Most companies have some sort of customer loyalty program in place. Loyalty programs aren’t just exceptionally effective at increasing revenue, but customers are also more likely to stick with a brand that offers a great loyalty program.

If you’re a company that’s new to loyalty programs, here are a few different programs that are sure to keep your customers coming back.

What is a loyalty program? 

Let’s start with the basics, what exactly is a loyalty program? A customer loyalty program is essentially a retention strategy that encourages your customers to buy from your brand rather than your competitors.

The more a customer engages with your company, the more rewards they’ll get.

What are the different loyalty programs?

Below is a snapshot of the different loyalty programs:

Points-based programs

These are one of the most common loyalty programs out there. How it works is that customers accumulate reward points. These reward points can then be redeemed for other perks and cashbacks.

While reward points are mostly earned from purchases, they can also be earned from sharing on social media, leaving reviews and more.

Tiered loyalty programs

As the name suggests, tiered loyalty programs are based on the customer’s rank. The more that they spend with the company, the higher rank they’ll be. These tiered loyalty programs give customers a goal as the higher their tier is, the better their rewards are.

Paid loyalty programs

These are on the rarer side of things, but certainly still exist. Paid loyalty programs give customers immediate benefits with a fee. These fees can either be recurring or paid at once.

Customers who spend more on a brand are likely to be repeat customers as they believe that they’d need to maximise the value that they spend on their membership. With most paid loyalty programs, however, the benefits outweigh the fees - making it all the more enticing.

Paid loyalty programs also offer customers with different advantages such as members only content, experiences that are personalised and more. If you want to have high engagement amongst your members, paid loyalty programs are typically the way to go.

Value-based loyalty programs

The idea behind these loyalty programs is to connect with customers on a deeper level. With these loyalty programs, companies usually donate a percentage of purchases to charity.

While these loyalty programs aren’t quite like the rest as it doesn’t actually “reward” customers, it does hold a special place in a customer’s heart as the reward is beneficial to society.

Getting started with a loyalty program

As seen from the above, there are quite a few loyalty programs to go with. Whichever one you select, just make sure that it resonates with your brand and your customers.

No matter which loyalty program you choose to go with, it’s likely that you’ll also need a loyalty card to go along with your program. Loyalty cards don’t just come in an array of designs, but most of the time you’re also able to customise (logo, colours branding etc.) your loyalty card to suit your needs.