Many small businesses across Canada are catching on to a concept well know by large corporations: offering incentives for customer loyalty not only boosts sales among current customers, but it entices new customers as well. Whether you’re a large grocery store, a fledgling clothing store, a pharmacy, a restaurant… whatever your business, you could stand to benefit greatly from a customer loyalty program.
And as a physical reminder of the loyalty program, you need to offer a loyalty card to customers, which will not only function as a way of identifying members, but also as a means for storing data and advertising the program. At Avon Security Products we offer a wide range of card printers, for every budget and size, to get you started toward implementing a customer loyalty program. Here are four reasons that the humble customer loyalty card is an effective marketing tool.
Customer Retention
It’s much cheaper to retain existing customers than acquire new ones. Customer retention is what accelerates profitable growth, but vying for their loyalty means incentivizing them with deals, promotions, perks and points, which is exactly what a loyalty program does. When faced with the option to buy from you or a competitor, they will choose you, because you’re the business that offers incentives. Further than that, having a card in their wallet makes customers feel as though they’re a part of something, a member of a club, and that sense of belonging can further improve retention.
Sales Increase
With customer loyalty, your business will very likely see a sales increase, not only because you’ve incentivized customers to repeatedly choose your business, but also because the promotions inherent to these programs cause people to spend more. Case in point: the points program, which stipulates that you’ll get something for free after racking up a certain amount of points – and the only way to rack up those points are by spending money. The more a customer pulls out there loyalty card, the more they’re spending; that’s the quiet genius of these types of programs.
Cost Effective
Rather than spending large sums of money on an advertising campaign that may or may not work, it’s better to buy an inexpensive ID card printer, and make customer loyalty cards. Although an ID card printer price may vary a little, they’re nowhere near the price of an advertising campaign, yet they’re just as (if not more) effective.
Viral Marketing
Don’t underestimate the power of visibility. Whenever a customer uses their loyalty card, talks about their loyalty card, or even opens their wallet at a different establishment, revealing the loyalty card, your business gets a small signal boost. The card should be printed with your logo and name brightly and prominently displayed to maximize visibility. To print something that looks good and feels professional, be sure to use a high quality printer. There are several options in the Polaroid ID Card System that offer fantastic value to get your company started.
If you want to boost sales, retain customers and advertise your business, all without spending a lot of money, the best way to go is implementing customer loyalty cards. It’s all well and good to get one sale out of a person, but it’s far better to get them to buy for life. Customer loyalty is the backbone of a successful business, and loyalty cards from Avon Security Products can help you achieve that.