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Keeping customers engaged and interested in your points program is key to the success of your program.These guidelines will help to boost your points program performance.

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Step 1: Make your first reward easy to earn

Earning rewards is the primary motivator for customers joining your program. Getting a reward is what is truly motivating - not the accumulation of points. That is why you want customers to get rewarded quickly. You can use welcome points and birthday rewards to push each new customer’s points balance closer to your first reward. Closing the gap between them and their first reward will motivate additional purchases that allow them to redeem for that first valuable reward.
Tip: If it takes too many purchases to earn a reward, customers won’t be able to find value and will lose interest in your program.

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Step 2: Keep your program easy to understand

When you complicate the way your program is set up, it makes it extremely difficult for customers to understand how to join, how to participate, and the value they can get from it.

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You can simplify your program by doing the following things:

  • Start with 5 or less ways to earn points
  • Start with 5 or less different rewards
By starting simple, you can add new earning and spending rules over time to maximize the value of your program. Making changes in stages also gives you an ongoing reason to market your program to your customers, creating a continuous communication loop that gives you more opportunities to create engaged repeat customers.

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Step 3: Brand your program

Your rewards program shouldn’t be an afterthought, so don’t treat it like one! Customers are more likely to engage with your program if it looks and feels like an extension of your brand. By incorporating it into your complete customer experience, you show your customers that you care about your program. This will prompt them to care in return! You can brand your program by:
Tip: Our 5 step guide will make sure you’ve considered every important detail of branding your rewards program.
You can also emphasize your program’s branding by including it in more areas of your customer experience, including:
  • A dedicated program page
  • Your store’s navigation bar
  • Homepage banners or calls-to-action
  • Email marketing
Tip: If you’re on a Smile paid plan, you can easily put together an amazing email marketing campaign with any of our email service provider (ESP) Smile Apps.