In the field of marketing there are certain techniques and resources that, until recently, have been exploited mainly by big companies. A good example are loyalty cards or customer cards, a perfect way to take care of your clientele and make each visit increase their contribution towards your business or brand.

 

Prizes incentivize return

Generally, loyalty cards work as a discounts or points-based card, rewarding your customers with different incentives for the purchases they make at your business.

There are different types of cards based on the benefits they give the customer. Some offer discounts systematically, others allow you to accumulate points that can be exchanged afterwards for products, etc.

In fact, many small and medium businesses have been using these cards for years, although in an informal way. For example, if a customer is a regular customer of yours, you tend to give them lower prices when they ask for discounts than you would if the customer is coming in for the first or second time.

In contrast, creating a customer card in a professional and organized way to do this – takes a little more work but undoubtedly has immense rewards. In a study conducted by Noverna on brand loyalty, it has been shown that some businesses are able to increase their turnover by more than 20% within one year of launching a loyalty system.  Thus increased sales is one of the most important advantage of having a loyalty program, but it isn’t the only one.

 

A wealth of marketing data

A client will only be interested in your loyalty card if they plan to make frequent future purchases from you. As a result, they can be very advantageous for the business data as well.

To mention one of the most relevant advantages, when a customer is registering themselves for the loyalty card, they will have to provide their personal information. This information will help you create an important database with the most relevant details of your target audience. Further down the line, this database will be of enormous help to you in terms of business decisions - from your policy of prices and offers, to future launching of new products or services offered by your company.

Another benefit of having a loyalty card for your customers is that with the aid of this card you can maintain a more fluid communication with them. For example, email address or contact number (particularly cellphone number) provided at the time of registration can be used as contact points to which you can send your promotions and offers.

How to promote a loyalty card

Offering an extra reason for your customer to return is the main objective of a loyalty card, but in addition, you can use it for different marketing actions such as:

  • Give exclusive access to events or product presentations related to your business.
  • Send a quarterly or monthly newsletter with information on new developments in your business and some discount coupons/inventory discounts.
  • Offer the possibility of reserving items or get much demanded services before other customers who do not subscribe to your business’s loyalty program.

These are just some of the advantages and ways of using the customer loyalty cards. In addition, putting this system in place has become relatively cheap in recent years and there are many companies who specialize in offering this type of service.