Category: Acquire Social Traffic

Cracking The Code of Gen-Z Loyalty Programs

Gen-Z Loyalty Programs and How to Create One

In today’s ever-changing business landscape, Gen-Z has emerged as a force to be reckoned with.

This tech-savvy, socially conscious customer segment often has different values, preferences, and expectations than other generations. They are prone to be less loyal to brands. Gen-Z are savvy shoppers and tend to shop around for the best deals. This has left brands striving to develop loyalty strategies to attract Gen-Z.

Creating a loyalty program for Gen-Z requires a deep understanding of their values and preferences, data savviness, deploying appropriate technological tools and building the right partnerships.

Here are some key strategies for creating a winning loyalty program for a Gen-Z audience:

Personalization

Gen-Z values personalized experiences and rewards. Personalization requires access to data which is increasingly harder to come by due to the latest privacy regulations.

I’ve found the best strategy to get data is to make it an even exchange. If you give customers some value, they will be more willing to share data with you. Consequently, loyalty programs have emerged as a dominant strategy for data collection. Customers can be rewarded for taking surveys, providing feedback, etc. All this data can then be used for personalization.

A 2020 Oracle report found that 66% of Gen-Zers want personalized recommendations from an app while browsing in-store, and over 50% are willing to share their data to receive personalized rewards. Brands using data analytics can quickly tailor rewards and recommendations that resonate with individual customers.

A great example to consider is EasyJet, which used customer data to develop personalized stories for individual customers highlighting where they have traveled with EasyJet in the previous 20 years. The emails were highly creative, with dynamic content, images, and links. The result of the campaign was a 25% higher click-through rate and a 100% higher open rate than their average newsletter.

Personalization at scale doesn’t just retain customers once-off; it helps show customers they are valued and boosts their lifetime value.

Experiential Rewards

While the traditional point-based model with discounts and cashback rewards may have worked for the older generations, they aren’t always enough to retain Gen-Z.

Like Millennials, many Gen-Z customers prefer to spend money on experiences rather than material possessions. I’ve found Gen-Z customers find rewards not commonly available, such as backstage passes, VIP access or limited edition products, more appealing than cashbacks and discounts. In addition, research has shown that 70% of Gen-Z belong to a paid loyalty program, indicating that Gen-Z is ready to pay more to get those extra and exclusive perks.

For example, Sephora’s Beauty Insider program offers exclusive rewards such as early access to new products, limited edition products and more. This and other exclusive programs have helped Sephora build a loyal following among Gen-Zers who value these experiences.

Transactional rewards drive sales, while experiential ones can boost total customer lifetime value and nurture long-term brand loyalty.

Reward customers for soft actions that are not transactional but still offer value to the business. These actions include social media interactions, giving feedback, taking a quiz, watching videos or even just visiting the website.

Omnichannel Engagement

Gen-Z is the first generation to grow up with smartphones and digital technology. Many have short attention spans and are often quick to move on if things are too slow. And they demand the same from loyalty programs. If you want to retain Gen-Z, mobile-first loyalty programs that are easy to use, support digital payments and digital ordering, and implement the latest loyalty technology to interact with customers are your best bet.

For example, restaurants can consider using a mobile app to engage customers and offer personalized rewards. By offering mobile ordering and payment, you can make the customer experience seamless and convenient.

Social Responsibility

A 2020 report found that 73% of Gen-Zers are willing to pay more for sustainable products, and many also want companies to be socially responsible. Gen-Z do not shy from making their views known and standing up for social and political issues.

They prefer to shop with brands that share their values and are not completely profit-oriented. Companies like TOMS, which donates a portion of its profits to charity and supports social causes such as ending gun violence and improving mental health, may be able to connect better with Gen-Z customers. Sustainable loyalty programs aligned with charities or offering eco-friendly rewards, give customers a chance to help social causes and portray the business positively.

But, Gen-Z has the habit of thoroughly researching a brand and is good at identifying fake attempts to embrace CSR. Being genuine about your CSR efforts gives Gen-Z confidence to trust your brand.

Gamification And Challenges

Being a competitive generation, almost 60% of Gen-Z play video games or mobile games at least once a week. Brands can leverage this competitiveness to engage with Gen-Z by launching gamified loyalty programs. Popular gamification elements among Gen-Z include challenges, leaderboards, and rewards for achieving certain milestones. These elements can increase engagement and foster a sense of community among customers.

With gamification in loyalty programs, finding the right balance of effort and reward is crucial to maximizing engagement and program impact. This can be challenging as each customer is different. I suggest brands analyze transactional and behavioral data to understand their active customers and utilize technologies such as AI/ML to ensure that the rewards match every customer’s engagement level.

Ultimately, Gen-Z has significant buying power, estimated at $360 billion in 2022. With their unique characteristics and buying behavior, it is challenging for brands to deploy effective loyalty programs that work for them.

I believe that by employing loyalty strategies that incorporate personalization, convenience, and consistency brands can drive loyalty and foster long-term relationships with this generation.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

How To Unlock The Potential Of Brand Advocates With Advocacy Marketing

A few years back, influencer marketing was an up-and-coming modality that was setting the industry ablaze. Today, the phrases “advocacy marketing” or “advocate marketing” are beginning to flood the internet in the same fashion that influencer marketing once did.

The reason these buzzwords are cropping up all over the web is because advocacy marketing is a powerful new way to drive significant results. Advocate marketing is no flash in the pan or passing trend, either. This marketing tactic has the potential to become one of the most universally lauded and leveraged modalities because of who it leverages and how.

Advocate marketing is all about your customers. These are the superstars of your content, campaigns, and growth. Advocacy marketing works by engaging your most loyal of followers and leveraging these supporters, or “advocates”, to help spread your business through word-of-mouth advertising. And word-of-mouth is the most powerful form of promotion there is.

As it stands, 92% of consumers trust the recommendations of other individuals, even if they don’t know them personally. This is part of why consumer reviews are so critical. And in the age of social media, word-of-mouth praise can travel further than ever before. Hence why advocate marketing is becoming so important.

But it’s not just the peer-to-peer influence that advocate marketing can breathe new life into; it can generate compelling new content, bring brand loyalty to astonishing new heights, and help you build a full-fledged community around your brand.

If you are finding your interest piqued by the potential benefits this form of marketing can bring, then read on. Regardless if you are B2B or B2C, this is how you can establish your own community of brand advocates.

Getting Started

Truth be told, assembling a community of brand advocates is not rocket science and can even be fairly simple. Start by compiling a list a customers from your CRM and email them with the simple ask of posting an online review or referring someone they know to your company. Once they have completed said task, recognize their service and send them a gift card, a free product, or even just a heartfelt email thanking them.

Once you run through your list, however, you cannot continue to spam the same group of people. They will get tired of your requests and burnt out on your brand. This is why building an all-out community is necessary.

A Company Congregation

In order for advocacy marketing to provide you more than a few referrals and a handful of reviews, it is pertinent to build a community of advocates. The first step in building this digital colony relies on setting goals. Without the proper objectives and milestones in place, your program will be no more than the blind leading the blind. Establish the goals you wish to achieve through an advocacy program and align these with your business’s overall ambitions.

The next step is arguably the most important aspect of advocate marketing – get intimate with your audience. Your advocates will not take action unless your company compels them to. In order to be compelling, you must know your advocates inside and out; where they work, their interests, pain points, hobbies, hopes, dreams, and so forth. As with any marketing campaign, your message will never land if you don’t know the audience you are aiming for.

While knowing your advocates is massively important, so are the tasks or challenges that you send them. If you continually send requests to refer people or share your latest blog post, people will lose interest – fast. Keep folks entertained; send out quizzes, quirky assignments, games, and other materials that will keep advocates entertained and intrigued. Gamification is a powerful motivational tool; you can establish a points systems with leaderboards so that there is a competitive element to your community. Make them smile, laugh, and most importantly, want to engage with what you are sending out. You want folks to look forward to your emails.

As the community grows, remember that this is not an isolated following; engage other teams within your company as they can benefit just as much. Advocates can provide insights to your content and marketing teams, beta testers for product development, feedback for customer service, new leads for sales, and can help virtually support any other team within your organization. Be sure to also educate all involved teams so that they can have a clear understanding of how advocates can be leveraged.

At a certain point, you will need to build a dedicated location for your advocates to convene. Establishing a central advocate “hangout” gives these folks a sense of community, allows them to engage with each other, lets them swap ideas and stories, and enables a deeper sense of connection, making the community even stronger and more valuable.

In many ways, advocacy marketing is the future of marketing itself. The internet and social media has taken the power out of the hands of advertisers and placed it squarely in those of the consumer. Advocate marketing plays into that dynamic and amplifies the messages that your customers are already sharing. If you want your marketing dollars to go further than ever, and your brand loyalty to run deeper than you ever thought possible, it’s time to enter into the arena of advocacy marketing.

About The Author

Tina Courtney-ShopSocially

Conscious online marketer, Web executive, and multi-faceted writer, Tina Courtney has been creating and fostering online innovations since 1996. She’s produced and marketed innovative content for major players like Disney and JDate, as well as boutique startups galore, with fortes including social media, SEO, influencer marketing, community management, lead generation, and project management. Tina is also a certified Reiki practitioner, herbalist, and accomplished life coach. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+. Learn more here.

4 Ways To Build Customer Loyalty Using Social Media

There’s no doubt consumers have become increasingly demanding around how brands engage with them via social media platforms.

According to Exact Target, 89% of customers will switch brands following a poor customer-service experience. This puts serious pressure on marketers to find ways to ensure all possible customer service channels – including social – are ready to properly and quickly respond quickly to comments, complaints and queries.

One way many brands are attempting to maintain customer loyalty is through the use of customer loyalty programs (e.g., rewards programs, point programs, etc.). However, these programs alone aren’t enough. Brands need to adopt a number of customer-centric strategies to build loyalty around their brand in order to make these customer loyalty programs successful.

This post will highlight four ways social media can be used as a tool to build loyal customers, and to reinforce your company’s loyalty programs.

Zinrelo_Loyalty_Beeloyal_Banner1

1. Social Customer Care 

According to research from the Aberdeen Group, companies who have a social care program experience a 7.5% year over year increase in retention (compared to just 2.9% for those who don’t have one).

But what does an effective social customer care program look like? At its foundation, it’s simply being attentive to and responding to customer complaints, comments and queries.

jetBlue is a great example of a company that excels at social customer service.

Zinrelo_jetblue_image1

They respond to customer queries on Twitter in great detail, often within minutes. While Twitter isn’t their primary channel customer service (that would obviously be phone or email), monitoring mentions allows them to address concerns that may not otherwise have made it onto their radar.

This goes a long way to protecting their reputation, preserving customer loyalty and to potentially attracting new customers.

2. Direct Engagement

Too often, social media is just brands broadcasting their message to their fans and followers. Unfortunately, this does very little (if anything) to build customer loyalty.

Instead of being a nameless, faceless brand who broadcasts to the masses, incorporate direct, personal engagement into your strategy. Obviously you can’t respond to every comment or mention. But you can make efforts to directly engage in a number of ways, including:

  • • Monitoring and responding to social media mentions of your business or products
  • • Sharing or retweeting customer posts
  • • ‘Liking’ all Facebook comments to show you’ve read them
  • • Mentioning fans or followers in your posts

The short of it is this: To increase customer loyalty, don’t just broadcast – respond and engage.

3. Create A Community

Part of building loyalty is engaging in both brand and non brand-related conversations with your audience.

Much of social media marketing is about expanding your reach and visibility, rather than going deeper with your current followers and customers. Yet this is one of the keys to achieving customer loyalty on social media.  

The loyalty-building strategies covered in this post will all help to build community. However, building community also requires intent. Some ways you can do this include:

  • • Networking and participating in other people’s communities (OPC’s) to increase your reputation in your field
  • • Sharing user-generated content to show your followers you see and value their contributions
  • • Creating your own Facebook and Linked groups and Twitter chats to have one-on-one conversations with your customers and prospects
  • • Promoting/mentioning others as a way to bring them into your community. Not everyone is going to go out of their way to connect with your brand; it may take some strategic outreach on your part.

Nordstrom has managed to create a community on a rather unexpected social platform – Reddit. r/Nordstrom1901 was created a little over a year ago as a subreddit “not for marketing purposes, but for service and engaging with redditors” (from their reddit intro).

Zinrelo_reddit_image2

Fans and customers of the upscale fashion retailer can ask questions, participate in Q&As and offer feedback about Nordstrom, fashion or retail. This has allowed them to maintain transparent communication with their audience, increasing loyalty and positive sentiment for their brand.

4. Maintain A Consistent Identity Across Platforms

While you’ll engage differently depending on the platform, your general tone, values and messaging should remain consistent. If they’re not, you could be confusing your audience, diluting your influence and actually decreasing customer loyalty.

That said, you do need to adapt your approach depending on the medium. This involves understanding how your customers and prospects want to connect with you on each platform.

Are they there expecting speedy customer service? Are they primarily there for the discounts and promotions? Or maybe they just want to participate in your online community?

Know why your fans or followers are connecting with you on each platform, and make sure you’re delivering.

Final Thoughts

Every action your brand takes on social media can either build up or destroy customer loyalty. Having a customer loyalty program is a great first step, but needs to be reinforced by loyalty-building strategies like the ones above. In a recent survey I conducted of 357 online marketers called “What Works in Online Marketing,” 96% of respondents said they planned to increase or keep their budgets for social media marketing the same over the next year. Clearly, social media offers more value to marketers than just a boost in customer loyalty, so you’d be wise to get started with social media if you haven’t already.

How do you build customer loyalty through social media? Share below!

About The Author

 

Jayson DeMers is the founder & CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based content marketing & social media agency. You can contact him on LinkedIn, Google+, or Twitter.