The Top 10 Most Redeemed Loyalty Rewards
Thousands of small businesses use AutoPilot, our automated messaging service that sends targeted promotions, deals, and rewards to loyalty program members depending on their visit and purchase behavior.
When implemented well, these rewards or deals, which you as a business owner create and manage, drive significant business back through the door, and more often. Even better, AutoPilot’s known for saving “lost” customers by sending out well-timed messages with incentives to get those shoppers you haven't seen in a while back in the door.
With the right rewards, AutoPilot brings back new customers, “lost” customers you haven’t seen in 30, 90, 180, 270 or even 360 days, and encourages regular customers to keep coming back. As robust as AutoPilot is, any old reward system just won’t do to drive that traffic back. Loyalty rewards need to be enticing, intriguing and suited for the right audience. So what exactly are the right rewards or deals you should offer?
We dug through the data and thousands of AutoPilot rewards to discover the most popular, effective and redeemed rewards that have brought back or even saved customers. From our findings, here are the top 10 best and most redeemed AutoPilot reward types ranked in reverse order:
10. Free upgrades
Looking for an affordable way to reward good customers or to save those at risk of never coming back? Size upgrades like “get a large for the price of a medium” or “get 30 additional minutes free on your next massage” work wonders. These rewards are enticing because customers are essentially getting more than they pay for, which may sound like a bold business choice, but it can help grow a loyal pool of customers that choose to come back regardless of the rewards they have.
9. VIP status or membership discounts
Your loyalty program can also include tiered loyal customer levels, like a VIP status. If you’re a service-based business like a salon, you may offer monthly or yearly memberships. Sending rewards to achieve a new loyalty level or to gain access to a free membership does well.
8. Seasonal or new item discounts
Offering a discount on seasonal or new items happily encourages customers to get out of their purchasing comfort zones and increases visits. For example, let’s say you have new holiday items in spiced cider or wool sweaters – offer these at a smaller percentage discount (10-15% off). It can spark interest in these items, potentially allowing you to sell more to each customer.
7. Complete your purchase items
A free side with the purchase of an entree, 50% off e-juice with a mod purchase, or 45% off earrings with a dress purchase – any of these “complete your purchase” offers can help drive up average ticket value and customer visit frequency. These are especially useful in-person when one of your sales associates can tell shoppers if they spend a certain amount more, they can get a discount if the customer belongs to your loyalty program.
6. Buy one get one (BOGO)
Buy one get one campaigns are less about saving customers and more about driving referrals. Send these offers to regulars or new visitors and turn your best customers into evangelists.
5. Percentage off
This one is pretty self explanatory, but we do want to point out that percentage off works best for “growth” campaigns specifically. Growth campaigns are sent to your regular customers, and its focus encourages regulars to spend a little more each time they visit.
Obviously, free up-sell items (like a free pastry with your coffee) work great since they’re easy to visualize, but percent off discounts can have a huge impact, too. Offers like "10% off for your loyal business" make your customers feel seen, special, and cared for.
4. Single item markdown
If you don’t want to commit to giving something away completely for free, this is a great alternative. A great example would be a coffee shop offers a cup of coffee for $1 to 13,000 customers who hadn’t been back in a month and 1,000 of them returned!
3. Dollars off
Give a few bucks off a purchase, and you’ll get sales. If you need to save some cash, you can use this for single items, for example: $5 off games.
2. Bonus points
This one surprised us, but the numbers don’t lie. Give a customer 2-10 bonus points and watch them walk through your door. Whether customers choose to use their points right away or they save them to use all at once, it gives them a reason to come back and shop again.
1. Free item
If you offer a free item, people come in – pretty simple, and it’s the most redeemed offer of them all. The interesting part is that the free item doesn’t have to be that expensive to garner this response. A free cookie isn't the most expensive item a bakery could give away for free, but it can bring a significant amount of traffic back through the door, and traffic that is willing to spend money to get their free item.
