Think about it: Your customers like to be valued by your business. So, to keep your return clients coming back to your dealership again and again, you need to reward their continued loyalty. That’s why it’s essential to incorporate revenue-boosting loyalty promotions into your business’s marketing campaigns.
First, you want to team up with an experienced marketing agency that knows a thing or two about how to drive traffic into your showroom. For example, Epsilon Individual Automotive has spent years crafting customer-retaining loyalty programs for over 10,000 auto dealers across the country.
Ready to find out more about all of our loyalty promotion options? Continue reading to get a full rundown of how we can help you improve the customer experience while also driving up your dealership’s sales.
Why Are Automotive Loyalty Promotions Important?
Just as loyalty programs benefit your customers, there are also numerous ways in which they can help a dealership thrive. For instance, the Harvard Business Review estimates that companies can increase profits by roughly 100 percent by retaining only 5 percent of their customers.1
So, what does that mean for your dealership? With the assistance of a well-planned loyalty program, you can improve revenue for your business year over year with a relatively small customer retention margin.
On top of that, establishing an effective loyalty promotion makes it even easier to gather information on the habits and needs of your key customers. Thanks to that data, you can tailor your dealership’s other programs and the advertisements you send your loyal consumers to match the dealership’s ideals.
As a result, you’ll strengthen the relationship between you and your frequent patrons by presenting them with materials that are personalized to fit their lifestyles.
How to Design an Effective Loyalty Promotion
First, it’s critical to collect lots of data on your current consumer base, so you can understand more about what they’ll respond positively to in your dealership’s loyalty promotion.
Depending on the demographics that your targeted audience falls into, you may want to adjust the offers or message contained within the plan to align with their needs. Some of the demographics to consider are:
- Age
- Gender
- Income
- Occupation
- Marital status and more
From there, you’ll want to make the loyalty program convenient for participants to use. In the age of smartphones and tablets, it’s important to make your loyalty promotion mobile-friendly, so it can be easily accessed by your customers while they’re on the go.
Of course, the other perks you add for frequent clients is entirely up to your team. Above all else, make sure they help you stand out from the crowd. Benefits like quick financing, skipping lines for automotive service, and other advantages are what will make your program difficult to pass up.
Examples of Effective Loyalty Program Formats
Now that you know the basics of designing a loyalty program, let’s take a look at some of the formats you can take that your customers are sure to love!
Points Programs
Looking to reward your customers the more they spend? Then following a point format for your loyalty program is the right format for you. With this, customers are rewarded the more they spend. Typically, customers earn points—say, 10 points for every dollar spent—that they accumulate.
They can then redeem these points at any time to receive features like savings on service appointments, complimentary service, and more.
Why it Works: Customers have incentive to return to your dealership over and over.
Paid Programs
Depending on your target audience, you may see a demand for a paid loyalty program, almost like a VIP program. With this type of loyalty program, customers buy-in either monthly or annually to receive the perks of your program.
Since this is a paid loyalty program, you’ll need a few things:
- A pool of existing loyal customers
- Can’t-pass-up benefits
- Proof that the benefits outweigh the cost of the membership
For example, VIP members may have access to an exclusive customer lounge or receive additional complimentary perks—like priority service—while their vehicle is being serviced. Benefits could also include features like reduced-rate car rentals, shuttle service, and more.
Why it Works: People want to feel special. Holding a VIP card and obtaining exclusive benefits will help them feel extra special, and they may just tell their friends too!
Tier Programs
The tier program is similar to the points program in that both encourage return customers. With points programs, everyone gets the same number of points, which they can redeem whenever. With tier programs, the more you buy, the more benefits you get.
There are couple of different ways you can run a tier-style loyalty program:
- By points: The more points a customer accumulates, the more they get back. For example, up to 100 points are redeemable for savings. When they reach 250 points, they have all the previous benefits, plus a birthday gift. When they reach 500 points, they get exclusive coupons that are not available anywhere else.
- By frequency: Another way you can run a tier program is based on how frequently a person visits. Everyone is eligible for the basic rewards program. Once they spend a certain amount of money within a pre-set length of time, they automatically get upgraded to the next tier, which offers more perks. Perhaps once meeting that amount of money, they earn twice as many points as with the basic program.
While similar to points programs, tier programs give a little more, depending on how loyal the customer is.
Why it Works: It not only encourages return customers, but it also encourages them to spend more per visit to move up to the next tier.
Charity Programs
Loyalty programs don’t have to be for the customer. By choosing a charity program, you’re giving back to the community. You can vow to donate a certain percentage of your profits to a charity of your choice, or you can offer customers the chance to donate the monetary equivalent of their points to the charity.
Why it Works: Providing charity donations can help grow your dealership’s brand loyalty and help connect to customers on a smaller scale.
Design Your Custom Loyalty Promotion Today!
A strong customer base is the foundation of any successful dealership. So, if you’re looking to take your business’s loyalty promotions to the next level and retain your consumers, it’s time to get in touch with the marketing professionals at Epsilon Individual Automotive.
To get the conversation started, simply reach out to us via email or give us a call today! We look forward to designing a data-driven, lead-generating loyalty plan that’ll set your dealership apart.
1. https://hbr.org/1990/09/zero-defections-quality-comes-to-services
