Incentive Marketing: Benefit From Rewarding Relationships

 

[caption id="attachment_310" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Creative commons by John Liu[/caption]

A lot has been said about loyalty rewards these days. Incentive marketing or in simpler terms, loyalty rewards seem to have struck a chord with both marketers and consumers alike. If I were to be honest, I love the whole idea. But first, let’s take a look at why Incentive Marketing works:

1. It’s rewarding – Who doesn’t like rewards? See how we obsessively we collect air miles?


2. Being recognized – The need for recognition runs deep in everyone and a loyalty reward recognizes you for the support you extend.


3. Exclusivity – I am special. Because I receive exclusive benefits which you are losing on. I love being exclusive!

A program that makes your reader feel special is an excellent way to keep her coming back. Of course, to your edited, polished, awesome looking book!

What are some common loyalty reward programs?

Quite a few popular programs have surfaced in recent past and most commonly, it is an information product that you would normally seek. If I were to list down some, here’s how it goes:

1. Information ebook – An ebook for free in exchange for newsletter subscription. Say, 5 basic steps to editing ebook offered for free by an editor who is trying to build a base for her editing business.


2. Free short stories/few chapters – This is mostly applied by fiction authors/publishers to readers to gain readership for the full length novel. Inkspell Publishing loves doing this through their “Free Reads” every year.


3. Membership points – This is best applied by online stores where the more the buys, the better the points. The points ultimately translates to discounts.

There are a lot more creative ways to incentivize than these. Above are the most common ones that I have seen so far and believe works pretty well.

But coming up with a loyalty program and setting up is no child’s play. Like every marketing effort that we make, it also needs to be driven by goals, and a thoughtful product that actually benefits your audience. Below are some basic steps to setting up your loyalty program:

1. Determine your target audience: If you are a fiction author, you are obviously targeting fiction readers. But there are millions of them. Are you targeting all? It is smarter to start with a more focused group for maximum impact. That means, target the mystery fiction readers for your mystery books. If you are a non-fiction writer of nutritional diets, target the readers of health magazines and websites.


2. Determine their motivation: Focusing on your niche audience means you get a chance to analyze what motivates them to take action. If you are a new author of romance fiction, I would be motivated to read more of your books through a sampler. If you are a author of nutritional diet, I would be motivated through a informative free book on dieting the right way. Research and determine what grabs their attention.


3. Determine your reward AND action: Now that you have researched and know what works for your group, decide on the reward that you plan to offer. But before that, in exchange of what? Decide what is it that you want to achieve from this program. Is it sales, membership, or increase in visits? It can be entirely out of this world, but whatever it is, know it beforehand.


4. Determine your goal: Knowing what you want to achieve is great but how much is a big question that should determine the work you put behind it. ROI is what I would recommend if you are doing a large scale program, but for beginners, having a goal is extremely important to a profitable incentive program. 100 sales in 1 week is a sample goal.


5. Budget: Set a budget for your reward program and use it to build the product you plan to give away. How to set a marketing budget is an entirely different article but the basic rule is how much can you realistically spend? Some of us are bootstrapped but as Henry Ford once said, “A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.”


6. Launch: Congratulations! You are all set. Few things you would need before and once you have launched. According to Punchtab, an effective incentive program works best if it’s within six weeks. Anything longer than that will lose its focus. Also, ensure that you have a good tracking mechanism to trace the results and how close you are to your goal.

Incentive marketing is an excellent way to reach your audience with your product. Because it makes them feel special. But my personal favorite reason is the relationship that it establishes with your customer. If done correctly and nourished the right way, these customers can turn to referrers bringing more customers to your doorstep. That is rewarding to me!

What are your thoughts on it?