The journey a customer takes with your brand doesn’t end when they sign on the dotted line, despite the fact that many businesses only concentrate on gaining new clients.

It’s critical to provide sales incentives for engaged customers. Because rewarding yourself for taking action is the best thing there is.

We’ll delve deeper into customer sales incentives in this guide. We’ll explain what sales incentives are and when to use them.

What Is A Sales Incentive?

Simply put, a sales incentive is a gift or token of appreciation you give to a client after they take some action. This behavior can be either positive—like completing a survey—or negative—like reporting an issue with your service. The sales incentive is designed to help you build a relationship with your customer so they remain loyal into the future.

Because people enjoy receiving praise for their efforts, sales incentives are successful. Even actions as small as leaving a review, reporting a bug, or sharing a competition online are opportunities to thank your customer and encourage them to continue to engage with your brand. When done well, sales incentives can also help you increase sales, customer retention, and brand loyalty.

What Is Customer Engagement?

The relationship your business or brand has with its customers is known as customer engagement. Customers who are actively engaged with brands are typically more loyal. They spend more money, are more receptive to recommendations for goods or services they don’t already use and are more likely to recommend you and your business to their friends. These advantages increase customer loyalty and decrease their propensity to shop at rival businesses.

Effective customer engagement increases retention and customer lifetime value.

Why Is It Crucial To Engage Customers?

To boost sales and customer retention while lowering churn, engagement is essential. Since gaining a new customer is expensive, once you have one you obviously want to keep them as a client. It is also much easier to drive incremental sales by selling more to an existing customer than trying to secure new ones. A customer who is engaged with your business will do business with you for a longer period of time (the customer lifetime) and will be more open to opportunities to make additional purchases, increasing their value and loyalty to you (the lifetime customer value).

This is how the procedure goes:

Companies Must Offer Several Ways For Customers To Engage With Their Brand

An average business will serve hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of distinct clients. Each person is different, with their own needs and desires. The level of customer engagement will increase as you become more aware of, comprehend, and responsive to each trigger that applies to a particular segment of your customer base.

There are several ways to find engagement triggers. Two of the most common are sales data analytics and good old-fashioned customer feedback. A strong B2B customer loyalty program should include both strategies.

Sales data analytics: One quick way to learn a lot about a customer is to look at what goods or services they have purchased. Ideally, you want them to continue making their regular orders however, you can also target customers with offers to drive desired purchase outcomes. Determine which product(s) they may be purchasing from a competitor instead of you, and persuade them to do business with you. It’s easier said than done, right?

With a loyalty program, the use of targeted or personalized bonus reward offers tied to desired purchase outcomes will help ensure the customer recognizes that you understand them and their business, driving better appreciation, loyalty, and engagement.

Customer feedback is an essential component of top-notch customer service. Customers should be asked directly about their likes, dislikes, and wishes with regard to their interactions with your brand. It communicates that you value them more than just the most recent sale and that you want to strengthen your relationship. You won’t always be able to comply with requests, but at the very least, you should acknowledge them. Decide to put forth your best effort after that, and be sure to highlight instances when feedback was put into practice. An email survey or a comments section on your website are simple ways to ask for customer feedback. Customers will be more engaged if you ask them how they are treated.

The Degree And Depth Of Customer Engagement Is Long-term

Any strategy for customer engagement must be fostered and grown over time. A “one and done” engagement strategy is ill-advised and utterly ineffective. This problem is effectively addressed by a B2B customer loyalty program, which also helps to develop highly engaged customers. They receive rewards for their ongoing purchases, and the historical purchase information is used to determine what other products they might be buying. It will increase market share and have positive effects on sales to offer bonus rewards to persuade those customers to make those purchases.

When To Use Sales Incentives With Engaged Customers?

People frequently assume that customer incentive programs exist only to encourage customer loyalty or to close sales when they first glance at them. There is much more to it, though, including a ton of fantastic ways to use these incentives to express gratitude to, inspire confidence in, inspire motivation in, and reward your clients.

Consider the various interactions your customers have with you when developing your sales incentive strategy. Consider which of these interactions you can reward your customers for. Then, look for rewards that fit their individual objectives, preferences, and interests. You can create a successful incentive strategy by combining these.

The best applications for sales incentives are listed below if you’re not sure where to begin.

Encourage Customers To Attend A Sales Meeting

It can be difficult to convince your clients to attend a sales meeting. They may be speaking with several potential suppliers at once and juggling many priorities. They may be more likely to attend a meeting with you or listen to your pitch if you offer a sales incentive.

Not every incentive will be effective in this situation. It’s unlikely that a loyalty program will persuade someone to spend time on a sales call with you, but an alluring discount or bonus could help sweeten the deal.

Apologize For An Error Or Interruption To Service

When things don’t go as expected, a customer might feel let down by your support, service, or product and become frustrated, angry, or dissatisfied. Repairing that important customer relationship can be done with just a small incentive.

Free goods, services, and gifts are common strategies to mend a strained relationship with a client. They will have a better customer experience than they anticipated if you give them something they value and, if possible, something that is tailored to their situation.

Reward Customer Loyalty

Customers can be fickle and easily seduced by rival businesses, especially if you run a retailer or SaaS business. While there are many options available, they continue to do business with you for a variety of reasons. Let’s honor that with an inducement or reward.

Create a customer loyalty program with perks they’re interested in or can pick out for themselves. You can use incentives like stacking discounts, free gifts with purchases, and exclusive access to new goods and services as rewards.

Encourage Engagement In Surveys

Even if all you need them to do is complete a brief survey or questionnaire, it’s not always simple to collect insights and customer data from your audience. Encourage them to take part in your evaluation and market research with a thoughtful incentive.

Discounts, coupons, and free bonuses are effective motivators for customers to participate in studies and surveys. Another fantastic choice is a gift card, and with Hoppier you can customize your gift card to focus on a particular theme like entertainment or wellness.

Express Gratitude For Completing A Task

Sales incentives don’t always have to influence your customer to make a purchase. Customers can occasionally receive them as a reward for an action they’ve already taken, such as sharing your content on social media or writing a review.

A points system where customers can unlock VIP rewards is a fantastic way to express your appreciation for them. Gamify the process to make it more enjoyable for them and allow them to accumulate points by completing various tasks and then exchange those points for rewards.

Thank Them For Reporting Bugs Or Issues

Nothing consistently operates flawlessly. There are probably bugs somewhere if you provide tools or software as a service. By providing rewards to users who report bugs, problems, or errors, you can persuade your customers to assist you in finding them.

Offering a discount or a free month as a way to say “thank you” to someone for reporting a bug or issue is a great idea because bugs and issues frequently cost you money. Hoppier cards are a great substitute for cash if you want to give out a monetary reward but don’t want to do so. Customers can use the virtual card balance to purchase items that are important to them, such as music streaming subscription or a meal at their favorite restaurant.

Reward Customer Referrals

Word of mouth is everything, and the people who refer new customers to you should get something in return for the value they bring. A sales incentive or customer reward is a fantastic way to say “thank you” while also enticing further recommendations in the future.

A referral bonus program is the best way to thank customers who send you new leads. Offer a discount, a sum of money, or points for each successful referral, and permit them to cash out later when the total reaches a certain amount. As a way of saying “thank you,” you might also think about sending your customer a small gift or gift card.

8 Sales Incentives For Engaged Customers

Sales incentives are a great idea, especially if you’re trying to boost sales, increase customer retention, or provide a superior customer experience. Here are some of our top picks for sales incentives to assist you in adding exciting new components to your incentive marketing strategy.

1. Coupons

Especially if you’re in the business of selling goods or low-value services, coupons can be a powerful tool for motivating customers to take action. Because coupons are physical (or digital) and frequently have unique codes, they can be limited or have a short-term expiry date, meaning you can use their rarity as an additional selling point.

2. Discounts

Because they’re simple to implement and manage and are effective in the majority of circumstances, discounts are a perennially well-liked sales incentive. Setting the appropriate level of discount is crucial; if you go too low, people won’t find it appealing enough to act, and if you go too high, your profit margins could be impacted.

3. Personalized Free Gift

The desire for free things is a universal trait. Customers will undoubtedly appreciate a little something extra, whether it’s branded swag or an accessory for their most recent purchase. Giving away free gifts without taking into account your customers’ preferences or the context of their shopping experience, however, presents a missed opportunity for truly engaging with them.

The secret is to understand your audience and choose your gifts carefully. Give the gift a personal touch in any way you can to make your customers feel truly valued. This might entail dividing up your customer base into groups according to product preferences and sending gifts to each group as appropriate. Alternatively, try sending a personal thank you note along with the free gift. The personal touch will be valued by customers, increasing their interest in your program.

4. Free Upgrades

Getting a free upgrade can be a great incentive for devoted customers when it comes to software and digital tools with multiple-tier plans. Not only is it something they are probably looking forward to, but it also guarantees that they will stick with you and get to use more of the features you have to offer. One of the best incentives or rewards for admirable actions like finishing a feedback survey, participating in a focus group, or referring new clients your way is free upgrades.

5. Launch A Vip Program

VIP rewards programs can literally take your standard points program to a whole new level! With VIP tiers, your customers can advance to higher levels by making purchases, accruing points, or other actions that will grant them access to more perks.

At Smile.io, we advocate awarding points for actions such as social media sharing, product reviews, and friend referrals. Customers will interact with every aspect of your store to earn points as they work to advance in your VIP program.

6. Referral Programs

Being referred by others is one of the best ways to continue operating (and succeed). It is only fair that those who sing your praises receive rewards because word-of-mouth recommendations from friends, family, and our network matter so much more than advertising. Referral programs encourage people to recommend you to others in exchange for benefits like discounts or early access to upgrades, and they assist you in expanding your future sales pipeline.

7. Make Free Shipping The Standard

Shipping costs are the main reason for lost customers at the checkout in 2017, as evidenced by Statista’s finding that 54% of consumers will abandon their shopping carts if they are too expensive. Free shipping is quickly evolving into not only the desired perk but also an expectation at a time when more and more consumers are using the internet to conduct their shopping. With huge competitors like Amazon and Walmart providing free shipping on the majority of orders, this perk is quickly evolving into one of the most crucial advantages to provide clients.

8. Create A Memorable Birthday Experience

From companies we do business with, we have all received generic birthday emails. Even though it’s a nice touch, it’s not memorable, and these “happy birthday” messages end up being just another drop in the ocean compared to all the other messages we already receive. The moments that stick with us forever are those when those closest to us show us kindness in deep, concrete, and unique ways.

With this in mind, rewarding a customer with something valuable, like a free gift or points, can help you create engagement that has a genuine impact.

The Bottom Line

Although they are effective, sales incentives can be challenging to manage, particularly if you are unsure of what the reward should be.

It can be difficult to keep customers interested in your rewards system. Your clients must frequently be reminded of the advantages of your program if you want to maintain their interest.

It’s simple to design a program, personalize your cards, establish spending caps, and email the cards to the appropriate recipients. As I hope this list demonstrates, it’s not impossible to get your customers involved in your rewards program, but it does require some strategic planning.

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