Loyalty Programs: The Best Way to Reach Users Is Every Way
Consumers increasingly want a variety of methods to receive communications
Consumers want a greater variety of ways to interact with their loyalty programs compared with their preferences from a year ago, according to data from mobile marketing company 3Cinteractive.
Participants were asked to choose one channel through which they preferred to receive loyalty communications.
Last year, communication preferences were dominated by two channels: texting and email. In 2016, nearly half of US internet users surveyed said they preferred to receive loyalty-related communications via SMS. In addition, roughly one quarter said they preferred email.
A year later, only 21% of respondents wanted texts from loyalty programs. Email was not offered in the list of preferred channels to choose from.
And perhaps because respondents were offered more options for the 2017 poll, the number of preferred channels became more fragmented.
For example, 21% of respondents said they preferred to get loyalty communications via push notification, and nearly as many (18%) named mobile wallets as the channel of choice.
Another 10% said they preferred virtual assistants.
In any case, the survey demonstrates that loyalty programs have become an important marketing tool for retailers.
However, just because a consumer joins a company’s loyalty program, doesn’t mean they’re an active user of it.
2016 data from Bond Brand Loyalty, in collaboration with Visa, revealed that US internet users belong to an average of roughly 13 loyalty programs, but they actively participate in just about half of them.
—Rimma Kats
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