Who among us hasn’t indulged in an Easter egg, strung up a spooky garland of bats or pumpkins, or felt a little jolt of excitement when Christmas first starts to appear in the shops? We may be adults, but that’s no reason not to enjoy the different phases and parties any given year brings with it.
From long, bank holiday weekends that coincide with the first signs of good weather to the cosy, dark feeling that descends around bonfire night – and everything in between – we know we’re not alone in thinking that it’s always good to have something to look forward to.
This is particularly true if you’re looking for new and exciting ways to reward your customers, and make them feel good about you. We form emotional connections with special events – and with the people (or businesses) we celebrate them with.
For that reason, the team here at Incentivesmart love to see an upcoming event on the calendar. They represent fantastic opportunities to boost the performance of your customer incentive programme, and give yourself a little extra promotion in the process.
The Power of the Tactical Drive
As any business knows, maintaining a strong line of communication with your customers – utilizing all those marketing channels, from email to social media – is vital. It means you stand a much better chance of being remembered by your customers next time they’re in the market for your product or service. Email alone offers excellent promise. According to the Data & marketing Association, the B2B email open rate is just over 15% – a great pay-off for a relatively low investment. And, while you certainly don’t want to hammer it to drain it of its power through an excess of emails, you also don’t want to let a channel with such a strong ROI go to waste.
But here’s the issue – it’s not always easy to know what to say. New product launches or sales are always worth shouting about, but what do you do when everything feels like business-as-usual?
Take a look at the calendar.
From Easter to the King’s Coronation, Halloween to Earth Month, Mother’s and Father’s Day and National Jellybean Day (22nd April, if you were interested) – there are so many moments each and every month of the year that are just waiting to be commemorated with your customers. You needn’t (and shouldn’t) commemorate every single one, so don’t start circling dates just yet, but you can get tactical about filling otherwise ‘quiet’ periods with something that will.
- Stir up interest
Every business knows that, at certain points in the year, sales and interactions with customers will inevitably dwindle. With so many opportunities for a fresh, seasonal campaign, however, you don’t need to rack your brain for ways to stir up interest again.
And the results don’t lie. We worked with our clients to build a tactical drive around the World Cup last year, and saw a boost to total logins of more than 99%. Similarly, for a Summer Promotion, we saw a boost in logins of more than 305%. - Fresh content
Seasonal campaigns mean fresh ideas for content creation and social publishing year-round, so you can really utilise your social channels without feeling like you’re constantly recycling content, or running promotions for the sake of it.
You can get as creative as you want – and, through your platform, make use of our in-house designer to breathe life into these events. From double points bonanzas – a great way to motivate customers to spend more with you – to quizzes and giveaways, or even registration bonuses for new leads, you can make these seasonal campaigns as creative as you want. - Boost engagement and emotional connections
Special moments make special memories. It doesn’t need to be a big gesture to really capture your customers’ attention, and create a lasting memory. This is key to long-term loyalty, and worth its weight in gold.
Gamification is a powerful tool for boosting engagement with your brand. Research has found that gamification on-site can boost browsing time by almost a third, and plenty of examples from the B2C world attest to that value. KFC Japan, for instance, saw sales increase by 106% after using gamification to celebrate a new product launch. - Provide you with a wealth of analytics
The more your customers interact with your brand and loyalty platform, the more you’ll learn about them – and the better you’ll be able to motivate them in the future.
There’s always a reason to celebrate. With a little creativity, you can give a little boost to those lulls in sales and engagement, and continually strengthen that emotional connection you have with your loyal customers.