Small Business Marketing News
U.S. Consumers Participate In Five Or More Multiple Customer Loyalty Programs
Written by Tim Morral
Published: 8/16/2012
Most Americans participate in multiple loyalty programs, demonstrating why customer loyalty needs to be a part of every small business sales and marketing strategy.
Although efforts to attract new customers are often the focus of many small business marketing strategies, customer retention and customer loyalty programs are just as important to bottom line revenue. A recent study shows why customer loyalty programs are so important with large numbers of consumers confirming that they participate in multiple loyalty programs.
According to Polaris Marketing Research, most Americans participate in five or more customer loyalty programs. Across the board, consumers report the highest level of participation in grocery loyalty programs. But while women are more likely to participate in retail loyalty programs, men favor service-related loyalty programs (e.g. hotel, car rental, etc.).
"While both men and women equally participate in loyalty programs, women tend to use it more frequently. Women are significantly more likely than men to use loyalty programs "all the time" for grocery and retail shopping. In fact, women were more likely to use all loyalty programs mentioned more than men," said Polaris President Jan Carlson.
Polaris also reports that women use loyalty opportunities much more frequently than men, saying that they use loyalty cards "all the time" compared to men, who report using loyalty cards only "sometimes".
For business owners, gender variations in the use of loyalty programs may present opportunities to target specific groups of customers for repeat business. But in general, it's more important for small businesses to learn how to improve customer loyalty across all demographics and to understand how a loyalty agenda can be used to boost the company's overall financial condition.
To increase the impact and ROI of loyalty programs, some merchants are turning to apps that enable companies to offer rewards (e.g. discounts and giveaways) in exchange for purchases or social media shares. With the number of loyalty apps exploding in the marketplace, some promising solutions for this type of technology include newly launched Spoton and market leader GoRecommend from Empathica.
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