Do you want to increase your panel’s engagement? Improve your panelist retention? Up survey frequency? Get a higher rate of panelist acquisition? Of course you do, and the odds are you have a loyalty program to help you do just that. But what makes your loyalty program effective? How do you take it from good to great?
Panel incentive programs, when done right, build brand advocacy and increase the lifetime value of your panelists. To successfully implement an effective market research incentive program, you will need to have panelists to enroll and be engaged. Your program needs to capture all the necessary data to get the essential insights into your panelists to increase the success of your future panel projects.
Sometimes the best way to move forward is to go back to the basics. Four basic building blocks of creating a great panel loyalty program strategy include: define objectives, gain program support, reward participants, and measure program data.
Define Objectives
Organizing the logistics of the panel is one of the most important steps in order to conduct a successful panel loyalty program. Below are a few examples of what can jump start the planning phase:
- Develop a clear value proposition for your program
- Define your program’s audience
- Create overall goals for your program
- Prepare to evolve the program to keep and increase panel engagement
Gain Program Support
So you’ve planned your loyalty program, now it’s time to prepare for launch! Unfortunately, now you face the daunting task of finding the right loyalty program platform provider. There are so many loyalty platform designers, ensuring you choose the right one is essential. You don’t want to work with someone who takes shortcuts, doesn’t focus on the basics, or may not have your best interest at heart.
Constructing a successful panel loyalty program and seeking inter departmental support is a must. The more support you have, the better the chance you have at program and platform approval from upper management. Help them understand the value in a loyalty program, and the income it drives- all while cultivating brand awareness.
Reward Participants
The only way to expand your panelist base is to offer the right reward mix. There are several types of incentives to select from, including cash payments, prepaid cards, digital rewards, merchandise, experiential rewards, and sweepstakes. Carefully consider each type when making your selections. This will ensure your participants are motivated by the incentive you offer, and will fit into your budget.
Below are three of the most popular reward offerings:
- Cash
- Tiered
- Points-Based
Measure Program Data
Identifying your program’s ROI goals and benchmarks really helps gauge the success of the program. A great loyalty management software should provide the data for the major performance metrics. Establishing these helps not only you, but also gives upper management peace of mind.
Determine the best way to measure your program. A great place to start is achieving alignment from all the key stakeholders on metrics in advance. This can help avoid any mishaps or misunderstandings. Having the solutions when problems arise will help keep you one step ahead of the game and on track.
The system selected should instantly connect your panelists to an extensive offering of incentive reward products for instant engagement and provides you with a straightforward and easy way to change the reward mix as needed. You should be able to run multiple panel projects and programs with different demographics simultaneously, each with its incentive scheme tailored to your needs.
In essence, to create a successful loyalty program, reduced to the simplest aspect is you only need to focus on one question throughout the planning process: Is this going to make our clients happy? Whether it is the technology used, event processing strategies, rewards offered, or notifications issued, when creating your loyalty program, if you satisfy this goal; then loyal panelists will drive more survey completions, word-of-mouth and social proof for your brand. Additionally, your current panelists can help you turn valuable prospects into loyal members of your panel community.
To learn more on building a winning strategy for your panel loyalty program, our expert team at All Digital Rewards is available to help you build your winning loyalty strategy. Call today at 866-415-7703 or click on the “schedule a demo” button to get in touch with one of our panel loyalty experts.
