Building loyalty among customers, employees, and partners is essential to business success, now more than ever. Incentives can be used to inspire loyalty and influence behaviors. Whether it’s experiential rewards, rebates, merchandise, e-rewards, such as e-gift cards, sweepstakes entries, or virtual gift cards, the right rewards for the right program can make all the difference. When building relationships with your customers, incentives increase brand loyalty and the likelihood of referrals. Loyal customers are 68% more likely to share your brand or business on social media if offered a reward for referrals and word-of-mouth marketing is important, even in our digital age. Referrals are one of the biggest strengths of developing a customer relationship. Offering referral incentives can help you gain those quality customers who talk about your company and it rewards them for spreading your business name. Merkle’s annual Loyalty Barometer Report found that points-based rewards programs are the most popular type of incentive program among consumers. Points-based incentives, particularly with rewards marketplaces are an excellent way to inspire customers. 85% of consumers surveyed for the report said they would like to be able to select the benefits and rewards they receive. This makes it important for companies to select […]

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