To increase the number of your loyalty members, Emarsys Loyalty offers the following effective tools that will ensure constant recruitment effort:
- Join default action - The standard joining campaign, always active
- Join action - Ad hoc joining campaign
- Reward for new members - An extra incentive for immediate purchase, in addition to the standard joining campaign reward. For more information, see Loyalty actions.
Overview of the join action
Join default
The join default action is a basic Join Loyalty campaign that regularly drives customers to join the plan and become loyalty members. The join default action must be regularly active from the moment your plan is launched.
If you decide to invite guests and customers to join through your wallet, they will receive the reward you set in the join default action.
When you send Loyalty actions to your customers through Emarsys channels, while the loyalty members receive the desired Loyalty action message, non-members automatically receive the join default message and incentive (The join default action has no tokens).
Unlike all other actions, for the join default action you do not have to set optional rewards for joining.
Additionally, the join default action has no validity setting since it's active all the time.
Join action
In addition to the standard join campaign (join default), you can also create Join Loyalty campaigns for specific entry points and segments.
Unlike the standard campaign which is constantly active, you are required to define a validity for these campaigns, which creates urgency and increases the gamification element.
While the Join Loyalty campaign is attached to the segment you have selected, it will override the standard campaign (join default) until it expires. Then, for those who have not yet joined, the default campaign will be automatically active again.
New members may receive an additional incentive to join in addition to the default join reward when setting up Purchase or Engagement actions.
Creating a join action
1. Navigate to Add-ons > Actions > Join Loyalty.
Action settings
3. Enter your Action Internal Name. This name has to be unique and will not be visible to your members.
4. Enter your action name. This name does not have to be unique (multiple actions can have the same name), and will be visible in the Loyalty Wallet and via your Loyalty token in your campaign emails.
5. Enter a description for the easier identification of your actions. This description is not visible to customers.
6. Choose an icon for your action, which will be visible in the Loyalty Wallet and via your Loyalty token in your campaign emails. For more information icons, see Loyalty actions.
Reward settings
6. Choose your reward for joining. You can enable multiple reward types.
- You can add bonus points immediately.
- Previously prepared Vouchers and Exclusive accesses can also be selected.
- Status upgrades include all the predefined tiers.
You can see the action reward as a Loyalty token and you can use it in the Personalization Service.
Content creation
7. Enter your message for the Join action, which will be visible to the customer.
Add your CTA text and URL as well. These will appear on a related button.
The message and CTA are tokens that you can use separately or with a content block in the email campaign editor with predefined blocks or added to your email body.
Scheduling
8. Set the validity of your action in days. During this period, the new joiners receive the previously defined extra bonus.
In the scheduling tab, you can also activate and deactivate your action. This stops further distribution of this action on all channels until reactivation. If this action is connected to an automated program, a default action will replace it until a new action is defined. An action that has already been offered (sent out in an email) to customers will remain active until its expiration date.
Use cases with join actions
The join action can be used as a powerful incentive both to join Loyalty for potential future spending and to increase immediate spending. The following examples will showcase such use cases.
Upgrade your loyal customers
You probably have loyal customers even before you decide to start a loyalty program.
You have a real opportunity to thank them and reward them when they join the program by upgrading their initial status.
For example, you can target all contacts who have not yet joined the plan, but whose purchase history is equivalent to the second loyalty tier requirements. Then, you can define status upgrade as a reward and offer them to start immediately from the second tier. Additionally, add urgency by setting a short action validity period to create a massive incentive for joining.
Prepare the following elements in advance, so you can quickly select these in your Automation Center program, which is the backbone of your campaign.
Create a Smart Insight segment to search for your customers who have already made purchases with a total value required to enter the second tier of Loyalty.
You can create as many segments as many tiers you have.
You need to exclude all your contacts already being a Loyalty member, but for this, you need to find them first. If not already prepared for you during the Loyalty onboarding, create a relational segment for this with the template Loyalty members - all.
Follow the steps in Creating Loyalty segments to create your segment.
For the optimal performance of your Automation Center program, it is recommended to use Contacts > Combined segments instead of excluding segments.
Use the following example to set up your combined segments with the previously prepared Smart Insight segment and Relational segment.
Create your join actions based on the steps described previously. Through these actions, your customers will receive their reward unique to their spending. This is possible because only the relevant customers will receive the emails with the action tokens. Selecting the right customers is done by segmentation and the Automation Program.
Create your campaign emails with the Visual Content Editor. Build an email notifying your contacts about the special join action. Additionally, create a reminder email, which may contain further rewards with different actions or the same join token. For more information on using the Visual Content Editor and Loyalty Tokens, see Using emails with Loyalty tokens.
A reminder email has a significant positive impact on the success of the program.
The following Automation Center program example shows a scenario where non-member customers can join Loyalty starting in the second tier, if they already spent enough during their lifecycle.
- Start with a recurring segment filter node. Use your combined segment prepared previously.
- Add a send email node to your program. Select the relevant campaigns for your target groups, which should contain the token for the join action with the upgrade status rewards.
- Add a wait period of a couple of days after sending each email. Use the Wait action node.
- Further split your contacts by using again the Filter switch action node with the previously created segment filter with the relational segment to check for Loyalty members. This way, we will see who joined Loyalty due to the received message and reward.
- You can also send reminder emails to those who did not join your loyalty program for the first time. These emails should contain at least the same join tokens as the previous emails. Alternatively, you may include new join actions with even higher rewards.
In case you include a higher reward with a financial obligation on your part (e.g. vouchers), it is worth setting participation settings. This way, contacts cannot abuse your action by opting out Loyalty and repeatedly joining later.
6. Do not forget to finish each of your branches in your program with a finish node.
Reward according to cart value
If you want to connect a join campaign to your customers’ latest purchase, you can adjust the incentive to the value of the customers' cart. After the purchase, based on cart value, the customers will get an offer with an extra incentive to join Loyalty in the next X days.
For example:
- Non-members with cart value of $150 - $249 will get 500 points for joining
- Non-members with cart value of $250 - $349 will get 700 points for joining
- Non-members with cart value of $350 + will get 1000 points for joining
After joining, the new members will immediately enter the Onboarding Loyalty program.
Prepare the following elements in advance, so you can quickly select these in your Automation Center program, which is the backbone of your campaign.
This type of segmentation requires Predict and Web Extend E-Commerce system fields to be set up for your account.
Create a Predict contact behavior segment to search for your customers whose last purchase was in a specific value range. Create as many segments with ranges of increasing value as many different rewards you want to give.
(This example will use three segments.)
When defining your order value ranges, base them on your average order values.
To find all your Loyalty members, you need a Loyalty segment. If not already prepared for you during the Loyalty onboarding, create a relational segment for this with the template Loyalty members - all.
Follow the steps in Creating Loyalty segments to create your segment.
Create your join actions based on the steps described previously. Through these actions, your customers will receive their reward unique to their spending. This is possible because only the relevant customers will receive the emails with the action tokens. Selecting the right customers is done by Smart Insight segmentation and the Automation Program.
You will need a separate join action for each purchase value range defined in your previous segments.
Make sure to include an extra reward for non-members.
Create your campaign emails with the Visual Content Editor. Build an email notifying your contacts about the special join action. Additionally, create a reminder email, which may contain further rewards with different actions or the same join token. For more information on using the Visual Content Editor and Loyalty Tokens, see Using emails with Loyalty tokens.
A reminder email has a significant positive impact on the success of the program.
The following Automation Center program example shows a scenario where non-member customers can get an increasing amount of loyalty points based on their previous purchases to motivate joining.
- Start with a recurring segment filter node, but replace the segment filter with an exclude action node. Select your relational segment in this node to filter out Loyalty members.
- Continue with as many segment nodes as many different customer groups you can identify based on their average order value. Select the previously prepared Smart Insight segment to find the customer with the defined purchase value.
- Add send email nodes to each of your groups. Select the relevant campaigns for your target groups, which should contain the token for the join actions with the bonus point rewards.
- Add a wait period of a couple of days after sending each email. Use the Wait action node.
- Further split your contacts by using again the Filter switch action node with the previously created segment filter with the relational segment to check for Loyalty members. This way, we will see who joined Loyalty due to the received message and reward.
- You can also send reminder emails to those who did not join your loyalty program for the first time. These emails should contain at least the same join tokens as the previous emails. Alternatively, you may include new join actions with even higher rewards.
- Insert another segment filter to measure how many customers joined after the reminder.
- Do not forget to finish each of your branches in your program with a finish node.
Technical characteristics
- Objective: Joining your Loyalty program, driving more purchases
- Attachment: It can be personal (message based with token) or through the Loyalty Wallet
- The Join default action is not time limited, additional Join actions with different rewards can be added with limited validity period.
- One-time use: You can join once.
- Different rewards are available.