Building anticipation for loyalty program is important once you create an excellent one. “You build, people will come,” will never work in the real world. If that were the case, the most successful businesses would never invest in marketing, isn’t it?

The average American household has 16.6 loyalty program memberships to their name. Launching customer rewards on Shopify stores requires a lot of thought and inventiveness into it. Why? Since most of your customers have dealt with loyalty programs one way or the other. Creating buzzworthy loyalty rewards on Shopify stores that pique the interest of customers, should be your goal.

Loyalty Program Announcement Ideas:

We look at some of the best ways to create buzz for your Shopify loyalty program launch. With messages from brands increasing with each passing day, the level of noise that you must pass through to be heard is incredible. Your Shopify store engagement tactics can get an impetus with the right loyalty program. Let’s look at some of the best ways to make the launch of your loyalty program a success.

Leverage Social Media:

Every marketing pundit would admit that social media is one of the best channels to reach out to your customer base, no matter how diversified they are. You can find your target audience lurking in at least one or two of the channels, that’s a given. Spread the word about your loyalty program launch at every touchpoint. It can also be a major part of your omnichannel experience. Promote the program launch on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, etc. Make sure you choose at least one or two channels that most of your target base spends more time on.

Offer Incentives to Join:

In the loyalty program pre-launch campaign, the easiest way to get more people interested is to offer them discounts or points when they sign up. An incentive that is given upfront will improve the conversion rate with ease. Try to make the members achieve some kind of perks or incentives without a lot of effort. For example, they could get an incentive just to “like” one of your posts. It immediately boosts the value of your loyalty program in their eyes. Offering rewards immediately will be one of the most important reasons for your Shopify loyalty program success stories.

Email Marketing to Increase Reach:

Marketers know the power of email marketing, and this is easily one of the most effective Shopify loyalty program marketing tips. There is no other channel that gives such intimate access to its customers. When launching a new loyalty program, one of the most important tools you must use is email. From sending announcement emails to nurturing the target audience to adopt your loyalty program, there is so much that email marketing can do.

Explain in your emails about what your loyalty program looks like, what are the perks and incentives available, and how they can participate to get incentives. You have full control over what you want your customers to do after each email.

Create a Loyalty Program Landing Page:

One of the main reasons why loyalty program launch events don’t get a lot of traction is because of a lack of awareness. It is imperative that you create a separate landing page that has a detailed explanation, preferably in the form of a video. The explainer video should contain information about the different kinds of perks and incentives available, and how one can earn and redeem them.

Reach Out Using Existing Assets:

Your existing customers, employees, third-party vendors, and old customers are all part of your assets. It is wise to leverage their reach to grab more eyeballs for your loyalty program’s launch. Creating excitement for rewards program can be a tiring affair, especially if everyone you are trying to reach out to doesn’t know who you are as a brand. This is why reaching out to familiar faces can make the process a bit more tolerable.

• Your employees will be a great asset to turn to. They can be one of the forces that spread the word about your loyalty program
• Use spaces inside the app and website. Physical stores can use in-store marketing, such as in-store banners, window ads, flyers, etc
• Tap into the list of your existing customers
• Reach out to consumers who are a part of your targeted audience and have at least interacted with your brand once
• Spread the word about your loyalty program through your packaging materials

Leverage Marketing Automation:

Sending the same type of messaging to all of your customers might not work well or give you the right results. The best way to get more customers interested in your loyalty program is to segment them based on a variety of characteristics. With the help of excellent loyalty program software, you can automate the messages based on the segments and promote your reward program accordingly.

Make It Easy to Use:

One of the biggest problems with eCommerce stores and their loyalty program is that the entire process is a little too confusing for most people. Knowing how to be a part of the program, understanding the incentives and perks on offer, how to accumulate points, and the process to get rewarded should be incredibly easy to understand. Customer retention with loyalty programs is possible only when customers find it easy to use.

While you can create different content types to help them understand more about your program, it would not be wise to make a program that is not confusing to understand.

Contests and Giveaways:

Giving something for free in the form of contests and giveaways is a great way to create buzz around your loyalty program. A simple competition like creating User-Generated Content (UGC) that customers must post online using your branded hashtag where the one with the highest engagement wins. This will end up bringing more new people into the fold, and they might eventually become your paying customers too.

Work With Micro-Influencers:

If you have a super attractive reward for customers during the launch of your loyalty program, you can bank on micro-influencers from your niche. Micro-influencers are those who have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 subscribers. These influencers have more influence since their audience is more engaged with their content. You can leverage the attractive rewards and request the influencers to use them as a selling point while they create content for your brand.

Create Urgency:

Marketers swear by the effectiveness of creating urgency in your marketing messaging. Exclusive deals, countdown timers, and limited-time offers are great ways to persuade them to buy your loyalty program without too much thought. Show them testimonials, including videos of how customers are enjoying the program. Scarcity and social proof are psychological principles that influence the decision-making capability of the customers. Something that is available only in limited-quantities or is intensely desirable, will be easily sold than a product that is available at all times.

Wrapping Up:

Launching points system on Shopify is not an easy exercise. There is a lot of technology, effort, resources, and time that must be invested in. If you don’t have previous expertise in doing it, the whole program can be a failure. This is why you must work with professionals who have created successful loyalty programs.

If you don’t have a loyalty program in place yet, you have come to the right place. 99minds will be thrilled to launch your loyalty program. Get in touch with us and we can show you how to get it done.