As another World Earth Day has come around again (on 22nd April 2021) and we are still very much in the middle of a global health and economic crisis, it has become clear that environmental stewardship is no longer a ‘should do' but a ‘got to do' imperative. That we urgently need a little more action and your B2B loyalty program could (or should) be driving the action.

As loyalty marketers it is hard to not fall asleep at the wheel and lose sight of the bigger picture. But if you sometimes do, be prepared to make the business case for your program when you hear the call from the C-suite. That is why we present you with a nudge - a marketing metrics refresh

When and how to prepare for the return of face to face events such as incentive travel, conferences and product launches and why you need to do it sooner rather then later.

Over the past 10 years we have seen the rise of the pre-paid card (both MasterCard gift and reloadable) as well as the use of online retail vouchers, become the preferred reward medium in our loyalty and incentive programs.

One of biggest fallacies about loyalty and incentive marketing programs is that they will be a cure for all your business challenges. When this is the belief there is a tendency to quickly launch a program targeting everyone with aspirational rewards and benefits. Customer acquisition is the primary goal but quickly turns to disillusionment when all those that have signed up fail to get engaged.

One of the reasons for this disillusionment is that loyalty programs are designed to appeal to a certain segment of your customer base. In other words they are not applicable to everyone. So who should you target?

Have you ever wondered why points are used in a loyalty program, and how many points should you award your B2B loyalty program participants?

Check out our Five Point Plan for setting the value of a reward point:

Many B2B channel loyalty programs are known for their ‘star’ rewards - the stuff that dreams are made of: a trip to Vegas or the International Space Station on Virgin Galactic and a $100,000 gift card are likely to speak to anyone’s imagination. But does it speak to your business sense? Offering your loyalty program members the opportunity to become an astronaut will set you back by at least $250,000. This would be quite a challenge to your program ROI.

One of the key elements of a successful loyalty program is communication”. But what, how and when should you communicate, you wonder….?

Artificial intelligence has already changed the way we interact with technology. We are almost at the point where we will be conversing with chatbots that text like your best friend. AI will tell you what to do when your dog misbehaves, how to save on your energy bill and whether you really do look good in that suit. But what do these technological advances mean for B2B loyalty programs? Our R&D team list 3 ways that AI can enhance your B2B loyalty program.

A term that we commonly use in channel loyalty and incentive programs is the effort advantage ratio. This is the study of consumer loyalty programs and the effort a participant must undertake to achieve a loyalty program reward and how this effort impacted on attractiveness of the loyalty program for their continued participation. 

These are 7 things to consider when weighing up the Effort Advantage Ratio.