Building relationships with customers is a lot like building personal relationships. If all you ever do is talk about yourself and tell everyone how great you are, people will start to tune you out and walk away. Customers are more interested in what you can do for them and how you can make them happy. One way to do that is to provide offers that resonate with them.
It is the right mix of products and pricing, combined with technology and the right creative that makes offers compelling to your customers. And technology is more than just what software marketers use to communicate with. It also includes collecting and using first-party data that consumers provide to make sure brands are getting the offer details right.
When the brand experience meets the customer experience head on, that is how brands create loyal customers.
Personalized offers
Every customer is different and has their own preferences. They share these preferences with brands through their past purchases and their current behavior. Marketers need to make sure they incorporate this data into every offer they send to customers. If a customer’s buying habits change, but these new orders include a different shipping address, it is likely there is new gift recipient in their lives. Marketers need to find the right balance of testing offers in new categories with continuing to offer products in historic categories.
Localized offers
Just like every customer is different, so is every enterprise brand. Whether a business operates across the globe or across the street, marketers need to manage offers in ways that fit the business. That could be managing everything from a central location, or providing the tools for regional locations – or even franchisees – to manage their own offers based on a global plan. Even a brand located in a single country could have enough regional differences due to weather patterns and local activities.
Promo codes
Promo codes make it easy for customers to take advantage of special offers. The more flexibility marketers have in creating promo codes, the easier it is for them to have impact. Use customers’ preferences to create codes that are most meaningful to them. Create one-time use codes as a surprise gift to a segment of customers. Share multi-use codes to easily manage loyalty rewards. Distribute codes across a variety of channels so customers can use them immediately.
Rewards store
Remember going to an arcade and getting that long string of tickets after every skeeball game? And remember how much fun it was to cash in those tickets for the prizes. A rewards store should provide that much fun and excitement for customers when they redeem their earned loyalty points for rewards. And it also needs to be accessible from all of customers’ favorite platforms.
Brand advocacy
These offers add up to revenue and loyalty, but they also create happy customers. And happy customers are the ones who shout a brand’s praises from the rooftops. They also tell their friends and family members, both in person and online. These are the kinds of customers every brand is looking to gain and nurture. It’s better for business and better for the bottom line.
