This is the first in a series about how our team at BHN Rewards uses digital rewards and our own platform to boost our engagement among prospects and customers.
Many companies focus solely on winning new customers, but their journey with your brand doesn’t end when they sign on the dotted line. That’s why, here at BHN Rewards, we work hard to nurture our relationships with the companies that use our platform. And — surprise, surprise! — part of that is offering incentives for engaged customers.
By using digital rewards, not only can we keep customers happy and help our renewal rate, we can also encourage them to advocate for us. That ultimately helps our lead-generation efforts as well. Here, Customer Marketing Manager Chelsea Legendre talks about three ways she’s employed BHN Rewards’ easy-to-use platform to engage our customers.
Our team, like all marketers, knows the importance of online reviews, and they’re only going to become more important. Ninety percent of B2B buyers said they’re more likely to make a purchasing decision after reading a trusted review, according to a survey from G2 and Heinz Marketing. But just a few good reviews won’t cut it. The more reviews you have, the more trusted the rating is.
Keeping this in mind, we ran a specific email campaign to ask customers to leave their reviews. We decided to focus first on G2 Crowd, targeting a segment of customers. That way, we’re not asking too much and repeatedly requesting help from the same people over and over — we must respect their time if we want to turn them into advocates. We did, however, use the valuable real estate in our reward emails and redemption pages to encourage them to leave reviews on other leading sites, so we wouldn’t miss the opportunity if someone was feeling extremely helpful! Just remember: It’s important to reward all reviewers the same, no matter what rating they leave you.
Referrals from friends and co-workers mean a lot to someone making a purchasing decision. That word-of-mouth marketing helps us land new customers, as well as expand our reach into new departments in companies that already love BHN Rewards. That’s why we offer $25 incentives for engaged customers who submit someone in our Refer-a-Friend program.
The one thing we have to guard against, though, is the occasional person who enters a fake name or refers a friend who’s not actually interested, just to get the reward. That’s why we advise customers that our sales team has to talk to and qualify their referral before they get their gift card. The key is to explicitly explain any such requirements upfront on the submission form. You don’t want to anger customers by letting them think they’re entitled to a reward that they never receive.
To make this process as seamless as possible, we took advantage of BHN Rewards’ native integration with Marketo. That means any customer who fills out the form is automatically enrolled in our Refer-a-Friend campaign. Once they have passed our internal approvals, the Marketo program triggers the reward delivery via BHN Rewards. It’s all very streamlined and easy to manage — the easiest part of the whole program, in fact, according to Chelsea!
Incentives for engaged customers don’t always have to be about getting them to do something. It’s also good to use digital rewards just to show your appreciation. When customers have a good experience, they’re more likely to take the other actions that make them advocates and drive your pipeline. We timed our appreciation rewards to the holiday season. Our sales team helped us narrow down the recipient list to help us stay within a specific budget, since they had a more direct relationship with the customers.
We used BHN Rewards’ Smart Global Choice feature, meaning we could send gifts to customers in any country, all from the same campaign. When they claimed their gift, they were automatically shown a curated selection of digital rewards available in their location, and they could choose the one they wanted. That choice and the instant delivery made our gifts even more meaningful. Some of our customers were in the giving spirit and exercised the option to donate their rewards to charity.
By implementing BHN Rewards’ self-service platform, you can use digital rewards throughout your customers’ journey to give them a great experience. When you’re able to do that, you build brand loyalty and goodwill that eventually grows into advocacy and even lead generation.
Become a BHN Rewards customer so you can engage your own! Contact us today to get a demo or request a quote.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
Hannah is a reformed journalist who has more than 15 years of experience and now focuses on content marketing for innovative tech companies.
