Building Customer Loyalty in the CPG Industry
Posted By Peyton Fox | September 20th, 2023
In the highly competitive space of food and beverage – getting loyalty and repeat business from your customers can seem like a daunting task.
Customer preferences are constantly in flux and brands need to adapt to these changes to remain top-of-mind for their customers.
This is where building out customer loyalty in email marketing is key.
Let’s dive into the importance of building a loyalty program in your business, how effective it can be in your revenue performance, and examples of what your loyalty marketing can contain!
Why should your business have a loyalty program?
You aren’t alone in wondering if a loyalty program would be worth it for your business. Maybe you think that that is just for makeup brands and big box stores – how can that help my business?
For snack subscription box company Bokksu, they’ve been able to see massive engagement with their loyalty program (80% of their consumers!) and a 10X growth when utilizing platforms like Yotpo.
What loyalty app is right for me?
Loyalty apps or rewards apps, are applications built to help you provide an engaging and rewarding (Pun intended) experience for your customers!
Nowadays there are TONS to choose from, so we’ll break down the top dogs in the space and why they might be a good fit for your brand.
- Yotpo – Founded in 2011, Yotpo has become a prominent figure in the digital marketing and e-commerce landscape. They focus on user-generated content to drive CPG brands forward. Their loyalty program offers
- Smile.IO – Founded in 2012, Smile.io has a rewards panel that is easily customizable to manage loyalty programs and keep your designs on brand. Their rewards panel features translation into several languages, in-app reminders, or “nudges”, and can easily be changed to mobile. Like Yotpo they offer a free option and its beginner payment plan at $50 monthly.
- LoyaltyLion – A data-driven platform that uses data to help get more repeat customers, you can easily see the percentage of loyal customers, and the revenue retrieved from them from your dashboard and follow along as your loyal customer base grows. What separates this platform from the others is its scaled pricing that uses your average orders and at what cost, to determine your monthly payment; making it cost-effective for growing, small businesses.
No matter what application you go for, we recommend selecting a loyalty program that fits your business’s needs best! Maybe a referral program doesn’t quite make sense for your CPG but a points-based loyalty program does. Pick and choose a plan among those applications to build a custom plan that fits your needs.
One aspect we love about all of the mentioned applications is the seamless integration into Klaviyo. This allows you to cleanly market your loyalty program, remind them of rewards, and build an entire email eco-system that aims to boost LTV.
Email Marketing + Loyalty Apps = Perfect Match!
Once you’ve selected a loyalty program, now it’s time to get it in front of your customers!
Email marketing and your loyalty program go hand-in-hand. Imagine your entire customer journey, from Welcome Series to Placed Order sequence now having a touch of loyalty program added to it.
We want the customers to come back again and again. Loyalty programs accomplish this by offering a wide range of techniques that can be utilized through email automation.
What email automations should you use?
We’ve got you covered with our top three email automations to use with your selected loyalty app that maintains a loyal customer base.
- Exclusive Offers: Grab your customer’s attention but offering exclusive offers and making them feel special. This is also a good way to upsell/cross-sell using bundles or upgrades.
- Points Reminders: Send gentle nudges to remind your customers to draw them back in with reminder emails. This will encourage customers to come back to your brand and continue to earn points and future rewards. By using reminder emails you engage with the customer, resulting in an increased chance of a return, and garner a positive perception of your brand.
- Feedback and Review Requests: Always use feedback to your advantage! Offer rewards, codes, and deals for good feedback. Use social media to post customer of the week or month, or thank them for their reviews. If the customers trust your brand and feel appreciated- they will return!
Using email automation isn’t just a method to attract new customers; it’s also a way to enhance your bond with loyal patrons. When employed with loyalty apps, email automation ensures your dedicated customer base receives the appreciation they deserve and in turn, fosters their loyalty and encourages repeat business.
Our Secret To Generating User-Content Through Loyalty
We highly recommend the usage of loyalty programs to generate user-content. Loyalty programs are a great tool to keep those loyal customers engaged and encourage them to spend money by offering points when they post to social media or leave a review. Want more in-depth user content? Take it a step further and offer double points for posting short video content about your product. The more someone trusts and likes your brand, the more likely they are to post about it to their friends and followers.
Our Final Thought On Loyalty For CPG Brands
At the end of the day, continued customer engagement and loyalty is essential to building a brand customers will trust for years to come, so let loyalty apps do the work for you.
From targeted reward actions to creative ways to boost customer LTV, loyalty programs for CPG brands is something we highly recommend you get installed in your business. If you have any questions or want to chat about getting once started for your brand, feel free to book a call with us below.
Schedule Your Call
In our meeting together, we will run through your current email marketing setup, the hurdles you are facing, and more. At the end of our call, I’ll be able to detail how my team and I could help.
When booking, you’ll see a few questions that must be answered prior to our call. We are very selective about what brands and clients we work with to ensure we can succeed with your email marketing.
