A major benefit of a loyalty program is capturing customer data which would otherwise be difficult to obtain and retain, in order to create mutually beneficial relationships.
This zero party data enables program managers to send more personalised messaging that is proven to be more effective in terms of engagement, conversion and revenue.
However, loyalty program managers must avoid getting complacent by thinking “we know enough about our customers so why make more effort segmenting and personalising our communications?”. This attitude undermines the program’s ability to innovate and grow.
To create an environment for long-term success, one approach is to embed a ‘testing culture’ into the loyalty marketing function. Start by adopting two unorthodox approaches:
- Seek ‘known unknowns’ (a phrase used by a former U.S. politician to explain “things that you think you know that it turns out you did not”); and
- Accept that ‘no idea is a bad idea’ (dismissing every idea too quickly can miss things that may warrant deeper thought).
For example, a pet brand tested the theory that by including images of breeds related to the recipient, they would improve engagement and conversions. It worked! After hundreds of A/B tests to get the images right they saw revenue growth of 80% from this smart content change.
The ideal outcome from a ‘testing culture’ is discovering something about your customers that your competitors don’t know (yet!). Experimental ideas and counter-intuitive thinking do not usually have any data to support their hypothesis, thus quick and frequent testing can provide data for effective decision making.
A hypothetical situation of applying this concept in practice.
- A QSR chain wants to increase loyalty redemptions from the least popular food options.
- Start by gathering insights from members who do purchase those food options (via surveys/quizzes/reviews).
- Use insights to develop unique interactive offers for other members (spin to win/bonus points/gamify the program).
- Profile members who respond to these offers to find ‘lookalike’ audiences to target with further offers.
When encountering a new idea or business challenge, embrace a ‘testing culture’ to effectively implement two pivotal loyalty marketing trends: hyper-targeting and progressive profiling. By honing in on even the smallest details, you can unlock substantial revenue opportunities.
So what does successful testing look like? Firstly you must create a ‘control’ group – otherwise it’s not really a ‘test’. Then answer these two key questions:
- What are you trying to achieve? The answer will define the measure/s of success.
- How are you planning to achieve it? The answer will determine the factor/s to test.
A real-time, zero party data platform is essential for crafting and delivering campaigns that make each message feel unique to each individual recipient. Testing new ideas and empowering marketing teams to launch them without needing developer resources is also essential. The Marigold martech suite is the ideal platform that can minimise production time and deliver email personalisation at scale.
