Top 3 Ways to Run an Effective Incentive Marketing Program
You may have already heard that using an incentive marketing company makes it much easier to implement advertising campaigns and track results faster than attempting them individually. However, not all platforms are created equal. Some offer a single point of entry to the incentive marketing network while others provide multiple levels of access for tracking, experimentation, and more. Here's take a closer look at what your options are.
Pros/cons of a single incentive marketing offer:
Pros: Most sites offer a single place to begin. For incentive marketing offers that target a small group of people, this may be all you need. However, if you want to get more involved, or experiment with different kinds of campaigns, you can do so here as well.
Cons: Can be difficult to find a good service that provides you with everything you need.
A. Use an incentive marketing platform that provides you with the ability to experiment. Some marketers find it extremely helpful to test different campaigns before making a commitment to them. If you find that one form of advertising doesn't work as well as another, it is much easier to make adjustments. This is a pro because you can make changes relatively quickly if something doesn't work outright.
B. If you cannot find the time to run your own incentive marketing campaign, you should consider a hosted incentive marketing campaign. Many companies, even those large and established ones, offer incentive marketing campaigns that are run internally. In this case, you would simply sign up for a membership on the incentive marketing company website, receive email updates about upcoming campaigns, and log into your account to manage them.
C. Make sure you have the right incentives. If you want to get high conversion rates, high sign-ups, and high open rates, you need to pair incentive marketing platforms with the appropriate rewards. It is important to understand that a rewards platform and a social media marketing campaign are not the same things. A rewards platform will generally be focused on attracting new customers while a social media campaign could be used to extend your brand and grow your customer base. A rewards platform can also be used to test customer retention, which is obviously very useful data to have if you are planning to make any changes to your product or service.
D. Keep things simple. Complex sales funnel is very unproductive, not to mention highly time-consuming. However, if you intend to use an incentive marketing platform to automate the process of creating and following up with customer leads, then you should stick to the process of converting leads into sales.
E. Stick to your strengths. One of the major mistakes many organizations make is trying to apply various different incentive marketing campaigns in an effort to achieve higher CTR (click-through rate) and sign-ups. The old adage of "what is good for you is bad for your competition" holds true. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, it is imperative that you leverage your strengths in order to operate like a well-oiled machine.
F. Don't go off track. No matter how well-motivated you may be, you should never go off-track with your in-house incentive marketing campaigns. Doing so can do irreparable damage to your brand and image as well as negatively impact your profitability. Instead, stay on task and remain focused on the tasks at hand. This will serve to increase your productivity and increase your profits.
G. Offer your customers in exchange for leaving reviews for your products. Many companies today are offering their customers in exchange for simply leaving a review of their products on their company's website. This strategy has proven extremely popular and works exceptionally well. However, as tempting as this may be, you should not jump on this bandwagon without giving it some careful thought. After all, you want to ensure that you are only enticing your customers to leave reviews in an incentive marketing platform based on the fact that they stand to gain something out of doing so.
H. Be careful with your incentives. When you set up your incentive marketing offer, you need to be very careful about what incentives you are offering your customers. You don't want to give them something that they might not actually need or use, but instead you want them to use your incentive marketing platform because they feel like they are getting something for nothing. For example, if you offer a $5 coupon code for a free bottle of wine, you don't necessarily need to be offering wine as your incentive. Instead, you could offer a free report on a particular niche subject that would interest your target audience.
I hope that you have learned a few effective ways to set up and run an effective incentive marketing program. As you implement these strategies, you will begin to reap the rewards. You will build more customer loyalty, improve your brand reputation, attract new customers, and even increase your sales. What's more, your bottom line will begin to reflect your efforts, which means that you can afford to be more aggressive with your marketing spend. All in all, you can make great money through incentives marketing. Find out more today!
