Developing a loyalty program that ensures a successful outcome can be hard, we’ve determined 10 crucial steps that help our clients build out a powerful, customer-centric loyalty program.

Segment for maximum effectiveness
Loyalty programs are not one size fit all; treat your customers differently based on their engagement level, demographics and purchase behavior. Separating your audience by these characteristics will enable you to create targeted campaigns. For example, you should create specific campaigns for new members, repeat buyers and inactive members.
Incentivize the right actions for desired outcomes
Pin point which available actions will result in which outcomes, either increased engagement, conversions or brand advocacy. Depending on what your long term goals are, certain actions can be more heavily rewarded when customers complete them to motivate them to do so.
Identify real rewards that will motivate your customer
end consumers tend to be brand conscious and respond well to points, on brand perks and exclusive memberships. Keep your loyalty program exclusive by segmenting rewards for VIP members and new adopters. Use a tiered reward system to entice your shoppers to keep completing more actions for more exclusive rewards.
Gamify the loyalty experience
Gamified loyalty programs create a competitive online community. Customers would earn badges for the actions they complete and can see how they rank with public leader-boards. Create mystery and surprise badges to keep motivation high and your customers on their toes as they interact with your brand.
Marketing and Cross Promotion
Market loyalty programs as a way to achieve membership-only rewards. Cross promote across existing social channels and through email newsletters. Include CTAs around your site for each available action to ensure that your loyalty program cannot be missed.
Integrate with all 3rd Party Systems
For the largest impact, fully integrate your loyalty program with your existing 3rd party systems. Integrate with your ESP, CRM, marketing automation and content management platforms for future remarketing campaigns, targeted emails and lead nurturing.
Develop an Email Marketing Strategy
Once integrated with your ESP and marketing automation platforms, continue promoting your loyalty campaign with three key emails: transactional, trigger and general marketing emails. Keep your members informed with transactional emails that show them which rewards they’ve earned by completing which actions. Excite your members with triggered emails whenever they have reached a new status after achieving a certain amount of points.Target people who are 200 points away from the next level with a list of actions to unlock more rewards.
Enhance your loyalty with a Seamless Omnichannel Experience
Reward shoppers for making purchases online, in store, on mobile apps or even over the phone. Customers will appreciate the fact that they can rack up points and rewards no matter how they shop.
Continually evaluate and optimize
Continuously revisit your program in order to switch up rewards and point systems for optimal results. Each loyalty program should be designed with ROI in mind and be continually optimized for maximum results over time.
ROI Analytics
Calculate how much weight in rewards should be put behind each action to keep your loyalty program revenue positive. Keep track of members’ repeat purchases, conversion rates, average order values, referral orders and lifetime value. With a Loyalty Calculator, you’ll be able to create a predictable ROI positive loyalty program by month one.