We did everything according to the scheme/book/article or exactly as a mutual friend told us but the loyalty program neither paid off nor lived up to the funds or expectations. Sounds familiar to you? Let’s consider the most common factors that have a direct impact on the efficiency of the loyalty program.

1. Lack of analysis before program launching

The most important stage preceding the launch of any product is the segment analysis for that this product is being developed. Most companies especially new small and medium-seized businesses sometimes do skip the analysis stage as it had been useless. And they think like, we’ve just started, we have nothing to analyze!

Though using this approach you’re at a risk of remaining with a useless marketing tool that will neither keep clients nor decrease the profit. You should make a would-be client’s exact profile the program will be focused on. Who exactly would you like to attract and keep? Who exactly would you like to make loyal to your brand? These are priority questions that you should give simple and clear answers to. It’s the answers that will define the participation conditions in your loyalty program.

2. Simple copying of original ideas

The copying method will barely live up to loyalty programs. Something that has worked fairly well in some company will hardly work out in your project. Don’t you forget that your program success is influenced by many factors: the history of the brand, goods quality, uniqueness in its field and sometimes even historical core and the year of launch. And even your company and some other company has more or less similar client base, you may not take into consideration other factors that do change the situation significantly.

Let’s take a simple example. The company 2 copied the loyalty program that the company 1 uses. The company 1 sells clothes, the company 2 shoes. At first sight, both companies have a lot in common: the companies’commercial facilities are located in one place, its goods are from one field and are aimed at the audience with the same income. Though the company 1’s loyalty system brings profits while the company 2 does not. What’s the reason of it?

The thing is that the company 2 didn’t consider the difference in the purchase cycles. The company selling clothes has a shorter purchase cycle because people buy clothes more often. As for shoes, it’s bought once in a few years, so when the moment to buy a new pair of shoes comes, a client will definitely forget about a shop if it doesn’t remind of it by itself. The company 2 in comparison with the company 1 that sells clothes should have developed the system of offers, events and activities that will be useful to clients and won’t let them forget about the exact shop or brand.

3. Work with a client in a shop only

Every client loves when he or she is remembered. Today with a great diversity of brands and products the chance that a client will remember your shop right away is extremely low. That’s why it’s very important to remember about your shop even outside of it, unobtrusively informing clients about the latest collections, discounts and offers.

The most common way of doing it is using SMS or e-mail or such popular messengers as WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram. Though you shouldn’t do that way too insistently — none likes spammers.

There’s a rule — the longer the purchase cycle is, less often mailing should be done. Though the best way to set the frequency of messaging is to ask a buyer directly. If you remind of your shop wisely, the chance that a client will come to your shop again will increase by many times.