This is the first post in a series on loyalty tactics that a brand can adopt to further action in their loyalty campaign.
What is an exclusive?
No matter the structure of your loyalty program, you have the opportunity to use exclusives to promote and drive loyal behaviors. Exclusives appeal to the darker side of human behavior that wants to be recognized for who we are as your customer. Its that sin-nature that wants to stomp our feet and scream “I am special!”, just for being who we are, even if we really are not that special to your business. This powerful tactic can be used in various ways, yet it all is based on the idea that we are recognizing and rewarding a customer for who they are individually apart from the group.
It can’t be for everyone
The very nature of an exclusive is that the more people that have access to it, the value of it goes down. Exclusives are very hard, if not impossible in an “all-in” loyalty program. If all customers have access to the exclusive, just by signing up for free, its not very powerful. An exclusive needs to be limited to a very specific niche of your loyal base and be targeted to make them feel special. The customer should demonstrate behaviors that bring them into a level of relationship where the exclusive is appreciated as well as lauded.
Its relevant to the behaviors
Ideally the exclusive is based on behavior and supports continued action of the behavior. An exclusive offer that is not related to your brand is something we would call a “freebee” since its really just a reward, its not a feature of the loyalty program. An exclusive should be tied tightly to your overall brand and product or service offering. For example, free shipping might be an exclusive for a certain level of customer for an online retailer. Or special seating choices at an event venue could be as well. Whereas if you gave away two free car washes to your loyal bakery customers, it would be a freebee. An exclusive should be relevant to your customer journey and take them further down the road to a better experience and increase their overall relationship and connection to your brand.
