The holiday season is a crucial time for brands to maximize customer loyalty and drive repeat purchases. With the right strategies in place, brands can capitalize on the shopping frenzy and create lasting connections with their customers beyond the holiday season.
Holiday spending has jumped past last year’s numbers with Cyber Week (the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday) hauling in $38 billion overall, increasing spend by 7.8%. With this much holiday spending, brands are looking for ways to extend consumers’ attention and answer the age-old question: “What does this mean for retaining customers beyond the holidays?”
The Importance of Loyalty Marketing
Loyalty marketing has proven to be a game-changer for brands looking to build lasting relationships with their customers throughout their buying journey. 70% of shoppers pick stores by the number of rewards they can receive for being a long-term patron. In a fiercely competitive market, where consumer attention is divided between various options, loyalty programs provide a powerful tool for retaining existing customers and attracting new ones. Extending your loyalty program’s power and reach with consumers post-holiday madness means making calculated choices and looking to those consumers to guide those choices.
Kobie’s Sr. Director of Client Services, Christine Strowbridge and Director of Strategic Consulting, Marie DeLeo recently spoke to Loyalty 360 Members about optimizing your existing plans to keep those loyalty members coming back. Their advice?
Harvest Data: there is a 9% Increase in customer lifetime value by brands that collect zero-party data
- Maximize Consumer Insights: Dive into the holiday data treasure trove, pinpointing purchase trends to fuel year-round strategies.
- Gather Valuable Feedback: After the festivities, actively seek member insights to reshape the loyalty program.
- Spot Trends: Analyze holiday data from first-time buyers, gift enthusiasts, and self-shoppers to uncover fresh trends, crafting tailored experiences and member journeys.
Integrate choice: brands can see a 6X Increase in offer usage by implementing Machine Learning to distribute offer funding
- Introduce ML Models: Foresee and treat your high-value holiday newcomers with exclusive experiences and offers, solidifying their loyalty.
- Unearth Deep Insights: Harness machine learning on holiday data, unveiling key predictions about member preferences and upcoming behaviors.
- Craft Personal Touchpoints: Deploy algorithms to handpick offers, tailoring them to each member’s journey.
- Sharpen Campaigns: Use machine learning to fine-tune post-holiday comms, guaranteeing message precision.
Make it personal: 63% of consumers are more likely to shop at brands offering holiday promotions into the New Year
- Drive Engagement: Actively leverage holiday connections and keep the conversation going, building unwavering brand loyalty all year long.
- Boost Q1 with Referrals: Launch a robust referral initiative, prompting customers to recommend your brand to those they’re shopping for.
- Highlight Continuous Rewards: Boldly showcase the ongoing perks and benefits of the loyalty program, ensuring members recognize its year-round value.
- Seek Real-Time Feedback: Prompt members to share their insights, ensuring the program constantly adapts to their changing desires and requirements.
These numbers speak volumes about the impact that loyalty marketing can have on a brand’s post-holiday success.
Christmas online shopping, sales and discounts promotions during winter holidays, online shopping at home. Female hands on the laptop with credit card and blurred bokeh lights
According to Forbes, Rewards programs are one of the top reasons customers continue shopping with your brand, the only factor ranked higher is customer service with 48% of consumers willing to pay more for quality customer service. Criteria like knowledgeable staff, fast response times, human interaction, and clear, consistent messaging are what consumers are measuring you by. Prompt customer service and quick remedies to problems play a role in consumers sticking to a brand with 82% of them remain loyal to the brand when these standards are met.
Leveraging loyalty marketing is essential for brands to achieve post-holiday success and maintain lasting customer relationships. The holiday season presents a unique opportunity to maximize customer loyalty and capitalize on increased spending if brands go in with a solid game-plan. By collecting valuable data, maximizing consumer insights, and gathering feedback, brands can tailor their loyalty programs to meet the evolving needs of their customers.
Contact Kobie today and watch your post-holiday engagement soar.
