Your Loyalty/Rewards program is a tremendous tool for facilitating dialogue with your audience. Each time you connect with a member is an opportunity to enhance your brand, position your product and connect in a meaningful way. Each contact affects their opinion of you.
Have you read your emails lately? Do they sound like you? Like your brand? Or are they a generic, heartless formula that merely transmits data without soul? Too often, we send stiff, standard messages that resemble business correspondence more than offering useful information in a style that a friend would expect.
Use each point of contact to your advantage. Here are some thoughts on how to improve communication with your members:
1. Keep messages short and to the point. Shorter is better. Long paragraphs of text are easy to ignore.
2. Write in the lexicon of your members. That means informal, natural and in your personality.
3. Send messages from your key personalities or celebrities – not from a nameless, faceless "club". A personal note with relevant information is far more persuasive. And when you write the note, be sure it’s written the way that personality would SAY it.
4. Dress up your messages. Stay “on message” with flair and personality, prompting the member to take action (click) for more information.
5. Use each messages as an opportunity to gently promote to your audience aspects of your program that benefit them. Remember why they are receiving your email…to benefit from the offers and advantages in your loyalty club! So be sure the content fulfills that expectation.
6. Write from the perspective of “what’s in it for me” rather than “what we have for you”. Apply this principle to all communication with your audience you’ll immediately improve your connection with them.
Here are a couple of practical examples:
1: The confirmation email a new member receives when joining.
Here is a typical/stiff message:
Thank you for joining (Club)! To start earning points for prizes, we'll get you started by hooking you up with xxx points. Just log into your account with your username/password…go to Earn Points and enter the word "WELCOME" in the Bonus Code section…then you'll get xxx points to use anyway you want…that easy!
Here’s the same message with a friendly/inviting tone:
Hey, thanks for becoming a brand new (club member). I can't wait to tell you all of the exciting new things we have planned for you. You’re going to love it! I also want to thank you in advance for sharing your opinion with us in a short survey. It's waiting for you now at (link). It’ll take just a couple of minutes and you’ll earn xxx points while helping make (program) even better. As a (club member) I promise even more ways for you to be involved and truly be on the "inside." Have a great day, and thanks for listening to (station).
Example 2: From a radio station’s weekly email newsletter offering a Daily Appointment Tune In offer:
This is written from the station’s point of view:
Tune in each weekday when (morning personality) gives out a 2,500 point Winning Word of the Day, sometime after 7am. When we repeat it at 11:20, 4:20 and 8:20, just log in and enter the word before midnight to earn xxx points. And you can use those points for some of the great prizes we have coming your way.
Now, here's the same message written with the listener benefit in mind:
You could probably use $1,000, right? Sure, who wouldn’t? As a (club member), I’d love to write you a check and put a grand in your hand! Just listen each day right at 7 for my 2,500 point Instant Win Word Of the Day, usually right after (benchmark feature). Don’t worry if you miss it. We’ll repeat it at 11:20, 4;20 and 8:20. You'll discover a ton of ways to use those points on our website…ipods, CDs, games, and even $1,000 in cash–or click here and tell us the rewards you'd like us to get for you. So each time you listen, it's one more chance at a grand in your hand. So if you can, listen tomorrow morning, and start your shopping lists now!
(Signed from morning show)
Remember, as you learn to tell your story through these interactions, your Loyalty/Rewards program takes on more importance to the member, and momentum grows with the database activity. Please share your feedback and ideas that have worked for you!
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