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Keep Customers Engaged Before & After Launch Marketing Your Perkville Rewards Program PART 1
Keep Customers Engaged Before & After Launch
Marketing Your Perkville Rewards Program
PART
1
Table of Contents
Fundamentals
Launch checklist
Marketing before launch
Email marketing
Staff training
Marketing flyers
Social media plan
Event planning
3
4
6
7
9
12
12
15
Finish the Fundamentals
POS
What You Need to Do Before LaunchBefore you think about marketing your rewards program to your customers, you’ll need to get a few
ducks in a row. Your Customer Success representative will go through all of this with you, but just in case
you need a refresher, here’s what needs to be done before you can release your rewards program to
your customers.
Connect your POS system with PerkvilleTo fully take advantage of an automated rewards program, you’ll need to connect your POS system with
your Perkville account. Once you’ve done this, Perkville automatically syncs with any changes made with
your POS, such as new customers.
How you connect your POS system to Perkville varies depending on the system. If you
haven’t already, check in with [email protected] about setting up your integration.
Set up your rewardsBefore you can start rewarding your customers for specific
actions, you’ll need to set up your earning activities.
Your POS system will dictate exactly what earning activities you
can award points for, but you’ll generally be able to reward your
customers for visiting your location, posting to social media,
referring their friends and more.
The rewards you offer and the point values that go along with
them will all depend on the type of business you run. No matter
what you choose, you’ll know that you’re increasing referrals,
social media and retention in your business.
We’re here for you. Your Perkville Customer Success representative can offer some tips and tricks to help
you get the most of your rewards program.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 3
Pro tip Add photos to your rewards to
show your customers what they’ll receive once they hit
that threshold. When adding a reward, scroll down to “Photo”
and choose “Upload a new photo.” Customers are more
likely to work toward a reward when they understand more about what they’re earning.
Recheck your launch checklistIn Perkville, you’ll see your own launch checklist as you’re setting up your rewards program. You’ll want
to make sure that everything on that checklist is done before clicking that “Launch Rewards” button.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 4
“At [your business name], we think of rewards in more ways
than one. [Your product or services] have life-changing
benefits all their own. But now, there are also loyalty benefits
through The NEW [your business name] rewards program!
You EARN POINTS for just coming into [your business name],
and then you can easily redeem those points for merchandise,
free stuff and much more. It's fun, easy and completely free –
just be sure to claim your points to complete your registration
today.
Thank you for being a part of [your business name] family!“
Adding your company logo and branding colors.
Head to the Branding section of your settings and upload your business’s logo.
Once you do this, you can customize your rewards program's color by either
clicking “Match Logo” or choosing a different, coordinating color from the color
selector. You can even put in your color’s hex code if you’d like.
Adding your Facebook and Twitter information.
Click on My Business, and then Settings. This will take you to the Business Info
section, where you can add your social media accounts.
Creating a welcome message.
Your welcome message is the best way to explain your rewards program to your
customers in their invitations. Head to the Rewards Program section of your
dashboard and click on "Advanced." Add your welcome message in the box and
click the Save button. If you're stuck for ideas on your welcome message, here's
a template that we've found works well.
Make a marketing plan.
Now that you’ve ironed out the logistics, it’s time to spread the word about your
rewards program. We recommend creating a plan for pre-launch (two weeks to a
month ahead) and post-launch (two to three months after) to help spark interest
and keep your customers engaged.
We’ve put together a handful of tried-and-true tactics for making the most out of
your rewards program.
Try a few or all of them – it all depends on your bandwidth – and adjust as you see certain techniques working best for your business.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 5
Friends get a Free Week of Yoga
Refer a friend, earn 50 points when they join YogaXYZ
Rewarding referrals.
Incentivize customers by creating a referral
offer that they can share with friends on social
and email. Click on Rewards Program and
then My Business. From there, click on the
pencil next to "Refer a friend" and define how
many points you want to award. Create a title
for your offer and select an image, or upload
your own. Finish it off with promotional details
(how to redeem) and any fine print (for new
clients only, etc.).
Pro tip Use your referral offers to increase your revenue by
incentivizing premium services or ancillary spend. Offer 20% off an add-on treatment (such as a ten-minute neck massage
with a facial) or 20% off a customer’s first personal
trainer session.
Marketing Before Launch
Get Your Customers Interested
Marketing Before Your LaunchThe key to a successful rewards program is not just in how you pick the points, how it looks and how
easy it is to redeem for a reward. In fact, the key to a successful rewards program is getting your
customers to really use it.
Luckily, we’ve seen thousands of these rewards programs launch and know a thing or two about what it
takes to get your customers to adopt your rewards program and make it part of their routine.
While taking on all of these might be out-of-reach timewise, you can pick and
choose a couple of tips from this list to help you get started spreading the word.
Some of these include:
• Getting some email marketing together
• Training and educating your staff about your rewards program
• Creating flyers to spread the word
• Scheduling and publishing some social posts
• Planning an event
1Get Your Email Marketing TogetherTime Commitment: 1-2 Hours
Difficulty level: 5 / 10
The great thing about email marketing is that you can write up your emails and have them ready to
send in an hour or two – and you can do them well in advance to save you during crunch time.
We recommend sending two emails before you launch your rewards program. These emails should be
completely devoted to explaining what your rewards program is, how your customers can earn points,
what special bonuses you’re hosting and some sample rewards that your customers can redeem their
points for.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 7
Email #1: 1.5 Weeks Before Launch
Sample Subject Lines:
We want to reward you for making [our business] part of your life.
Join our new rewards program.
Earn points and redeem for prizes. Check out our new rewards program.
Email #2: Day of Launch
Sample Subject Lines:
Today’s the day. Our rewards program is live.
Time to get rewarded. Our rewards program goes live today.
Join us as we launch our new rewards program.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 8
This email should go into the nitty gritty of your rewards program. Introduce Perkville as your partner and
outline what your rewards program will include. Talk about earning activities, how your customers can
rack up points, and when this all goes live. The goal here is to raise both awareness and excitement
about this new component of your business.
And, if you’re having an event to kick off your rewards program (more on that later), plug in the date and
time for that as well.
This email is a reminder that:
1) Your rewards program exists
2) Your customers can now earn points and use the program
3) Your customers need to sign up for the rewards program either before they
start earning points or once they’ve earned points (plus how to do it)
4) If you’re having an event, that it’s happening!
Pro tip In your second email, include a special offer or extra bonus
points for those customers who come in on launch day.
This will incentivize your customers to join your
rewards program right away and participate in this momentous occasion.
1
While you may not think that training your staff about your rewards program qualifies as marketing, that
couldn’t be further from the truth. Your staff is your greatest asset when it comes to spreading the word
about your rewards program and getting your customers to sign up for it.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 9
2Train your staff Time Commitment: 1-2 HoursDifficulty level: 5 / 10
Now that your rewards program is live, education shifts a bit from awareness to actually using the program.
In this email, remind your customers about the benefits of the rewards program and how they can earn
points. On top of that, tell them the easy ways of signing up for the rewards program. You can either
include a link to your rewards program’s page, where clicking “Join Program” will prompt them to create
an account, or they can wait until they complete their first earning activity, when they’ll receive an email
from Perkville prompting them to claim their points.
You can obviously start these emails further in advance if you’d like.
We’ve crafted some email headers that you can use in these communications. Head to our blog
(blog.perkville.com) to edit and download those for your own use.
Plug a Blurb Into Your Usual Newsletter
It doesn’t hurt to plug in a paragraph or two about your rewards program in your usual recurring
newsletter, especially if these have a higher open rate than your one-off emails. Give a glimpse into what
the rewards program will do for your customers and give them a link to join and check it out.
Once you’ve done this, you can use the same template for upcoming newsletters and
keep the same blurb around for a few months.
1While your staff doesn’t need to know the complete ins-and-outs of your program (and your Perkville
account), there are a few things to train them in so that they can help current customers with their points
and advertise your rewards program to new customers.
Talking about the rewards program with your customers
Like we said, your staff is your best (and mostly free) advertisement. You’ll want them to be able to
explain at a high level what your rewards program is, how your customers can earn points and
how to redeem points.
We recommend making it part of your staff’s script when they talk about your business, your membership
system and your offerings. Basically, if someone asks any questions around “Why should I choose you?”,
you can plug the rewards program as an added benefit for customers.
Another option is to seamlessly tie it into your business model as a whole. The rewards program is part of
your core business, and you can speak about it as such.
It also helps for your staff to know the basics behind how the rewards program works. Teaching them the
following blurb can help them speak to the details of your rewards program when interacting
with a customer.
“Perkville is our rewards program which automatically awards
you points for visiting our business. You’ll receive an invitation to
join the rewards program the first time you earn points. Once
you create an account, you can track your points online from
your computer or smartphone and participate in activities to earn
more points, such as posting about your experience with us on
Facebook and Twitter and referring your friends. Once you earn
enough points for rewards, you can redeem those points on
Perkville and bring in a voucher to use as payment.”
Marketing Your Rewards Program 10
1Your staff members should also have a good idea about the different earning activities you have chosen,
what the frequency and time bonuses are, and a few of the things that customers can redeem points for.
Adding points
Occasionally, your staff members may want to add points manually. This could be because you’re hosting
a special social contest offering points for comments, or anything else that occurs outside of Perkville
when your customers can earn points.
To do this, go to the Add / Redeem page in the My Business dropdown. Select a location, enter the
customer’s email address and select the earning rule. Click the "Submit" button to grant points.
Redeeming points
Once your customers hit a specific point threshold, they can choose to redeem their points by trading
them in for vouchers that they can use in your business. Occasionally, that means that they’ll come into
your business looking to redeem a voucher. Your staff will want to mark the points as “redeemed” when
this happens.
Once your staff is trained in the basics of your rewards program, tell them to advocate for
it as much as possible, whether they’re talking to new customers or your regulars.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 11
There are two ways to mark perks as redeemed:
Go to the Add / Redeem page. Select Redeem Points at the top of the
page. Then select the location, enter their email address, select the
reward in the drop down, enter the quantity and click "Submit.”
Click on the Customers dropdown in your My Business tab. Search for
the customer and click on their name. Next, click "Redeem Points," which will
show a pop-up menu where you can select the reward and redeem it for them.
1
Some of your customers aren’t big on email. Others wouldn’t
touch Facebook with a ten-foot pole. For those people who
prefer learning about new things in real life, posting flyers in
businesses that you partner with – as well as your own – can
help spread the word about your rewards program.
Check out our schedule for ideas on social posts and a cadence that we find works leading up to an event.
3Create a flyer to spread the word Time Commitment: 10 mins - 1 hourDifficulty level: 3 / 10
4Schedule some social posts Time Commitment: 30 mins - 1 hourDifficulty level: 3 / 10
Scheduling your social ahead of time will help take off some of the pressure that comes
with an official “launch” of something.
It’s a good idea to start publishing about your rewards program at least two weeks ahead of time
so that you have ample opportunity for your customers to see your posts.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 12
Pro tip Reach out to local businesses
that offer complementary products or services to your business, especially if you
already have a relationship with them. Ask them to post your
flyer on their community board and make sure to invite them to
come by on launch day.
You can use the editable Canva templates that we’ve created to help you advertise
your rewards program, or you can make one on your own.
12 weeks before launch
We have some big news! In just a couple
of weeks, we’re partnering with Perkville
to develop [your business name]’s very
own rewards program! You’ll earn points
for things you do with us every day, and
you can redeem those in our [shop/gym/
spa/salon/studio] for awesome stuff.
In just a couple of weeks, we’re
partnering with Perkville to develop
[your business name]’s very own
rewards program! Keep an eye out
for updates.
&
1 weeks before launch
Join us next week on [date of launch]
for the official launch of our rewards
program! Learn more here. [link to blog
post or newsletter PDF]
Join us next week on [date of launch]
for the official launch of our rewards
program! Learn more here. [link to blog
post or newsletter PDF]
&
3 days before launch
We’re getting really excited about the
upcoming launch of our rewards
program! [include graphic]
We’re getting really excited about the
upcoming launch of our rewards
program! [include graphic]
Marketing Your Rewards Program 13
&
12 days before launch
Earn points by coming into [your
business name], then cash in your
points for rewards. It all starts on
[date of launch].
Earn points by coming into [your
business name], then cash in your
points for rewards. It all starts on
[date of launch].
&
11 day before launch
Tomorrow’s the day! What are you
hoping to rack up enough points for with
our new rewards program?
Tomorrow’s the day! What are you
hoping to rack up enough points for with
our new rewards program?
&
1Day of launch
It’s finally here! Come into [your
business name] today to start racking
up points and earning rewards.
It’s finally here! Come into [your
business name] today to start racking
up points and earning rewards.
You don’t have to use these captions, and it helps to have images, links or gifs to go along with these
posts. You know what your social audience responds to – use those similar tactics when announcing
your rewards program.
Try out Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social to help you schedule your social media ahead of time.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 14
&
1
Planning an event for your rewards program launch is a great
way to get people excited and informed about your rewards
program – albeit a time-consuming one. Depending on your
resources, you can host a community event with local vendors,
free demos and giveaways. You can give away low-cost prizes
(merch you’ve been looking to get rid of, partner discounts,
classes, day passes and other cheap offerings) to entice
people to come by and hang out at your business for the day.
On top of that, you can reward points for people who sign up
for your rewards program while partaking in your event.
On the other hand, you can still make a day out of your rewards program launch by making it all about
the points. Offer 3, 4 or 5x as many points for your customers that join your rewards program on the first
day. This will not only help with customer adoption, but it also gets more people through your door on a
random day, without sacrificing cost. You can have a few freebies to get people excited, but you don’t
necessarily need to pour a ton of time and money into your event.
If you do plan on hosting an event, promote it on social media and in your emails (if you skipped ahead,
go back to the email marketing section for this step) a few weeks ahead of time. This will give people
ample time to RSVP and hear about your happening.
Marketing Your Rewards Program 15
5Plan an event Time Commitment: 1-15 hoursDifficulty level: 7 / 10
Pro tip Offer more points for referrals on launch day, and even a few
days after launch. You’ll motivate your customers to bring more people through
your door while gaining new potential customers (and future rewards program members!).
Now that your rewards program is up and running, it’s
time to keep your customers engaged with your business
and earning points in ways that drive referrals, increase
spend and generate social media.
Stay tuned for our upcoming guide on “Marketing After
Launch: Keeping Your Customers Engaged.” We’ll cover
more tips on email marketing, social campaigns, bonus
rewards, blogging and much more.
Contact your Customer Success representative or
email [email protected] to get your rewards
program ready to go live.
Congratulations, you’re ready for launch!
Need some more help?
