Tips to Grow Micro-Influencer Using the Loyalty Program

Many brands spend a lot of money on SEO, marketing, Facebook, Instagram, and Google advertising as well as influencer marketing to earn more customers. Major firms have a significant focus on customer acquisition.

On the other side, few give high emphasis on customer retention. Loyalty program assists in gaining more loyal customers and in growing micro-influencers.

Why invest in a loyalty program?

There is way more chance of selling to an existing customer than selling to new ones. You need more money to gain new customers as compared to retaining a customer you already have.

Loyal customers will be with you, and the least dependable will go with your competitors. The primary strategy and budget should concentrate on keeping them for a long time. Your loyal customers can bring new customers, and it will reduce your support costs and fuel the loyalty circle.

Importance of micro-influencers

The influencers are those who have millions of fans on social media and who make tons of money because of brand sponsorships. There are various types of influencers in several areas. But, the micro-influencers having fewer followers, are considered as the most effective type of influencers. Their lack of fame makes their approach very useful.

In this blog, you will know how to grow a micro-influencer using the loyalty program.

How to Build Loyalty?

To keep your customer loyal, you need to create some strategies and have to implement them to know which works best. There are a total of three must add ingredients to build a loyalty program. A mixture of strategy, approach, and tools can make any customers loyal.

What is the meaning of loyalty program and type of loyalty program?

An influencer loyalty program is one that rewards customers for their loyalty. The influencer loyalty program can be divided into majorly three parts.

Point-based loyalty program– In this loyalty program, customers are encouraged for their loyalty by offering loyalty points.
Tier-based loyalty program – In this loyalty program, you can divide customer loyalty into tiers, and customers of high loyalty are offered more discounts.
Premium – You can create a community page when customers pay a one-off annual or monthly payment for benefits.

Recommendations over advertising

Your whole budget goes into retention if you concentrate only on rewarding customers. You can also build some loyalty and utilize this budget to gain more customers.

For instance, what could be higher than your customers sharing your content on social media? They are doing massive marketing for you in this way. You can turn your customers into micro-influencers and marketers by rewarding them for engagement.

CX (Customer Experience)

It is essential to know the experience of the customers. It is imperative to keep your customers loyal. The brands should see how the customers feel after interacting with your store or product.

Monetary rewards are not the only thing that makes customers happy. User-experience plays a significant role in this. Make sure your customers are experiencing positive vibes. You need to fulfill their expectations and needs. Customer experience is the best way to implement an influencer loyalty program.

Consistent and valuable content

Content is the King’- If you want to keep your customers loyal, then the content is the crucial part. Content could be anything that helps customers regarding the products. Your content may include blog posts, infographics, videos, photos, quizzes, guides, tutorials, and many more.

Content should be consistent, as well as valuable. It should contain relevant information that helps to build loyalty among the customers.

Key metrics

You have put your legs in all the above-recommended strategies. Now, it is time to measure success. Below we have explained some key metrics to measure the effectiveness. You can check whether your loyalty initiatives have met your own and customers’ expectations or not.

1. Customer Retention Rate – CRR

The percentage of customers who stay on your boat compared to the initial stage is the Customer Retention Rate. You can measure it every month as well as quarterly and annually.

2. Customer churn rate – CRR

What is the opposite of CRR? It is a Customer Churn Rate. When people stop taking an interest in your website, then the rate of CRR arises. Calculating the CCR could be a tricky task. For example, if someone is purchasing from your site on average once in 30 days and now he or she has stopped doing this, then you can consider it in CCR.

3. Repeat Purchase Rate – RPR

One more way to analyze customer loyalty is Repeat Purchase Rate. Loyal customers tend to buy from your store more than usual. It is an excellent way to measure performance, indeed. The simple formula to know RPR is to divide the number of customers who purchased more than once by the number of total customers.

4. Average Order Value – AOV

Average Order Value should be increasing whenever the customer purchases from your store. If you can increase the AOV among your customers, that means you can put less effort into acquiring new ones.

5. Net promoter score – NPS

Net promoter score is a simple process, where you need to ask one question to your customers. “On the scale of 1-10, how likely is it that you would recommend our brand to a friend or colleague?”

If NPS>9, that means they are soon to be Micro-Influencer
If NPS<6, they are not happy with the service

6. Customer Lifetime Value – CLV

The total amount of money a customer spends on your brand from the beginning to the end of a relationship is known as Customer Lifetime Value. CLV is also one of the fantastic ways to measure customer loyalty. The higher the value of CLV, the higher is your reliability.

7. Social media content – SME

You can also analyze the engagement on social media content. If you are working with micro-influencers, these numbers need to progress tremendously. One of the best ways to measure social media engagement is to compare likes and shares with the previous posts.

Parting thoughts on tips to grow micro-influencers by using the loyalty program

We hope that the points, as mentioned above, will help you to begin a successful customer loyalty strategy. The loyalty program can turn your customers into micro-influencers. Every brand admires customers who are loyal to their products.

If you are willing to implement a loyalty program in your company, feel free to get in touch with us at LoyaltyXpert.

Why You Should Have an Employee Loyalty Program

One of the most desirable traits in the workforce is employee loyalty. It shows genuine commitment to the company, helps reduce attrition, and builds a sense of trust the organization can rely on. Implementing an employee loyalty program can further strengthen this bond by recognizing and rewarding dedication, ultimately driving long-term success.

Sign of Loyal Employees in the Workplace

The signs of a loyal employee in the workplace include:

Loyal employees will tell you whenever you are not right. They will not keep themselves silent. They will treat you more like a person they admire instead of the superior they report to.
They will never openly show criticism during a team meeting or gathering for your activities or actions. They will express their difference of opinion in private.
Loyal employees show support to you for your deed in public. They tell you about their decision and explain before they leave.

Reasons Why Businesses Should Have an Employee Loyalty Program

There are several reasons why businesses should have an employee loyalty program. The most important reasons for having an employee loyalty program include:

1. Intrinsic Motivation

You must have done an activity or consistently pushed a limit with a person you love. Intrinsic motivation is the feeling of getting inspired to achieve things because you do not want some outside forces pushing you to make things happen.

People often get confused between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Let’s see the difference between them using examples.

For example, you are working out and eating healthy food because you have to attend the marriage function of your brother very soon, and you want to look aesthetic and fit. It is intrinsic motivation.

2. Extrinsic Motivation

For example, you are doing work because your boss will scold you if you do not meet the deadline. It is extrinsic motivation.
Employee Loyalty programs are created to build intrinsic motivation within your workforce through positive reinforcement.

3. High Performance

A program that acknowledges employees purely on seniority or time spent on achieving the task basis sets the team up for minimized productivity. So, setting up a loyalty program for employees is necessary for the company’s values.
If you do not offer an incentive if an employee completes the task early and does not reward for seniority, it can make employees feel unseen.

You can create an employee loyalty program along with different opportunities for recognition or rewards. If you want a highly productive team, develop rewards for top-notch quality work.

4. Commitment

It is the most essential as well as the rare quality you can have in an employee. Commitment does not mean staying at the office. It means giving the best that you can for the betterment of the organization to make your contribution meaningful.

If you want to have truly committed employees, you have to make them feel that their contribution matters, their efforts are appreciated, and the company requires them. Employees who feel supported and recognized by the organizations are always dedicated to the growth of the firm.

It is the moment when loyalty programs support the security of their most committed employees. You build a balanced relationship between the company and employees by showing them that you are also devoted to them as they are to you.

5. Retention

The employee loyalty program helps the company hold onto its team members. It does not matter whether you have a small team or a multinational corporation; you need to set back both financially. In achieving your business goals, if you lose some of the best and brightest employees, then it lowers the morale of the team.

Applying an employee loyalty scheme rewards the team members for their actions and creates a meaningful, thriving company culture. It sets the standard for expectations. Employee Loyalty programs teach your teammates that they will get appreciation and acknowledgement for their valuable contributions.

Why the Employee Loyalty Program is Essential for the Company’s Growth

Employee Loyalty Programs are much more efficient than traditional incentive schemes, as conventional incentive schemes are solely based on periodic achievement and reviews.

One can create an employee loyalty program with a constant and on-the-spot appreciation for employee acknowledgement and actions such as manager, HR, Peers, and other authorized personal awards.

You can award the employees for a wide range of positive outcomes from their side such as

Compliance
Attendance
Wellness
Safety
Task completion
Training
Ideas, and a lot more

It is proven that an employee feels more acknowledged and motivated after doing an award-worthy action. Establishing an employee loyalty program can bring out a positive work atmosphere.

How to Enhance Employee Loyalty in the Workplace?

Here are some ways to enhance employees’ loyalty in the workplace.

1. Be Transparent

It creates a lot of stress while working in an uncertain environment in an office. So, employers should promote a predictable working atmosphere and develop transparency. It is essential to let the employees know about new developments in advance.

2. Public Appreciation and Recognition

It is essential to make your employees feel appreciated by awards and recognition. This sense of gratitude builds employee engagement.

3. Flexible working environment

Provide more control to the employees for their work. It will be best if you give your workers the authority and elasticity to make choices. By flexibility, it means enabling them to set their working hours and work-from-home plans. These actions will give you employee gratification, which is essential for employee loyalty.

Key Takeaway

The loyalty of the employee is a vital sign of employee engagement. It displays that employees admire the company. So, as employers, you must take every step to ensure employee engagement in your workforce. If you have a loyal and committed employee, then it is suitable for the growth of both you and your company.

Competence is trainable, while loyalty is not. Leaders of the present must understand that. It only cultivates over time. So, put in your best attempts and be composed. Very Soon, you will be having a bunch of loyal employees willing to progress together with you.

LoyaltyXpert launched a new website

LoyaltyXpert muses glad to launch its new website to enable its prospective customers to make effective use of a broad range of solutions and services. It gives you complete freedom to manage your loyalty program completely.

About LoyaltyXpert company:

LoyaltyXpert is a part of Ecosmob, a global leader in enterprise-grade VoIP technologies, software development, and excellent artificial intelligence solution providers. It is a prominent loyalty program software in India which offers unique solutions combined with high retention strategies. It guarantees an ideal mix of functionality and flexibility to handle and run your loyalty programs for small businesses.

Features and function section of LoyaltyXpert newly launched website:

LoyaltyXpert has launched a new Website with unique features and functionalities. Few of the features include:

Tenant Admin Features:

The tenant admin is the backend feature where you can set up users in your business and allow rights to them as well as set up and handle your clients and track their activity. Few of its specialties include:

Product Management: Build multiple product groups, assign costs & loyalty points in just a few steps.
Customer Management: Create multiple consumer groups & keep a tab on customer engagement activities.
Role Management: Allow users to manage customers.
User Management: Create and control users with a feature-rich backend portal and dashboard.
Refer and Earn: Reward users through online referral programs.
SMS/Notifications: Reach out to loyalty users with just one click.
Loyalty and Redemption: Multiple options for Loyalty accruals and rewards managed online.
Rules and Promotion: Define rules, plan promotions, deploy strategies with absolute ease, and full control.

Mobile App Features:

Mobile app users can access real-time updated data concerning their loyalty account status.

Redemption Reports: Updated redemption history is regularly available for loyalty users using this app.
Loyalty Points: Real-time refresh and updates on collected loyalty points.
Scan QR Code: Generate your QR code for your multiple products.
Profile Management: Let users design and upload profiles and view current profiles.
Offers & Promotions: Draw particular customer groups with relevant offers and promotions.
KYC Details: Auto KYC through aadhaar authentication and such other third party integrations.
Bank Details: Users can easily add a bank of choice for receiving online redemption.

Solutions offered by LoyaltyXpert:

We are happy to launch new solutions, and our solutions include:

Brand Loyalty Program: Brand Loyalty lets consumers connect to your brand and make them stay faithful to the brand.
Channel Loyalty Program: Channel loyalty program converges on dealers, distributors, agents, and everyone else who supports to market your products. It ensures their sharp focus and engagement with your brand.
Customer Loyalty Program: It rewards and involves customers at different levels and earns their appreciation that alters to more sales for you.
Influencer Loyalty Program: Energize and track influencers who play an essential role in enhancing your brand value. Focus on influencers and have them faithful to your cause with simple influencer loyalty programs.
Customized Loyalty Program: It is designed for you, your business, and your preferred associates/clients.

LoyaltyXpert service verticals:

We offer solution and service in various verticals including:

eCommerce Loyalty Program: e-commerce loyalty programs provide you flexibility, choices, control, and ease of use in drawing & managing clients/customers.
FMCG Loyalty Program: It is designed to give the best against the expectation and experience of each participating user.
Education Loyalty Program: Our education loyalty program is about bringing the best talent to your school, be it students or faculty, and engaging them mutually through innovative programs.
Automotive Loyalty Program: It gives a platform to handle expectations of various channels for each segment of the automotive industry.
Electrical Loyalty Program: It recognizes key contributors within channel partners, wholesalers, and all influencers.
Paint Loyalty Program: It unifies your world of dealers, paint contractors, painters, and end-users in an exciting world that helps everyone.
Employee Loyalty Program: It offers you a world of productive interaction with employees. It also deals with how to stimulate them into high performing productive individuals powering your company’s growth.
NBFC Loyalty Program: It gives you a chart of a new course on the high seas of financial product business to get customers & engage them.

There are several other features of solutions and services launched by LoyaltyXpert. To get detailed info feel free to contact us here.

6 Types Of Influencers For Your Brand

An influencer is someone in an industry niche with sway on the target audience. Usually, they have specialized knowledge, authority, and insight into a particular subject. Their pre-existing presence helps businesses to attract more customers and increase sales.

Influencers loyalty program can connect better with customers and influence their approach, behavior, and shopping habit for a brand.

Hence, these days companies are connecting with the key influencers and incentivizing them for their recommendations to the target customers. The right types of influencers can be a game-changer as the audience take their opinions or suggestions very seriously. Further, They can easily relate the core problems of your target customers and present your product or service as one of the likely solutions. Before we understand the types of influencers, let’s understand the benefits of collaborating with influencers that attract loyal customers.

Enhances brand awareness: Working with influencers gives a prompt benefit of exposure to the influencer’s existing audience.
Promotes your brand: Halo effect caused by influencer improves a brand image among the potential customers.
Strengthens trust: Customers obviously trust the views of the influencers they follow. They hold the power to instantly boost the credibility of your brand.
Enhances customer relationships: Establish relationships with the target customers through the intimate existing connections influencers possess with them.
Boost SEO: Operating with influencers allows chances for link-building. And, more links lead to boost search rankings.

Whether you want to increase customer loyalty or promote a brand influencer marketing can work absolutely. However, it is essential to choose the right type of influencers for your brand. As mentioned earlier, choosing the right influencer can change the current scenarios of business by achieving the expected outcomes. But, choosing the wrong may show adverse effects. In that case, let’s explore the different types of influencers for a brand.

1. Mega Influencers

Mega-influencers fall under the top-ranking category of social media influencers. They typically have more than a million followers. With a diverse audience, they have the power to catch the followers’ interest with different topics of interest. When you need to run awareness campaigns or promote a brand, they can impact hugely. In short, they are not necessarily experts in the industry but they reach to make a significant difference for a business.

2. Macro Influencer

These types of influencers are similar to mega influencers. But the main difference is that macro-influencers usually emanate to fame through the web, as opposed to the celebrities (mega influencers).

A wide range of personalities contributes to macro-influencers including podcasters, social media stars, influential bloggers, vloggers, and many more. Normally, their audience size comes between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. Influencing marketing with these influencers would be helpful with a specified niche in the industry.

3. Micro-Influencer

Micro influencer’s supporters range from 1,000 to 100,000 followers. They are most preferred and invested in influencing the audience in a specific niche. This type of influencer is valued because of their expertise on a subject. They tend to one topic and leverage their knowledge through their thought leadership. Due to this, micro-influencers are far more effective at driving the actions that a business is admiring to accomplish an influence on the marketing campaign’s goals.

4. Advocate

As a special category of influencers, advocates are people who converse your brand positively (through the use of a product or service). They tend to jump into conversations about your brand to promote or defend. These types of influencers are beneficial to increase word of mouth publicity by delivering a message and driving awareness. Their positive publicity works best when you are promoting a product or services at a local level.

5. Referrers

The Referrer is somebody that drives other people to your website, business location, or online profiles. They usually showcase solid and trusted recommendations for your product or service. Referrers only promote your brand. even if they compare with the competitors, your brand will be at the first preference. These types of influencers are similar to the lead magnets, or Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL). Their suggestions are instantly trusted, and acted upon.

6. The Loyalist

Last but not least, the loyalist is followers, customers, or fans of your products or services. Loyalists are an asset for a business and built from persistent support from your end. As they have grown with you, they understand your brand completely. This makes it easier for promotional activities. Whether they use word of mouth or use their social networks will positively impact your business. Loyalists largely affect marketing strategies, tactics, and campaigns. And they convert a valuable and valuable addition to your business team and goals.

Despite the fact that all influencers have something beneficial to deliver, be smart to choose the right one. While you are selecting the influencers for the loyalty program, you should perform adequate research about them. Once you collect the details, then proceed further with the marketing strategies and goals in mind to increase customer loyalty.

Depending upon the industry you serve and the nature of your brand, use the appropriate influencers’ marketing strategy. The included involvement will surely help to target more customers. Moreover, it not only brings in other loyal customers but also improves online presence, hence, search engine rankings. It means that working with influencers can benefit you in many ways; ultimately promoting a brand increases sales.

Customer Loyalty Programs: 4 Four Problems to Avoid

Are you using a customer loyalty program for your business?

Have you avoided the four main problems for the same?

Loyalty programs are one of the top-grade marketing strategies to retain more brand-loyal customers for a business. It allows a competitive advantage along with increased profitability. Hence, most of businesses are incorporating some kind of rewards program for their customers. Successful programs aim to motivate customers in a business’s target market to make frequent purchases.

However, sometimes the loyalty program fails to offer the intended results. In other words, companies disregard the common problems associated with the same. And, the program fails majorly. This article focuses on the main pain points of loyalty programs and how to avoid them.

Mostly, companies implement a loyalty program that runs smoothly for some time. Then after it does not work as expected because of many reasons; among them, four problems are the most common.

4 Problems to Avoid in Customer Loyalty Programs

Let’s explore the prime problems of customer loyalty programs and understand the ways to avoid them.

Problem 1: Inaccessibility

Customers will not participate in a loyalty program that has complex accessibility. Even though you offer a great loyalty program, customers will turn away because of inaccessibility. You need to design a loyalty program that is easy to access across all devices. Also, the participants should not feel any complexity while enrolling in the program or redeeming the rewards. They can easily turn away because of complicated processes.

Moreover, Keep in mind that some formats that are created for desktops will not be readable correctly on mobile devices. For better results, your loyalty programs need to be easy to access. Also, the signing process should be as simple as possible. If you practice easy processes, it will be easier for the customers to access the program.

Tip: Simplifying a joining program, would be a plus. Acknowledge simple, intuitive access to loyalty programs all the time. Also, allow your potential customers to track rewards points without any complex process.

Problem 2: Confusion

Loyalty programs like rewards points or special discounts have been in business practice for many years. It means that your target audience is familiar with the rewards they will get. Nonetheless, companies these days add additional rules. And, offer multiple compensations without any clear instructions. Even seldom the rules and regulations are much intricate and can not be understood easily. And, this is one of the common problems of loyalty programs nowadays.

Consequently, avoiding this type of confusion is necessary to keep the loyal customer attracted to your business. Creating an explainer guide will be extremely helpful. Make sure all the instructions are intuitive and easy to comprehend. More precisely, clearly explain what value the program offers. Also, motivating them to join the loyalty program will be useful. The clear-cut explanation eliminates confusion and increases their participation.

Tip: always list your contact information. So, if the customers have any questions regarding the program, they can connect with your business.

Problem 3: Unappealing

In most instances, companies follow the same rewards program all the time for all customers. When loyalty programs are not appealing to the target audience, they fail easily. Stereotype programs do not work in a competitive environment anymore. You need to offer diversified rewards programs. Your customers like the same products or services, but do not indicate that they like the same program. For instance, Some may like to get discounts while others will prefer membership.

Hence, understand the target customer’s preferences and allow them to choose rewards where possible. Diversification is the key to enticing customers to participate in the loyalty program. Customer satisfaction will improve when you offer appealing compensation along with choice. This type of action not only improves the customer experience but also increases the chances of getting in more loyal customers.

Tip: Think of adding more value to the product or service the customer purchase and then decide the rewards. Value-added experience is the key to retaining more brand-loyal customers for a business.

Problem 4: Obsolete

People usually get bored of using the same thing over and over again. In the case of loyalty programs, offering the same typed rewards all the time reduces customers’ interest. They easily get bored with the typical rewards and may get off from your business.

Thus, it is vital to avoid this boredom from a loyalty program. Try to offer a variety of rewards the customers are getting from your loyalty program. For instance, instead of offering points, try event passes, or even free membership. Depending on the interest of the audience, they offer them renowned rewards for better engagement.

Tip: Create excitement along with trying new rewards for the customers. And, do not forget to promote the new scheme of a loyalty program.

How LoyaltyXpert Help You

Apart from the above-mentioned problems to avoid, make sure to deliver an exceptional user experience. Customers prefer a brand because of the value-added experience and satisfaction they get from it. Accommodating a loyalty program is a great way to increase loyal customers.

Appropriately executed loyalty programs reduce customer churn significantly. But, sometimes companies overlook the significant problems of customer loyalty programs. As a result, they do not achieve the customers’ participation as expected.

Hence, it is advisable to avoid those pain points. And, design an optimal loyalty program that customers love to use and attract other customers.

How To Connect With Customers While An Economic Downtrend

A decrease in sales threatens all businesses. No matter what causes an economic downturn, all businesses should be prepared for such happenings.

Recession in business means;

Duration of a general decline in economic activities
Uncertainty about market conditions
Lack of access to financial and equity markets

An economic downturn is a critical condition for all businesses, be it a startup, small business, or an enterprise. With such a crucial time of low sales, the business needs to adopt a new approach to survive in a particular period. Whether there’s a recession going on or pandemic like COVID-19, you must not lose connection with your customers.

Wondering how to stay connected with potential customers during an economic downturn? Go through this article and you will get your answer.

Customers are an asset to a business. You need to nurture them regardless of market competition. Employ these five distinct ways to connect with customers during a financial downtrend in the market.

1. Communicate frequently

Communication is the prime element to establish a strong connection with your audience. Whether you want to inform them about new offerings, promotional offers, or other things, frequent interaction is essential. When you regularly communicate with your customers, they can easily remember your business. Send regular emails, newsletters, and do not forget to wish them on their special occasion.

Besides, it allows you to attract and retain customers. Effective business communication is essential in many areas because the business that communicates better wins more clients. And, when there is a crisis going around in the market, streamlined communication serves as a beacon. So, try to stay connected with your customers in any situation, especially in times of financial downward trends.

2. Be transparent

During the time of crisis, everyone is in the same boat. It does not help to represent that your company is above the crisis. Be transparent about the choices your company is making, especially if you are faced with formidable challenges because of the economic downturn. Customers will possibly understand your decisions and the way you do business.

Talk to your customers. It allows you to deliver the facts and let them know what is really going on. Also, when you get a chance, educate them about the current situation. And, keep them informed about how the company will take actions in favour of their customers. For instance, if consumers have signed up for membership and they can’t get reimbursement, they should be getting similar benefits in other ways.

3. Redesign the offerings

Redesigning your business offerings as the market demand is the best option to survive an unexpected transition. When a market demands, you should modify the way you offer products or services to maintain customer retention. Rework on the contract or offer you have employed. For example, offer special discounts for certain periods of time. Also, change the pricing model for your goods or services. This type of change will help to boost sales of a business along with a better connection with clients.

Moreover, when you reconsider the offerings for the customers, they feel more valuable. And, once they get value-added services, the satisfaction they become loyal to your business. As mentioned earlier, customers are an asset for a business, and reconsideration is one of the great means to win their trust.

4. Adjust the marketing strategies

Economic downturns rarely happen overnight and they also do not disappear overnight. Generally, businesses define marketing strategies for a certain time of period. But, during the crisis, it must be designed over again.

In the downtrend situation like COVID-19, new marketing strategies should be introduced. This is the time where companies get benefits from having the best loyalty programs. The rewards program is a great way to retain more customers even during the crisis.

Furthermore, try to define a short-term plan. And, define the strategies that should include;

How will you respond to the situation?
How will the market condition impact consumer behaviour?
Is there a need to approach a different service in the market?
How to maintain branding in such time?

Adjusting according to market trends increases the chances of sustaining a business for the long-run. So, instead of laying off from doing business, think about the new approaches you apply.

5. Grab local opportunities

It is imperative to identify the ways your company can connect with the local communities where you serve. Think about the basics at this time, and do something simple to help schools, nonprofit associations, or small businesses located near your headquarters or retail stores.

Personal interactions with local communities bring confidence and position your business as a trusted leader. By showing authentic interest, you can establish and reinforce positive relationships with community influencers and elected officials (relationships that will be mutually advantageous for the coming years). It will help to sustain a positive brand image along with inviting forthcoming benefits for your business.

An economic downturn or recession is unavoidable circumstances. Each business gets affected by such a situation where sales reduce. But, connecting with your customers is the key to keep them reminded about your business. It builds a relationship with your brand. Also, it will be helpful in the future where customers will stick to your brand over the competitors.

Hence, follow the mentioned unique ways to engage with the audience even during an economic downturn; communicate frequently, be transparent, remould marketing strategies, go local, and reconsider your offerings. These ways will definitely boost connections between your business and customers during a crisis.

How B2B Loyalty Programs can Redefine Value in COVID-19

B2B Loyalty programs are strategic marketing actions to attract and retain loyal customers. Usually, the customers are offered some kind of rewards (discount, membership, rewards points, etc.) to make a repeat business with a particular brand. As brand loyalty customers are an asset for a business, marketers are emphasizing on adopting a loyalty program. However, companies need to change their marketing strategies including rewards programs in a pandemic situation like COVID-19.

It is imperative to adapt the market change and run business operations. Companies should think about productive tactics and encourage the audience to get involved in value-added experience rather than sales behaviour. Maintaining essential engagement and brand awareness is the key while serving loyalty programs in the pandemic.

As such, you need to reconsider the values of B2B loyalty programs in the rampant circumstances. Considering the situation, loyalty programs need to be redefined, here is how to do it. This blog focuses on the top ways that allow redefining the value of B2B loyalty programs in COVID-19.

1. Educate the audience

Now is the time to educate and reward the prospects by offering additional product knowledge, sales skills, compliance, or certifications. Most of the time business clients are willing to educate themselves for the betterment. And, in the COVID-19 pandemic, with the spare time, they will surely walk with you.
Thus, introduce distance learning through short online training modules, quizzes, videos, etc. Those are remarkably competent in upskilling the resellers or business partners and assuring that you remain at the forefront of their first choice when demand returns. Your research has shown that completing education-based tasks has an excellent brand and product recall with longer trailing effects than ordinary tactical promotional executions.

2. Embrace the change

B2B clients are not looking for new widgets, products or services while facing the uncertainty. Instead, they look for a quality experience that helps them to combat the situation and recognize the strategies to overcome the damage. So, use this time as an exclusive opportunity to establish a mindful reputation of a business. Introduce new elements with thoughtful and targeted solutions into the loyalty program you offer.
Listening to customers is beneficial all the time, but uncertain times, gauzing strategies are critical. B2B loyalty programs allow the powers to reach out directly to the customers and get their input expeditiously and efficiently.

3. Communicate frequently with the customers

When there is a pandemic going around like COVID- 19, it doesn’t mean you should stop communicating with the prospects. Even if you can’t be physically present at your business location, virtual presence makes a difference. If it’s a special occasion or your clients like anniversary, make sure to wish them. Apart from this, regular updates about industry or newsletter should be scheduled as per the routine.
Furthermore, frequent, regular communication reminds the client about your business. With the pandemic of COVID-19 do not let your clients forget about the products and services you provide. Solve customers’ queries as soon as possible, and be prepared for virtual assistance all the time.

4. Adapt innovative approaches

When B2B programs are fully integrated, it’s a big win-win for businesses. Identify clients’ pain points and offer strategic solutions for the same. The adoption of an innovative approach is not limited to producing new products or services. Streamlining processes can be an exceedingly relevant innovation for both parties (customers and organizations).
Strategic loyalty programs are tricky to duplicate. It is quite another establishment of a conversation with your participants. And, mobilize resources to respond to your learnings, and create a valuable customer experience for the products and services. Hence, thinks of innovative, unique tactics to imply in the loyalty program and keep the clients attracted.

5. Suggest the best solutions

As B2B clients are always looking for expertise, suggesting pro tips will work. Once you have identified the sweeping concern, consult the industry experts and make recommendations for the prospects. For instance, in the case of COVID-19, you can conduct an exclusive webinar for your clients to inform about the ways of dealing with the crisis in this situation. However, it is crucial to double-check the tips you are offering are from credible sources.

The current marketplace is nothing like it was a few months ago. Responding quickly to gauge the market and approaching concerns could make a huge difference in just surviving or thriving the prevailing circumstances. So, it is the right time to redefine the value of the loyalty program you are offering (by suggesting the best solutions that market demands)and gain a competitive advantage.

6. Encourage Clients engagement

The other way to add value to the B2B loyalty program is to encourage clients participation. You can always reward them to introduce new customers for loyalty programs. And, you can add schemes like refer a friend and get rewards. Besides, online gamification is also an interactive way to boost engagement with clients.
Ask the clients to participate in non-business activities like writing testimonials. And organize contests or surveys to know your customers well. These activities not only encouraged clients’ active participation but also bond a strong relationship between you and your prospects.

Surely, COVID-19 has changed the way of doing business across the world. But, it does not mean to hold back completely. Take your business online and use this time to build a strong relationship with your clients. Identify the strategies to stay connected with the customers by understanding the current scenario. Also, propel a chance to understand how much you value them. B2B customer base always looks for opportunities to gather useful knowledge and relevant experience.

Hence, B2B loyalty programs also need to be modified in some way to approach the prospects. And, the refined program impacts positively for businesses. Contact us for more information about the B2B loyalty programs!

3 Ways to Maintain Loyalty Amid COVID-19 Shutdowns

Today, one thing that is talked about all over the world most is none other than Coronavirus (COVID-19). This pandemic is creating a lot of serious implications for people’s health and healthcare services. Not only the health of the people but COVID-19 also badly affects the business sector and the economy of almost all the countries throughout the world.

As per the analysis done by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting global supply chains and international trade. With more than 100 countries closing national borders, the movement of people and tourism flows has come to a closedown. As per the United Nations, the global economy could shrink by almost 1% in 2020 due to this pandemic.

In recent weeks, there has been a significant impact of COVID-19 on financial markets and various industries including travel, tourism, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, etc. For instance, the travel and tourism industry alone accounts for 10% of the global GDP. Due to this pandemic condition, about 50 million jobs are at risk in this industry throughout the world. The closing down of various companies is directly affecting SMEs globally.

Ways Brands Can Keep Up Their Loyalty Amid COVID-19 Shutdowns

Now the question is how brands can maintain loyalty amid COVID-19 shutdowns. Well, at this tough time of crisis, building brand loyalty can make or break a brand. Some of the key factors that make consumers trust a brand include brands focusing on:

1. The Well-Being Of Customers

During COVID-19 shutdowns, where many brands are trying to gain the trust of their consumers, more than 65% of consumers indicated that brands’ actions have a considerable impact on their trust in a particular brand. To build trust amongst consumers in this time of crisis, brands must find out ways how they can help and what actions can be taken that are steadfast with their values and abilities.
Today brands have the opportunity to create strong bonds of trust with their consumers by using data to help determine which actions will have the greatest impact on their employees, consumers, and communities.

2. The Well-Being Of Their Employees

A company showing care and concern for its employees is one of the key reasons consumers trust any particular brand. At times of uncertainty, employees generally look forward to their employers to lead them more than they look to the government and other organizations. More than 50% of consumers trust brands that show their concern towards their employees in the time of crisis. Currently, COVID-19 is the biggest crisis that the whole world is going through. At this time, any change in trust is largely based on how brands treat their employees.
So, what builds loyalty among employees, is perhaps a clear and frequent communication from the company’s side. About 90% of employees who are satisfied with the actions taken during this pandemic situation of COVID-199 believe that their employees are communicating well, which further results in significantly higher levels of trust.

3. Not Taking Benefit Of The Emergency To Maximize Profits

In this crisis time, the key to alleviating the impact of public health emergencies on businesses is being responsive. Brands must start rethinking their marketing efforts to make them more relevant. One of the key actions that they can take is, instead of thinking about how they can sell more; they must focus on how they can support customers during this tough time. Focusing solely on making profits amid the current COVID-19 situation will create a negative impression on customers which will directly affect brand loyalty.

Offering services or products to people in need of help at this time, instead of taking advantage of the crisis is the best thing companies can do. This will not only create a good impression but will also help businesses to strengthen trust with customers.

Other factors that make consumers trust brands more amid COVID-19 include:

Brands maintaining reasonable pricing
Go above and beyond the safety standards and recommendations
Don’t overreact or underestimate the circumstances
Giving back to the community, particularly in times of need
Communicating in a transparent and timely manner
Representing strong moral principles, such as integrity
Demonstrating expertise in their industry
Delivering a message of hope and optimism, etc.

Brands that fail to keep up with the above-mentioned factors, especially if they fail to demonstrate leadership and action by taking care of customers and employees, may put their reputations and trustworthiness at risk.
To address the outbreak and connect with potential customers, businesses can take the help of email marketing campaigns. However, make certain that the messages are not focused only on selling products and services. These campaigns should look helpful to customers. For instance, businesses can focus more on their hygiene and safety measures, safe product delivery services, no price hikes policies and various other things that help build trust amongst customers about the particular brand.

Email marketing in the current environment can be really helpful for brands to build and strengthen trust. Some of its key benefits include:

Targeted and personalized emails have 75% more chances of customer engagement.
Data shows customers react more positively to personalized emails than other forms of marketing tactics like telemarketing.
In email marketing, there is always the possibility for follow-up.

Most activities have been closed down and people are now practising social distancing to avert the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). This is perhaps the toughest time for most brands to connect with their customers.
Almost every organization today is dealing with a slowdown. Building a connection with new customers and maintaining trust with pre-existing ones seems to be a more difficult task than it has been in the recent past. To continue their business during this hard time, brands need to work transparently without thinking solely about profit-making. They need a lot of creativity and skill to ensure that the message of the brand is communicated effectively to the target customers.

A Guide to Manage a Channel Partner Network Perfectly

A channel partner is generally a person or organization that partners with a manufacturer or producer to promote and sell their products, services, or technologies. Various organizations including distributors, retailers, vendors, consultants, system integrators, technology deployment consultancies, managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs) come under the category of channel partners.

To make it simple, a channel partner is a common phrase used to describe a business-to-business (B2B) relationship in which a smaller company partners with a corporate manufacturer to market and sell their products, services or technologies. Channel partners, form relationships, also known as co-branding for various reasons and results.
For the manufacturer, a channel partner can help bring a new product to the market and enhance the visibility of a brand and boost sales. For businesses, a channel partner helps to open the doors to new businesses with a lower cost and a smaller risk factor.

Benefits of a Channel Partnership

A channel partnership can be beneficial for both the parties- the vendor and the partner. It is essential for vendors to choose the right group of channel partners so as to get the best returns on their investment. With channel partnerships, vendors can gain access to the partner’s existing customers, thereby enhance their sales exponentially. On the other hand, the channel partner can enjoy increased revenue by cross-selling a new product to its existing customers. They can even acquire additional customers who are interested in the new offering.

Here are some of the key Benefits of channel partnership, have a look:

• Access to a full suite of products and services:

Channel partnership allows partners to offer a variety of new products and services from numerous vendors. This helps channel partners to deliver an assorted product portfolio to their customers to meet their specific business and technology requirements.

• The Benefit of an established name:

Small organizations can benefit from the established name and repute of large vendors. Utilizing established brands in sales and marketing materials lends immediate credibility to the channel partner’s reputation as it helps small organizations to convey to their potential customers that the partner has a business relationship with a well-established manufacturer

• Additional expertise and resources:

Channel partners can benefit from the additional expertise and resources. They can have access to a vendor’s human and financial resources including product and market training, technical support, MDF (Market Development Funds) or co-op funds, campaign templates, and more.

• Leads:

As many vendors continue to market their products and services on their own and build leads, they then pass the leads onto their channel partners for follow-up.

• Amplified margins:

Additional discounts and revenue opportunities can be achieved based on the number of products sold.

• A swift way to target customers:

Many manufacturers and vendors find building channel partnerships the quickest way to gain market share and work with a partner who already has their target customers as their customers. Channel partners spend a great deal of time and effort building personal relationships with their clients. Their recommendations on new products or services hold a great deal of weight for vendors with the customer.

• Reduced cost of sales:

Establishing an indirect sales channel instead of employing an in-house sales team and help manufacturers to save on employee’s salaries and benefits along with various other expenditures like travel costs to visit prospects, time spent on unqualified leads that never convert to sales, etc.

• Access to new markets:

Several channel partners have a well-established presence and reputation in particular market segments. This benefits the manufacturers and vendors as their channel partners who have a deep understanding of various industry verticals can deliver new customers at a fraction of the time and cost.

Ways to Manage a Channel Partner Network

Below mentioned are some of the most effective ways to build-up a healthy partnership and manage a channel partner network, have a look:

Choose the right partners:

In order to build a perfect channel partner network, it is essential for vendors to choose the right partners. It is important to focus on cultivating the right relationships so as to create an ideal partner profile. Now the question is who can be your ideal channel partner? Well, for each partner candidate, you must ask the following questions:
• Are they ready? Do they have the resources to invest in the partnership?
• Are they willing? Will the partnership help them attain their goals?
• Are they able? Is there a technical fit? A competence fit?
• Do we have similar values?

All these questions along with some thorough research can help you to choose the right channel partners.

Discovery:

The next step in building and managing a channel partnership is to find out what the potential partner is already providing. It is important to talk to your potential or existing partners to get a feel for what matters most to them.

Some of the key questions you can ask, include:

• What is important to you in a partnership?
• What are the key growth drivers of your business?
• What is your unique value proposition?
• What are you struggling with?
• Who are your best customers?
• What will our biggest hurdle be?
• Is there a market desire for our joint offer?
• Can we really stand out in the market?
• Do we have the right information and skills to deliver this?

The result of asking these questions should give complete clarity regarding the opportunities and challenges the partnership will bring.

Set goals and outline commitment:

One must understand that in a partnership, each party has their own interests. Good channel partnerships are those that are transparent about their interests and are built upon the understanding that the success of one partner contributes to the success of the other. Therefore, both parties need to understand what the prospects are, how you are defining success, and what contributions on both sides will help you get there. Some of the key objectives that you must set and discuss with your partners include:

• Specific view of the target market
• Strategies and tactics
• Who’s going to do what
• Resources both parties have committed
• A realistic view of the ROI
Once the objectives are set, the next step is to outline the commitment for both parties that must include:
• What is the partner going to do?
• What are you going to do?
• Are the commitments realistic?
• Do you have everything to deliver them?
• Are there any potential barriers?

Facilitate introductions: After defining goals and commitment, it is vital to invest in relationships. A dedicated resource like a partner manager can facilitate introductions between teams and foster relationships. Knowing partners helps to build trust with them. Moreover, partners can be a source of valuable product feedback. So, connecting with them regarding feedback can be really helpful.

Enablement: It is vital for companies to empower their channel partners in various key areas including technical training, building industry expertise, and sales training.

Technical training: Partners need to be experts in your products. They must be able to use the product for free so they know what they have to sell. Once the partners are trained, make sure to keep them up to date with the products. Also, provide them access to new functionality timely. So that when it hits the market, they’re experts from the starting.

Industry Expertise: Timely and significant industry information shared with partners can put them at a considerable advantage over the competition. To do this, companies need to stay up to date about what’s happening in different industries, keep their eyes open, and inform their partners about the trends.

Sales Training: Since Business-to-Business tech partners are now selling to business leaders, a partner enablement program must consist of strong business training. It is important to provide partners the right consultation regarding how to improve their business and how to set up new service offerings.

Conclusion

A channel partnership that is built and managed perfectly can definitely bring fruitful results. Successful partner marketing programs can boost the visibility of a brand, its capability to access new markets, and its overall sales.
Feeling inspired to run your own channel loyalty program? Contact us and let’s start!

All You Need to Know About Channel Partnership Programs

A channel partner is usually a third-party business or individual that promotes and sells products, services or technologies for a manufacturer or service provider through a partnering bond. This is usually done through a co-branding relationship. For the growth of a company, channel partnerships prove to be a high impact strategy. Moreover, a good partnership can provide access to new customers and references that bring in business.
The different types of channel partners can be independent dealers, distributors, independent sales representatives, vendors, retailers, consultants, systems integrators, technology deployment consultancies, value-added resellers, and other many other organizations.

A Channel Partnership Strategy

A channel partner generally distributes goods and services. The various types of channel partnership options to distribute your products and services can be:
• Selling products and services through your partner: Product companies usually sell their products through a third party storefront.
• Your partner sells with you: In this case, partners sell your products as an up-sell or missing value proposition. Any company that offers your service as a way to expand their offerings comes under this category.
• Your partner sells for you: Any partner acting as the promoter or seller of your product comes under this category.

Benefits of a Channel Partner Program

Choosing your partners wisely and establishing strong relationships and developing a culture of sharing with them can prove to be really helpful for the growth of your business.

Below mentioned are some of the key benefits of channel partnership programs:

• Increased Revenue:

Increased revenue is one of the key benefits of channel partnership programs. Well managed partnership programs can help to create significant growth in sales and distribution of products and services. These kinds of programs are beneficial for both parties. For vendors, it not only generates revenue but also helps to enhance their sales footprint. On the other hand, the vendor’s partners can also develop revenue for their businesses.

• Advanced Expertise and Resources:

Channel partners usually have the authority to access a vendor’s full range of human and financial resources. These resources may include product and market training, technical support, marketing assistance, co-opted funds, campaign templates, and more. All these resources can help to build a stronger market presence.

• Improved Range of Products and Services:

In today’s time, developing a comprehensive range of products and services that meet the requirements of customers while also managing cost and resource constraints is a key issue for almost every company. In such cases, channel partnership programs can be really effective as these can assist in improving the range of products and services that both the partners are offering. Additionally, this helps in fulfilling the demands and needs of customers, without the need for additional development cost or time investment.

• Market Credibility:

The name recognition and reputation being associated with large vendors helps in building credibility with potential customers. This further help to generate new cross-selling opportunities and even provide access to certifications and licenses that may be unavailable previously.

• Access to New Markets and Customer Segments:

Channel partnership programs not only helps to drive new growth by scaling the sales operation but can also be very helpful in expanding a particular business into new markets or customer segments that might be difficult or not possible to reach on your own.

How to Reward Channel Partners?

Without any question, channel partners play a critical role in the growth of business and brand sales. Developing your program around incentivizing the channel can help to augment sales, create new markets, and stimulate greater partner loyalty. Many brand owners have realized the importance of appreciating and offering their channel partners the due rewards that they deserve. Earlier a cash based bonus was the most common way to reward and appreciate channel partners.

However, with the development of technology and its convenience, brands are finding newer ways to engage with their channel partners. Now, many brands understand the importance of offering innovative and more meaningful rewards to their channel partners to gain their loyalty.

Personalized rewards programs are perhaps the best option that most brands are using these days to woo their channel partners. For instance, gift cards and vouchers can be given to motivate the partners. No wonder that gift cards are gaining popularity as they give the power of choice to the receiver. Many channel partners prefer to do their shopping using these gift cards and vouchers. Brands can also avail the option of personalizing the gift cards for various occasions, based on the accomplishment and adding that personal touch.
Other than this, businesses can also use loyalty programs along with Artificial Intelligence to offer personalized rewards to their channel partners. This also gives the flexibility to modify the reward points depending upon the sales on a real time basis. All these innovations have made the entire channel partners reward programs more transparent, enabling the best channel partner to get the reward that he/she deserves.

Apart from the above-mentioned rewards, different types of rewards that companies mostly offer to their channel partners include gift vouchers, away days, meals, points based rewards, gifts, recognition awards, leadership boards, city breaks, etc.

Conclusion:

If you are planning to develop your channel partnership program, it is important to understand that building a strong network of partners is based on factors like trust, faith, and group effort. Just make sure that your partnership is mutually beneficial from the start. For more about channel loyalty program, Get a FREE quote from LoyaltyXpert.