, , , , , , , , , ,

Creating a Customer Loyalty Program: Rewarding Repeat Business

A woman smiling as she receives rewards from a customer loyalty program.

Every business, large and small, succeeds when they have returning customers who provide repeat business. In order to keep those customers returning, a business needs to foster loyalty. Quality products/services and excellent customer service are fundamental to creating that loyalty. However, a customer loyalty program is an effective way to help further encourage customers to return to your business rather than a competitor. We’ll explain what kind of customer loyalty programs foster true dedication and encourage repeat business by rewarding your customers.

The What and Why of Customer Loyalty Programs

Today, customer loyalty programs aren’t something new. In fact, they are fairly common, being offered by many businesses from your major chains to your local café. Their profusion is simple to explain: customer loyalty is important. 57% of customers and clients spend more on brands to which they are loyal. 71% of customers say loyalty programs are an important part of their relationship with businesses and brands. In turn, businesses that show the most loyalty can grow their revenues at 2.5 times the rate of their competitors. Loyalty programs are especially effective in e-commerce for their convenience, where they can increase average order quantity by 319%!

Quality is Key for Building Loyalty

Before creating a customer loyalty program, we should understand what true customer loyalty means. Many businesses today offer loyalty programs which often provide rewards such as discounts or exclusive items. The average customer is enrolled in just over 14 loyalty programs, but they are only active in less than half. They might be enrolled in multiple loyalty programs, but they are only loyal in their actions and business to a few. So while a loyalty program helps to secure that repeat business, customers say that price, quality of services/products, and trust are the essential basis for generating real loyalty.

True Loyalty is a Reciprocal Relationship

Offering a loyalty program means little if customers don’t feel that you are loyal to them in return. Customers only feel true loyalty if a business shows as much care in what they offer customers or clients as what the customer wants. True loyalty, including customer loyalty, is built on a reciprocal relationship of trust. That trust comes from honesty, reasonable pricing, an intuitive and accessible website, and quality services and products. Other critical strategies include being personable and engaging with your audience as well as listening to them to develop personal connections. The loyalty program is that extra incentive that reminds customers of their loyalty for that quality. It fosters dedication because a loyalty program acknowledges the support it receives from those customers’ repeat business.

How to Create a Successful Customer Loyalty Program

Not all customer loyalty programs are created equal. Some are cumbersome to use. Others are just not rewarding, leaving them unused. With many loyalty programs out there, you want to create one that customers feel truly rewards their continuing relationship with your business. This will help ensure you see an ROI as customers keep returning to purchase your products or services. There are a few essential guidelines for creating an effective and rewarding loyalty program that helps encourage repeat business:

  • Points Based Systems – Overall, customers prefer points-based loyalty programs. These systems give customers points for every purchase they make, possibly offering further points for certain kinds of purchases. Customers can then use their points to receive discounts, exclusive offers, or even redeem free products. Customers like points systems because they can see the reward in each purchase, and they can track how close they are to their next discount or offer.
  • Balanced Rewards and Redemption Offers – Even if a points system is encouraging, the rewards or redemption offers need to be substantial. They will stop engaging with the program if they rarely or never feel rewarded. However, you do not want to reward so much that your loyalty program starts costing your business more than the repeat business is generating. This is a delicate balance. You will need to determine by looking at current customer behaviour and other industry standards.
  • Frictionless and Intuitive – Be sure that your loyalty program is easy to use, understand, and redeem from. If it is confusing or cumbersome to redeem a reward in process or restrictions, customers will simply not engage with it.
  • Personalization, Curation, and Customization – Surveys have shown that personalization is extremely important to customers for them to engage with loyalty programs. This includes curated or customizable offers as well as personalized communications that might include such curated offerings.
  • Offering Experiences – Customers are no longer just interested in products or services. Instead, many have become interested in brands and businesses offering experiences. Loyalty programs are an excellent way to offer such experiences to your most dedicated customers. For example, rather than receiving a discount or free products, rewards can also be lessons or attending an exclusive event. Such offers also help to foster a community among your loyal customers and can be a great way to encourage user generated content on social media.
  • Loyalty Tiers – Lastly, loyalty tiers help to further reward repeat business. Depending on how frequently a customer purchases products (usually based on the previous year), they go up in the loyalty tier. The higher the tier, they receive better incentives or rewards. For example, the highest loyalty tier could receive free shipping or flat discount. These provide your most loyal customers with extra rewards. It also also encourages others to seek the rewards for their repeat business.

Loyalty Is What Makes You Stand Out

You should now understand how with a strong basis in trust for your products and services, you can create loyalty that fosters a strong connection. A customer loyalty program is key to encouraging and rewarding customers for that repeat business. However, that loyalty program needs to stand out by being intuitive and personable. If you’re ready to add or reinvigorate your e-commerce’s loyalty program, be sure to contact Rosewood Marketing’s web design and digital marketing teams.

/0 Comments/by
, , , , , , , , , ,

Charting Progress: Rosewood’s 2023 Year in Review

The Rosewood team sitting together to review a productive 2023

In some ways the holiday break went a little too fast, but at the same time the Rosewood team is excited to continue existing projects and start a ton of new ones this year! We have a lot of digital marketing to strategize and websites to design and launch. However, just like previous years, we’re kicking off 2024 with a review of the success and accomplishments we and our clients shared in 2023.

2023 Proved No Less Busy Than 2022

In fact, 2023 kept us even busier as we served over 120 clients from developing websites to creating comprehensive marketing plans, and everything in between. To address our growing scope and project lists, we had a few new members join Rosewood. We’re still a small and focused team across our Canada-wide offices, but that hasn’t prevented us from making big accomplishments this past year. That focus also allowed us to provide individual and local attention to many of our small business clients concentrated in Newmarket, Uxbridge, Aurora, and around the GTA.

The Launch of Rosewood Fundraising

Rosewood launched a new division in 2023 dedicated to nonprofits that benefit their local communities: Rosewood Fundraising. We have been supporting and providing our services to nonprofits since Rosewood’s beginning; however, this new division dedicates itself to marketing solutions and strategies along with fundraising technologies that are honed to each nonprofit’s needs. Along with our digital marketing expertise, our new division includes our successful Catch the Ace lottery system as well as the new Fundraising for Good platform.

New Services and Insights from Rosewood in 2024

Our review shows 2023 was already a big year, and before we show how by listing all the incredible wins our team had this year, we want to discuss what the year ahead has in store to make it just as exciting. Along with the many projects already underway and soon to start this year, we are thrilled to unveil that we will soon be expanding our consulting services. We’re excited to launch this new service that will only further help small businesses succeed.

These consulting services will provide businesses and organizations with our team’s technical and industry expertise to identify the unique needs and best strategies they should put into practice. These comprehensive services will include website audits, social media branding and strategizing, email and SMS setup and best practices. For ads, these will go beyond traditional campaigns to focus on customized strategies, utilizing a full range of digital tools and resources. These consultations will be precisely tailored to meet the unique needs of every small business we collaborate with.

Wins from 2023

Websites:

  • 31 websites launched!
  • 50 ongoing website maintenance clients with over 570 hours spent in 2023 on various maintenance tasks.
  • Countless websites optimized.

Ads:

  • Generated over 110,000 clicks, directing traffic to a variety of local businesses, and boosting their online presence and customer engagement.
  • Achieved over 16,000 conversions encompassing leads, purchases, phone calls, directions requests, and much more.
  • Conducted extensive A/B testing with over 2,000 headlines across multiple industries to capture the unique voice and appeal of each business and sector.

Digital Media:

  • Over 1100 social posts were uploaded across all major channels to help businesses and nonprofits grow their reach and foster their digital community.
  • 112 email newsletters and many more email automations developed and sent to keep business’ clients and customers up to date while fostering loyalty.
  • 103 blogs written with another 64 also posted to improve website SEO while educating and entertaining site visitors.
  • 42 hours dedicated to copywriting not including editing and implementation.

Fundraising:

  • Launch of Rosewood Fundraising as its own dedicated division.
  • Over $1 million in Catch the Ace transactions processed with proceeds directly supporting community programs across Ontario!

Misc.

  • Further integration of Monday.com for client-facing operations, allowing them to track and update projects.
  • Hundreds of Video Tutorials recorded for clients and team members.
  • Hundreds of eye-catching graphics created.
  • Thousands of perfect images licensed and sourced.
  • Thousands of hours spent on Zoom, Google Meet and Slack Huddles!

Starting 2024 Right

Reflecting on all we’ve accomplished in our review of 2023, we’re only more excited to get started with 2024. We have plenty more websites to design, social posts to create, and ads to review, let alone the exciting things brewing both in our consulting services and over at Rosewood fundraising. We have big goals ahead for ourselves and our many clients. The new year is always a perfect time to set your own business resolutions to accomplish by the year’s end. If you have some big goals whether it’s web design, ads, social media marketing, fundraising, email marketing, or more be sure to contact us to get the year off to the right start.

/0 Comments/by
, , , , , , , , , ,

Optimize Your Google Ads Landing Page Experience for Better Results

Two women collaborating on a laptop to optimize a Google ad landing page for better results.

We repeatedly talk about how Google Ads are great for small businesses. Their scaling budget, focused targeting, and clear metrics make them a versatile option. Once you’ve set up effective Google Ads, you’ll be able to direct users to a landing page on your business’ website. That landing page has just as important a job of ensuring potential customers continue on to purchase your products or services. We’ll explain how you can optimize your Google Ads landing pages for better results.

What is a Landing Page

A landing page is a page on your website where a user ends up when they click on a digital marketing campaign like a social media post or Google Ad. It’s where the user “lands” in their digital flight. The landing page ensures those who are interested in the marketing campaign maintain that interest and direct them to complete the desired actions. This could be to purchase a certain product, hire your business’ services, have them sign up for a newsletter, attend an event, etc. Your Google Ad’s job was to increase awareness about your business, its services, or its products and convert them to visit your website. The landing page continues that conversion process by providing a friendly and focused welcome with clear directions to keep going.

How to Optimize and Improve Your Landing Pages

Just like with any digital marketing, there are various strategies to consider when optimizing your landing pages to improve their performance. Here are some of the key strategies along with examples that represent these best practices.

The Right Page for the Right Ad

Unlike your home page, a landing page has a more precise job. It welcomes a user who has come for a specific reason through a specific Google Ad. Therefore, you don’t want an overly generic landing page that will leave users lost. Tailor the landing page to each ad or type of ad. For example, a Google Ad for a certain product or service should land the user on that product or service request page. If a user follows a link to sign up for a newsletter or event, the landing page should be the form to join. If users don’t arrive on a corresponding landing page, they are only likely to get confused, frustrated, and leave.

Concise and Effective Copy

Another way a landing page can potentially confuse any new arrivals is by being full of words. Users have come with a specific purpose, and a landing page should have clear and simple messaging that provides pertinent information. Keep copy concise to be the most effective. Wordiness or jargon could lead to confusion and distract a user from completing the conversion that’s your business’ goal. This landing page from FeminaHealth is a great example. Notice how the simple copy effectively communicates the information with distinct formatting that clearly directs the user to the next step.

Clear Call to Actions

Along with that direct and concise copy, you will want a clear and prominent call to action on any landing page. This will make it clear to a user how to proceed when they arrive on the page, optimizing its performance. On a product page, this will be a clear button like “Add to Cart”. On a newsletter or event signup, these calls to action could be a “Fill the Form” in prominent text with a clear “SUBMIT” button at the bottom. These clear calls to action help direct a user to continue from the landing to the next critical steps in the process. This landing page from Goldberg Centre Vision Correction for booking a consultation is a perfect example of a prominent call to action that directs any landing arrivals.

Cohesive Branding Between Google Ad and Landing Page

An important element of designing any optimized landing page is making sure it is consistent with the rest of your digital branding. When a user arrives at a landing page, they want the space to be familiar and expected. If they arrive at a page that doesn’t match the Google Ad visually and verbally, they’ll be confused or even worried they’ve been taken to the wrong place. That’s why it’s best practice that your landing page has cohesive branding. The space should seem familiar and right, and so should be custom-designed to match the visuals, tone, and style of your business. A great example of this strategy is this landing page from talkspace, where the branding is clear in the page’s logo, colours, and the tone of its copy.

The Best Landing Page is One They Don’t Walk Away From

Now you know some of the best practices for optimizing and improving your Google Ads landing pages. You want a landing page to provide a clear, directive, and familiar experience for any user arriving there. Its job is to keep users there and in contact with your business, not scare them off. If you want more tips for designing your landing pages or want some optimized pages designed for you, contact our advertising and web design teams at Rosewood, who are masters of sticking the landing. 

/0 Comments/by