When you run loyalty rebates promotions, you get the extra revenue that you’d get from a sale with the additional information customers might not be willing to provide in a regular promotion. You can drive customer loyalty and develop better sales and marketing strategies using the data you’ve collected. It’s an age-old channel sales strategy, but it hasn’t aged a day in effectiveness! There’s just one catch: your loyalty rebates competition. Your competitors are vying for your customers’ loyalty too, and they’re also running loyalty and rebates programs. How do you stay in the lead? Here are some things I suggest:
Promote the program with a multichannel communication plan.
Great marketing can make a huge difference in your rebate program’s success. I recommend targeting specific channel partners and delivering highly personalized announcements and updates about the program. Highlight the program’s exclusivity, convey your appreciation, and be clear about the promotion’s duration, qualifications, and payout.
Use a multichannel communication plan to market your rebate program. Repetition is key. As Jeff Pilcher of The Financial Brand says, “If you’re doing it right…you will get bored of hearing yourself speak long before your message sinks in with consumers.” People are bombarded with marketing messaging, so surround them with marketing from every medium to keep your rebate program top of mind.
Speed up the rebate claims verification and redemption process.
The faster you deliver a reward for a desired behavior, the more effectively the reward reinforces the associated behavior. Rebate software can help you shorten the gap between a customer putting in a claim for a rebate and receiving that claim. Use a claims verification tool to allow rebate program participants to instantly upload receipts, invoices, warranty registrations, or other documentation proving they qualify for the rebate. You can then deposit rebate funds directly into their reloadable debit card or rebate program account.
With a fast, straightforward rebate claiming and redemption process, your customers are more likely to participate in rebate-earning activities again.
Integrate your rebate program with your existing channel technology.
Poor or non-existent software integration costs businesses dearly each year. More and more channel technology is hitting the market these days, designed to make our lives as channel marketers and salespeople easier, which is great! But failing to efficiently integrate those different platforms creates more time and money spent managing those programs and reporting on their success.
Rebate management software that’s integrated with your existing channel technology will give your program an advantage over your loyalty rebates competition in the form of sustainability and better, faster channel insights. Make sure the rebate or rewards program company you work with offers software integration capabilities.
Run multiple, simultaneous rebate promotions.
Your channel partners have their own sales goals, regional concerns, and product inventory to plan around. Not every rebate promotion you run will be relevant (or even possible) for all your channel partners to join.
I have some good news: rebate management software allows you to segment your channel partners into different groups and run multiple, simultaneous sales promotions for those groups. You gain a greater sales lift from more promotions, and your channel partners participate in the rebate promotions that are relevant to their goals and interests. Everybody wins!
Report, review, revise, and repeat!
Your rebate program should have advanced reporting, goal tracking, and visuals of the program’s performance. You should be able to prove the program’s success and ROI not only to get continuing buy-in from upper-management, but to understand which of your strategies are working and why. Look for rebate management software that offers real-time, unlimited access to reporting and dashboards that translate performance data in to easy-to-understand dashboards.
A rebate program may not seem like something you can optimize, at first blush. It’s an age-old tactic and the basic concept hasn’t changed much. But with today’s reward and rebate management software, you have tools at your disposal to greatly enhance the effectiveness of your program. Good luck leaving your loyalty rebates competition in the dust with these techniques!
