No time like the present.

This is a question the occupies many people.  It only takes a little search on Google under creation of a Digital Loyalty scheme to find a huge amount of information.  Of course, there is not a single answer that will work for every business.  Creating and building a Loyalty Club needs to be designed to meet the unique requirements that each business has.   It is also true to say that building and launching a Digital Loyalty program is an important tool in the marketing kit bag but a Loyalty Program that is not backed up with excellent customer service and a great product will not turn the business into a roaring success.

So, bearing all that in mind here are a few things that you can do to start building or refresh the makeup of your own Loyalty Club.

Decide why you want to create a Loyalty Program for your business

Yes, we see many small businesses running to implement the latest Loyalty Program schemes that are using the latest buzz words to attract harassed business owners.  Just because you can does not mean that you should!   You must first decide why you want a Loyalty Program.

So, your fist step could be to create a list of the reasons that you want to implement a Loyalty Program.  Take a sheet of paper and create three columns.  On one column write the reason you want to launch a program, in the next column write who the main beneficiary of that reason is- there may be more than one entry in this section. In the third column write what you want to be the outcome for your business.  Now you have a starting point that you can use to build the strategy and make up of your Loyalty program.

Create an image of your customers

You may have created a customer profile or buyers’ persona previously for other marketing activities.  If you have this is a good time to refresh your memory of it and even update it. If you have not yet created a buyer’s profile now would be the time to make one.  Of course, there are many guides to making a buyer’s persona Think about and record the likes and dislikes of your customers, what attracts them to your products? How do they reach you? Where do they live? What do they do for a living? Perhaps you will end up with several types of customer that represent different segments of your client base.   This is more valuable information that you can use when determining how you build your Digital Loyally Program.

What should the Digital Loyalty Scheme look like?

Now that you know why you want to create a Loyalty Program and you have a good image of your customer base the next stage will be to determine what the vehicle for the Loyalty Program will be.   It may be a traditional stamp card solution where the customer presents a paper card to the cashier and it is physically stamped. It may be a plastic branded card that the customer keeps in her wallet and it is presented when making a purchase? It is now most likely to be some form or Digital solution utilising the latest technologies especially mobile and the Loyalty Pass will be in the customers smartphone wallet.  The choice is yours.  You may wish to create a bespoke program tailored to your business.

Once you have chosen the right vehicle you move on the implementation stage.  I will leave you with one thought and that is this.  Building a Loyalty Program and reaping its reward is a medium to long term project.  Should you enter this project expecting rapid results in a matter of two to three months it will most likely not live up to your expectations regardless of the vehicle you choose.