Acquisition stats are so passé!

Hooray! You have 20 million loyalty members! But how many of them are active and what does this mean for your business?

Colloquy release a consolidated annual report of loyalty activity in USA called The Loyalty Census. Each year they analyse membership growth and factors attributing to this growth. This year's census saw a massive increase in loyalty memberships across the US (up 26.7% to 2.65 billion).

Being in the loyalty industry, I can’t help but notice how South Africa has adopted this rise in loyalty programmes with every industry wanting a piece of the loyalty pie! Unfortunately, we have no official stats for the South African market place to compare with the U.S.

However with the expansion of loyalty programmes and therefore number of members, how many of these are really active? Despite the fact that loyalty programmes are aimed at incentivising members for shopping or engaging with your brand, why is there a decline in active memberships as reported by Colloquy?

Active membership refers to the number of times a member has engaged with the programme (at least once) over a period of 12 months or otherwise stipulated by the programme. The number of members vs. active members shows a large divide.

“4.3% is the drop in loyalty programme active membership between 2010 and 2012.”

Naturally, there is huge acquisition at the initial sign up process but the drop off rate in months to come is almost equally as huge. Based on these facts, it is clear that the active numbers are not aligned and the hard work starts when needing to retain these customers after acquisition. It’s all about engagement!

“Typically, new programmes acquire members and can’t keep them engaged…..both new & existing programmes are failing to strike the chord with members.” Colloquy 

With competition so rife in the loyalty industry across all sectors, how do you ensure your loyalty programme is top of mind? What’s causing your loyalty card to be shoved behind your competitors’ card? Here are just 4 suggestions for consideration:

1. Loyalty is no longer solely “owned” by the retail and airline industries. There is rapid growth in loyalty in other sectors which can be attributed to an increase in partner programmes with competing brands to offer a more compelling loyalty offering together with the expansion of innovative loyalty programmes using real time POS technology.

2. The competition is heating up.  There is no limit to the amount of programmes your customers can join and it is just so easy for them to do. Companies are eliminating the barriers to complicated sign up processes and are really tallying up members with a quick & effective registration processes via in-store, online or via mobile. Also, with so many choices for programmes offering similar benefits for similar behaviour in the same sector – how do you make sure your programme is top of mind? 

3. Racking up the memberships at a fast pace at the registration step is one thing…staying fully engaged & relevant is whole new ball game.  Companies who get the engagement element right are streets ahead of those who focus their energy on other activities in the loyalty lifecycle.

“Talk to me about what I want and need, not what YOU decide is what I want and need.”

4. Data is the kryptonite of loyalty. There are more channels than there have ever been to collect data. Data obtained by companies is wasted if not mined properly. Use your data to be relevant and offer your members an experience tailored to their wants and needs.

True engagement focuses on customer loyalty not acquisition stats.

                                                                         By Ros Siddle, Marketing & Loyalty Research Manager, Truth

The untapped power of social data: The new social customer & how they impact your current marketing strategy

The future (very near future) of loyalty is social and mobile…this was the headline of a conference Truth attended earlier this month, hosted by Marketing Mix.

In fact, global players in loyalty have already adopted mobile as a core offering in loyalty…Walgreens is a great example of how a brand amplified their member base through its innovative mobile app offering. Mobile platforms allow for real time points earning & redemption which is one of the key benefits a customer rates a loyalty programme by…real time rewards.
However, it goes beyond mobile… 

Has it ever occurred to you that the information your customer provides to their social networks may be of some value…more valuable than the “like” or “following” to your brand?
Amanda Cromhout, CEO of Truth, highlighted this in her presentation at the conference. It’s no longer enough to look in isolation at age, gender, intention to purchase and basket size. We now need to look one layer deeper.... social data! Social data includes information such as relationship status, brand/competitor likes, interests & circle of influence.

Overlay demographic data, psychographic data, transactional data AND social data to create the bigger picture of your new customer…the social customer.

Use the new insights derived from the combination of data listed above to market to them about what is relevant, making their entire experience with your brand far more meaningful across all touch points of their life.

This is particularly significant to the loyalty industry. The loyalty game itself is evolving. The basics of loyalty was to “swipe, collect & earn” whether it be via a loyalty card swipe, coupon collection or mobile application. We're now in a new era of share and earn….using social media platforms to reward customers for their social media behaviour & engagement relating to a brand.

 MJ Khan, head of social at Quirk delved into the new persona of the social customer and how they impact our strategies as marketers. The social customer is someone who has taught us to improve online reputation management strategies and use social CRM as an opportunity to improve this.

The social customer can offer your brand more than you know:

1) One of the most powerful attributes is the power of brand advocacy. When your brand doesn’t  have the time to respond to on social media, your community of social customers jumps in & responds for you

2) We tend to forget that social media is about people not technology. The premise of social media is not new to humans because connecting to others is not new. So let your customer connect with you and other customers about things that interest them…brands need to move beyond using social media as a selling tool and use it as an engagement tool

3) Engagement is not a strategy…engagement should be used as a tool

4) Yes we like to listen, yes we like to learn...but can these new social customers' input change business output? Leverage what you can learn from the social customer through your new engagement tool

Ignore your brand's social customer insights at your peril!

                                                                         By Ros Siddle, Marketing & Loyalty Research Manager, Truth

MySchool comes out tops at International Loyalty Awards

The Loyalty Awards recognize excellence, innovation and best practice in the loyalty industry across Europe, the Middle East and for the first time this year, Africa. The event is hosted by Loyalty Magazine and  their key sponsor Aimia. 

Homegrown CSR loyalty programme, MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet has won the ‘Best Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative Linked to Loyalty’ award at the Annual Loyalty Awards held in London earlier this month.

The winning campaign ‘Doing Good Is Good Business’ made it onto a shortlist of 200 programmes from 20 different countries with more than 80 leading brand names. MySchool went up against leading global brands such as Turkey’s leading telecommunications network, Turkcell and UK’s Pets at Home company’s VIP rewards programme which is linked to CSR.

 “For MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet to receive international recognition is testament to the impact the programme has had and an example of how ordinary citizens and retailers can jointly contribute significantly to society at large”, says Pieter Twine, MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet General Manager.

MySchool MyVillage My Planet is a coalition programme (multi partnership) as well as a leading CSR initiative where by members select a beneficiary (schools/charities) they would like to support. Every time a member swipes their MySchool card at participating retailers, up to 5% is donated to their beneficiary.

Winning performance:

• Since it started in 2009, the programme has donated over R 200 million to its beneficiaries
• In 2012 alone, it raised more than R36 million for over 10 000 beneficiaries
• On average, the programme gives back R3 million every month
• The programme has over 700 000 active members
• The programme signed up 136 new beneficiaries in 2012 which saw the value of funds raised increase by 23%

Well deserved MySchool! It's grear to see a South African programme came out tops!

                                                                          By Ros Siddle, Marketing & Loyalty Research Manager, Truth