Posts tagged ‘customer loyalty programs’

April 8th, 2010

Using Digital Marketing to Promote Loyalty Programs

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From the CMO Council

A study by The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council surveyed over 600 marketers  to see how they promote their businesses through loyalty and rewards programs. Here is a summary of some of the results:

Digital marketing channels are definitely taking precedence in ways marketers promote their loyalty and rewards programs.

  • Nearly 60 percent rely on web sites
  • nearly 60 percent on email
  • 47 percent on word-of-mouth
  • 46 percent on point-of-sale information
  • 42 percent on direct mail
  • 39 percent on a sales or service representative.

Most member communication is monthly (30 percent), while 20 percent interact with members on a daily, weekly or bi-weekly basis.

The preferred mechanism for member communication is:

  • email is among 84 percent of marketers,
  • printed mailings and statements (51 percent)
  • corporate web sites (45 percent)
  • dedicated club sites (32 percent)
  • SMS text messaging (24 percent)
  • and social networks (16 percent)

“Targeting has taken on a very different meaning in today’s marketing mix,” stated Sandra Zoratti, VP of Global Solutions Marketing for InfoPrint Solutions Company. “Before, targeted messages relied on basic data to engage in rudimentary segmentation and single channel communication delivery. Today’s loyalty leaders are better leveraging customer insights to deliver highly personalized, multi-channel communications that are more relevant to the individual customer and provide for ongoing interaction and attachment.”

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The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The Leaders in Loyalty: Feeling the Love from the Loyalty Clubs is the latest research from the CMO Council, tapping into the insights of over 600 marketers, and gaining first hand perspective from the recipients of these programs in an audit of over 700 consumers. Visit www.cmocouncil.org and www.infoprint.com for more information.

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CategoryConsumer Behavior, Social Media | CommentNo Comments »

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March 8th, 2010

Don’t Lose Your Chance to Leverage Your Customer’s Loyalty

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by Ann Pruitt

Recent research from the CMO Council tapped into the insights of over 600 marketers regarding their use of customer loyalty programs. Unfortunately, marketers are not giving themselves high marks in meeting the needs of their business, and question their ability to meet the needs of the customer. They have challenges to face, but the rewards are worth it. What can marketers with loyalty programs do to leverage their customers’ loyalty?

1. Marketers need to extract greater value from customer loyalists. When it comes to in-depth profiling of customers, the vast majority of marketers still only aggregate and analyze limited customer data sets. Seventy-three percent collect basic demographics and 68 percent track the location of members, but critical insights – such as advocacy rates (14 percent), brand loyalty and attachment (27 percent), personal preferences (31 percent), satisfaction levels (33 percent), and product preferences (38 percent) – are  not being leveraged.

“Relevant profiling data continues to be a limiting factor in customer engagement,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, “Without a deeper customer insight, marketers will be limited in their ability to do meaningful predictive modeling, market segmentation and revenue forecasting. Better understanding of customer behaviors, predispositions, intentions and preferences enables more effective and relevant messaging. It is also an essential part of customer revenue optimization and lifetime value building,” Neale-May adds. 

2. Be aware, loyalty program operations are increasingly challenged. Some of the challenges:

  • Acquiring and retaining motivated and engaged participants is the number one problem facing 46 percent of marketers.
  • Measuring marketing value and effectiveness (42 percent)
  • Collecting, integrating and maintaining customer data (41 percent)
  • Deriving valuable insight and intelligence (38 percent)
  • Delivering more personalized offers and inducements (34 percent)
  • Creating more customized communications (33 percent)

With 79 percent of customers saying they are very satisfied, or pretty satisfied with their loyalty programs, marketing professionals have a real opportunity to further build their customers’  trust.

Don’t miss this opportunity – get more information about those customers!

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This content is from The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council , which is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries.

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CategoryGeneral Marketing, Marketing Best Practices | CommentNo Comments »

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January 28th, 2010

Marketers: Does Your Loyalty Program Stink?

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Do your customers love you?

A study done by The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council looked at how marketers are using customer loyalty programs to keep their customers. Here is a summary of the results:

Most marketers (61 percent) believe that loyalty program participants are the best and most profitable customers. So it is not surprising that an almost equal number of respondents (65percent) view customer loyalty program investments as a very essential, or a quite valuable part of the marketing mix. How are marketers doing building customer loyalty?

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  • Only 13 percent of respondents believe they have been highly effective in leveraging loyalty and brand preference among club members
  • nearly 20  percent don’t even have a strategy for this
  • 25 percent admit they have not mobilized brand loyalists to become active advocacy agents.

The study also reveals that marketers are mostly inducing loyalty with discounts or free products and premiums rather than quicker, better service or improved customer handling.

  • 39 percent of respondents view discounts and savings as the key member benefits
  • 34 percent view free products and premiums as essential incentives
  • 33 percent are committed to offering points for merchandise redemption as a further motivator.

When asked to outline typical customer complaints about loyalty programs:

  • nearly 30 percent of marketers report that some customers see little or no added value to becoming a loyalty member
  • 24 percent indicate rewards lack substance
  • a similar percentage feel they don’t get enough personalized attention
  • 21 percent have problems with receiving too much spam email and junk mail.
  • 23 percent of customer complaints touch on a lack of individualized communication
  • 18 percent have issues with redeeming points and miles.

Both customers and marketers agree that deeper engagement and personalized contact drives loyalty, not mass blast communications and gimmicks.

Despite these challenges, investments in loyalty programs will continue as nearly 80 percent of marketers are committed to maintaining or further funding loyalty programs as customer retention and relationship building vehicles. Over 34 percent report they are significantly increasing their commitments, and 45.9 are maintaining their current commitments. Just 4 percent expect to discontinue their programs.

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The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The Leaders in Loyalty: Feeling the Love from the Loyalty Clubs is the latest research from the CMO Council. Visit www.cmocouncil.org and www.infoprint.com for more information.

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CategoryGeneral Marketing, Marketing Techniques, Public Relations | CommentNo Comments »

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