If you want customer loyalty, you have to build relationships and provide value to your customers.
One of the best ways to do this is by working with influencers your audience already loves and trusts.
Here’s what you need to know about the foundations of customer loyalty programs, the different programs you can build, and how influencers can help you scale loyalty offerings as a part of your marketing strategy.
Table of Contents
What Is A Customer Loyalty Program?
A customer loyalty program is a benefits program offered to repeat customers.
As customers spend more money, remain customers for a longer period, or get their friends to purchase products, these programs tend to offer additional value and benefits.
The Benefits Of Building Customer Loyalty
Building customer loyalty is an essential part of building your brand. Three major benefits include:
Higher customer retention and lifetime value: Customers buy more from you when they feel connected to your brand.
Sales boost: Customers buy more for themselves, are more likely to purchase your product as a gift and will advocate for their friends and followers to make purchases.
Increased customer understanding: Setting up rewards programs helps you learn more about your customers’ demographics and purchasing patterns, which can inform future marketing and business decisions.
Why Do Customers Like Loyalty Programs?
A well-designed rewards program delivers significant benefits for customers, including:
Exclusivity: Early access to products, services, or offerings no one else gets.
Community: Customers feel more connected to your brand and other people who love your products as much as they do.
Engagement: The best customer loyalty programs provide a way for customers to influence product development, giving them a greater sense of ownership.
Different Types Of Customer Loyalty Programs
You can create loyalty programs based on a few different structures:
Value-based loyalty programs: This includes direct discounts, loyalty points, cash back, or priority access to customer service.
Tiered loyalty programs: Customers get increasing benefits once they pass thresholds such as dollars spent or length of membership. Most airline loyalty programs operate on this model, giving additional benefits like lounge access or priority upgrades at higher tiers.
Paid and subscription-based loyalty programs: Customers pay a membership fee to join and receive benefits like free shipping or discounts that improve the customer experience.
Brand ambassador programs: Loyal customers - from big-name influencers to people without a large social following - promote your brand and get benefits for themselves. For example, Amazon has its own influencer program that allows users to make money off affiliate links.
How To Build Loyalty Programs Using Influencer Marketing
Building a loyalty program with influencer marketing can attract customers, build customer trust, and explain how your programs work.
One of the reasons that influencer marketing works so well is because it serves as valuable social proof. People buy from other people – and they trust influencers as much as they trust their friends and family.
Here’s how to use influencer marketing to build your program successfully.
#1: Define Goals And Develop Your Loyalty Offering
First, you’ll want to plan the actions you want customers to take after seeing your influencer content and signing up for your loyalty program.
Do you want them to buy more? Do you want them to try a new product? Do you want to build your social media following?
The next step? Consider what incentives you can offer, like early access or special deals, and how you can connect your product to the end goal.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure, interview customers! Ask what they like about other loyalty programs they are part of.
#2: Find The Right Influencers And Brand Ambassadors
The next step? Find brand ambassadors whose content, values, and audience align with your brand—bonus points if they already use your brand!
Some influencers’ brand ambassador relationships have become a core part of their personal brand and the brand’s marketing mix.
Take, for example, Sarah Landry AKA The Birds Papaya. Her partnership with Knix is a fundamental part of her brand.
Make sure you’re finding vetted influencers who are ready to work on branded partnerships. And make sure you do this in a scalable way, keeping all communication, briefs, contracts, and payments in a single platform.
#3: Collaborate With Influencers To Promote Your Program
Once you know your partners, it’s time to create content that leads to signups! Examples include:
Unboxing Videos
Tutorials and Reviews
Exclusive Codes
Giveaways
Challenges
Events
The key will be showcasing your offerings in a way that’s authentic to your brand and the influencers you work with.
#4: Monitor And Measure Performance
Track the success of your campaigns with metrics like:
Sign-ups
Engagement
Sales and retention
#5: Optimize And Iterate
Based on the performance data, refine your approach—doubling down on what works or tweaking as needed.
Finding the right creators, running campaigns, and analyzing results takes time and expertise.
Luckily, you don’t have to do it alone. Later Influence’s award-winning Services team helps brands build their influencer marketing programs to surpass their goals. Book a free demo with them today.
How Real Brands Built Customer Loyalty Programs with Later Influence
Many companies have successfully used influencer marketing to scale their customer loyalty programs. Here are two examples from Later Influence’s customers.
COSMEDIX
Cosmetics brand COSMEDIX leveraged their most loyal customers to start the COSMEDIX Crowd program. This loyalty program had customers creating content, sharing brand material, and providing valuable feedback about products.
The result? A 527% return on investment and 3M impressions on social media content.
See how the COSMEDIX Crowd program came to life here.
Eyeconic
Eyewear retailer Eyeconic partnered with Later Influence to create a referral program that led to significant profit. Customers received a custom referral link that gave them $10 off for every friend they referred using the link.
This program led to a 4.6x Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) with an average value per conversion of $206 during the campaign.
Build Better Loyalty With Influencers
Building customer loyalty programs, and improving your brand loyalty overall, is made easy when you establish a credible influencer marketing program.
The key is partnering with the right influencers and managing your creator partnerships effectively. Using Later Influence, you can create brand ambassador programs allowing loyal customers to promote their products and build community around their brand.
Book a demo today to discover how the platform can help your company start or scale its customer loyalty program.
