Even though gaining new customers is very important to develop a successful company, customer retention is one of the quickest ways to achieve such vital business goals.
According to a report by Invespcro, attracting new customers is five times more expensive than retaining one. Moreover, selling to an existing customer is 60-70% more likely than selling to a new prospect. It also states that increasing the customer retention rates by only 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.
Keeping your customers engaged and loyal to your company is key to reaching new heights in the market. Fortunately, retaining every one of them is not completely necessary. Only a small fraction of customer retention would mean a huge grow in sales.
If your company has reached the phase in which it needs to focus on retaining customers and increasing their loyalty to your brand, it is advisable to start developing and implementing special strategies to achieve these objectives.
How to do so in 2023? In this post, let’s have a look at the best practices to implement a great incentives program. Later, we’ll give you five incentives ideas that will keep your customers engaged and interested in your brand, products, and services.
How should your company implement incentives for engaged customers?
If you want to get the most out of an incentive program to retain your most faithful customers, you should look at these recommendations.
Establish a clear objective for your program
What are the reasons why you need an incentive program in your company? These programs are not only about increasing your sales or keeping your clients loyal to you. There are also some neat consequences if you launch a program with a specific objective in mind. For example, incentives may:
- Promote trials for new services.
- Increase sales of specific products.
- Boost awareness of some products and services.
- Re-engage with customers that left for competition.
- Increase the number of referrals.
Keep faithful to your brand culture
It’s important for your company to never lose track of its brand culture while developing a new incentive program for engaged customers. In the end, they are not only staying with you because of your products and services. Clients also treasure the values your company offers them each time they undergo another sales process.
Find the correct target for your incentives program
Remember that not every client is at the same stage of the customer journey. For this reason, your program should focus on the most high-value clients, because they are most likely to keep buying from you. This way you will also know which is the best incentive for them and develop a program that fits their needs.
What incentives should your company offer to keep customers engaged?
Loyalty programs
Let’s start with one of the most common incentives out there. Loyalty programs are an excellent way to treat the most important customers in your portfolio, either VIPs or those who have been around for the longest time.
This incentive encourages them to take specific actions, such as purchases. Through them, clients will earn points which can be redeemed for exclusive rewards. Take into consideration that these perks must be designed according to your clients’ needs to let them feel that future spending will be highly beneficial to them.
Exclusive early access to sales and experiences
Sneak peeks and priority access are great incentives for customers that are invested in your brand and want to be part of the next line of products and services from your company as soon as possible.
Although those who are part of your loyalty program (if you decided to implement one!) should be the first in the line, don’t forget about other customers that may not be part of it, but are interested in your products. Besides, these early access events must be designed as unique experiences, be it online or physical events, and should offer special rewards to those who attended.
Referral programs
Word of mouth is one of the keys to success for any company. Being recommended by your customers is highly profitable. Besides, it increases brand awareness and market positioning.
Referral programs exist to reward those customers who spread the word about your brand and praise your products and services, so why not implement one to let them know your company is thankful? These perks may include discounts, coupons, stackable rewards, free upgrades to services, free software, etc. Just remember to always be on brand, offer valuable rewards, and keep things simple.
Free upgrades
Not everyone will be able to enjoy the multiple plans your software or app may have. However, it’s possible to give them a little taste of your tool’s best features by giving your customers free upgrades.
These are one of the best incentives a tech company can offer to their most loyal clients. They’ll be excited about trying new and hidden features. Besides, offering this reward for completing positive tasks such as feedback surveys, referrals or special events like webinars or focus groups will ensure these people will stay with you for a long time.
Gifts and discounts
These are the quintessential incentives that every company should include in their rosters. Receiving one of them feels special and encourages clients to spend more and keep in touch with your brand on the look for more.Gifts are perfect incentives for customers who have completed certain purchase requirements. These are also perfect during special occasions, such as the company’s anniversary or your client’s birthday. Coupons and discounts are also interesting perks, especially for those who have made their first purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, etc. However, don’t forget to set a discount cut that doesn’t affect your income.
