps, bonus events for members far from a reward, sweepstakes for reach.
Tie entries to program membership and program actions, so the promotion grows the program rather than a separate list.
Sweepstakes that require a purchase need a free way to enter, and review incentives cannot depend on positive reviews.
Measure against a holdout, and check whether members stay active after the promotion ends.

What is loyalty program engagement, and how do you measure it?

The share of members who act in the program within a set period, plus how often they act; measure both, with a fixed definition of "active".

Start with an active-member rate: members who earned, redeemed or completed a program action in the past 90 days, for example, divided by all members. Add depth measures, such as actions per active member and time from enrollment to first action. Fix the definition before reporting, because changing the window later changes every trend. The loyalty KPI dashboard sets out formulas for these and related metrics.

Where do loyalty members disengage?

Common drop-off points are right after enrolling, in long gaps between purchases, while still far from a first reward, after redeeming, and after months of inactivity.

After enrolling: members join for a sign-up bonus and never take a second action.
Between purchases: in categories bought every few weeks or months, members have nothing to do in the program in between.
Far from a first reward: a reward that feels out of reach gives little reason to act now.
After redeeming: some members treat a redemption as the end rather than the start of the next goal.
Dormant: members who have not acted for months; the guide to quiet quitters covers re-engaging them.

Look at your own data before choosing a fix: the drop-off point decides which promotion helps. If members drift because the earn rate or rewards are weak, fix the program first, because a promotion will only mask the problem while it runs.

Which promotions raise loyalty program engagement?

Different promotions fix different drop-off points: welcome bonuses for new members, challenges for long gaps, bonus events for distant rewards, sweepstakes for reach and contests for content.

Engagement problem	Promotion type	How it helps	Watch out for
New members take no second action	Welcome bonus or instant win on a first program action	Gives a reason to act soon after joining	Members who only came for the bonus
Long gaps between purchases	Challenges or missions with bonus points for non-purchase actions	Gives members something to do between purchases	Tasks that feel like chores
Members far from a first reward	Limited-time bonus point events	Brings the first reward within reach	Training members to wait for bonuses
Members lapse after redeeming	Bonus points or a challenge toward the next reward, offered at redemption	Turns a redemption into the start of the next goal	Bonuses paid to members who would have returned anyway
Thin member profiles	Survey or quiz entries	Collects preferences in exchange for points or entries	Asking for more data than the program uses
Low participation from the wider customer base	Sweepstakes with entries for members and program actions	Gives non-members a reason to join and members a reason to log in	Free entry rules; entries without lasting activity
Little user-generated content	Photo or story contests	Produces content and community activity	Content rights, disclosure and judging rules

Game mechanics such as missions, badges and leaderboards are covered in the guide to gamification in loyalty programs.

What does a promotion inside a loyalty program look like?

Working with Brandmovers, Essentia Water ran its "Change the Equation" summer sweepstakes as an overlay on its existing Essentia Nation Rewards program rather than as a stand-alone promotion.

Members could register or log in to Essentia Nation Rewards for a free entry, upload up to five receipts for bonus entries, complete a brand survey and refer a friend to the program. The case reports that the chance to win and the automatic entry for members attracted new rewards program registrants, and that receipt uploads delivered purchase data directly from Essentia customers (Essentia case study). The case publishes no figures and does not report whether the new registrants stayed active, but the design illustrates the principle: each way to enter was also a program action, so entries added members and data to the program instead of a separate list.

How do you design promotions that build the program?

Tie every entry to membership and program actions, reward the behaviors the program needs, and plan what members do after the promotion ends.

Enter through the program. Make registration or login the way in, so new entrants become members and existing members return, accepting that the extra step may mean fewer total entries.
Reward program actions, not only purchases. Entries or points for completing a profile, taking a survey, referring a friend or uploading a receipt build the habits the program needs.
Plan the next step. Show entrants their points balance and the next reward when the promotion ends, so the visit leads to a second action.
Control the cadence. Frequent bonus events can teach members to wait for the next one; vary timing and keep bonuses tied to specific behaviors.
Limit entries and screen accounts. Cap entries per person and check for duplicate accounts, since sweepstakes attract entrants who register only to enter and never return.
Budget the full cost. Prizes, bonus points, fulfillment, administration and fraud checks all count against the engagement gained.

What rules apply to promotions inside a loyalty program?

Purchase-linked sweepstakes need a free way to enter, and all sweepstakes need official rules; content contests need rights and disclosure terms; review incentives cannot depend on what the review says.

Sweepstakes and instant wins. A promotion that combines a prize, chance and consideration, most often a required purchase, can be treated as an illegal lottery, so purchase-linked sweepstakes offer a free alternative method of entry, with official rules that state eligibility, odds and dates. Where purchases earn bonus entries, check whether the rules that apply require the free method to be able to earn the same number of entries. The promotions compliance guide covers free entry, state requirements and tax reporting.

Reviews. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials bars incentives "conditioned on the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment"; the FTC notes the rule "does not prohibit giving incentives for reviews, as long as there isn't an express or implied requirement that the reviews have to express a particular sentiment" (FTC). A promotion that rewards reviews cannot reward only positive ones, expressly or by implication. The FTC also notes that failing to disclose incentives could violate the FTC Act. Some review sites also bar incentivized reviews under their own policies, so check the rules of the site where members will post.

Content contests. State in the rules what rights entrants grant to their content and how winners are judged, and ask entrants to disclose that a post is a contest entry. This is general information, not legal advice.

How do you know whether a promotion raised engagement?

Compare members who could take part with a random holdout group, and check whether activity lasts after the promotion ends.

Entries and participation counts show activity during the promotion, not lasting engagement, and if a promotion entry counts as a program action, the active-member rate rises by definition. Report activity with and without promotion entries. Where possible, hold a random share of eligible members out of the promotion's emails and in-app prompts (for a sweepstakes, withhold the messaging, not eligibility, since the official rules open entry to everyone eligible), and compare both groups' active-member rate, actions per member and purchases during the promotion and for a period after it. A promotion that lifts activity only while it runs, or pulls purchases forward from the following weeks, has bought short-term activity rather than lasting engagement; that can still pay off if the incremental margin, new members or data outweigh the cost. Illustrative example: a bonus point event could hold back its messages from a random tenth of eligible members, then compare both groups' active-member rates during the event and for the following 60 days. Weigh the extra active members against the full cost of the promotion.

BLOYL™, Brandmovers' enterprise loyalty platform, runs promotions alongside the loyalty program: a promotions builder for sweepstakes, contests, instant wins and bonus events, gamification modules such as challenges, badges and instant wins, non-purchase earning for actions such as surveys, referrals and reviews, and A/B testing against a control group.

Conclusion

Loyalty program engagement tends to rise when members have a reason to act at the points where they usually drift away. Define and measure engagement, find the drop-off points, match each to a promotion, run promotions through the program so they add members and habits rather than one-off entries, follow the rules for sweepstakes, contests and reviews, and judge each promotion by whether members stay active after it ends.

Want members to come back between purchases? Brandmovers runs loyalty programs and promotions together on BLOYL, with sweepstakes, instant wins, challenges and bonus events built into the program. Request a demo to talk through your program with the Brandmovers team.

Sources

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