Brands often use social media marketing, video promotions, giveaways, referral programs, and other marketing strategies to acquire new clients. In other words, they put a lot of effort into reaching a broader audience. But marketers know that once you have a solid base of clients, increasing focus on customer retention might be a smarter strategy.
Why?
The cost of acquiring a new customer is up to seven times higher than retaining an old one. And when you manage to increase customer retention by only 5%, you can see profit increase up to 95%. So how can you quickly and easily develop a marketing strategy that will increase the loyalty of your customers?
Here’s the secret: you can combine POP marketing with the possibilities that PassKit gives you.
PassKit is a software as a service that lets you create digital passes for your customers they can use to collect points and redeem rewards any time they visit your store, whether at a physical location or on the web. It’s a quick and convenient way to create your loyalty program and increase customer engagement with your brand.
But then, how do you inform your customers about the program? You can creatively appeal to them using POP marketing and creating point-of-purchase displays. In this article, we will explain exactly how to do this.
Let’s start with some basic information.
What is the point of purchase?
Whether you own a brick-and-mortar store or an e-commerce business, the point of purchase is where customers encounter your products or services. You can place promotional materials at your point of purchase to influence customer purchasing decisions. These marketing materials, printed or digital, draw your customers’ attention, motivate them to buy products or use services, and increase your sales.
What is the in-store point of purchase?
In-store point of purchase includes your counter or any in-store area where customers make purchasing decisions. If you have a special deal and want to make it more visible, you need to strategically place the point of purchase displays at your store to inform customers about your offer. These displays grab attention, influencing customers’ thoughts while walking around a store focused on fulfilling their shopping needs.
What is the online point of purchase?
The online point of purchase is a virtual place where customers can browse your products or services and make a purchase. You can place the promotional material near the checkout area and motivate customers to sign up for your special offers, rewards, or loyalty programs.
What is a POP display?
A point of purchase (POP) display is a type of advertising material you can place near the items you want to sell. POP displays can take the form of digital signage, end caps, shelf-talkers, floor graphics, dump bins, danglers, or freestanding displays.
Marketers carefully plan point-of-purchase displays to appeal to potential buyers. Such displays need to be eye-catching and unconventional. Here are some examples to understand POP displays.
1. Floor graphics
Image source: thesignpad.com
As you see in the example above, you can use floor graphics not only inside your store, gym, coffee shop, hair salon, or hotel but also in front of your business. This kind of creative advertisement is hard to miss.
2. Shelf talkers
Image source: theodmgroup.com
Here’s another creative POP marketing example. Pedigree uses shelf-talkers next to shelves full of dog food to advertise Dentastix dog treats.
3. Danglers
Image source: mjmprints.com
You can use danglers to inform consumers about special deals, offers, discounts, sales, or loyalty programs.
As you can see, the POP display can take many different forms and shapes. So how can we enclose all of this in one definition?
What is POP marketing?
POP marketing is a strategy for targeting customers in the buying mode. It’s a type of retail marketing that uses various techniques to make your products stand out, catch the customers’ attention and motivate them to make a purchasing decision.
POP marketing helps you increase sales of a specific product by cleverly placing and promoting it at your store, boosting the interaction between the customer and the product at the same time.
Why is POP marketing important? It allows you to educate customers about your brand and your product or services creatively. Beyond that, it has several other advantages.
What are the benefits of POP marketing?
Retail stores and other businesses can use point-of-purchase displays to communicate crucial information more efficiently. Here’s a list of the important benefits of POP marketing:
1. Improves perception of the brand
Well-designed displays help create a positive association with your brand and increase the shopper’s trust in the product. The poor design of POP displays can negatively influence how your brand is perceived and cause a decrease in customers’ trust.
Thus, a thoughtfully designed POP display may be a good solution for brands that want to elevate the perception of their product.
2. Attracts visually
For most buyers, the goal of their visit is obvious – they’re looking for a specific product. A product in a small package stuffed somewhere on an aisle shelf is not enough to capture their attention or communicate your brand story.
Digital signage, floor graphics, floor stands, counter displays, cardboard displays, end caps, or hanging shelf signs are eye-catching and increase the customer’s interest in the product.
3. Encourages impulse purchases
Though online shopping has become more and more popular, about 85% of purchases worldwide still happen at the physical store. POP displays target impulse buyers who are already there. Even if they had no prior intention to buy the product, the message impacts them directly and draws them to make a purchasing decision.
4. Saves advertising costs
The expenses you make on traditional advertising can grow to a significant amount. Mainstream media platforms like magazines, billboards, TV, and radio charge a lot of money for advertising products or services. But by spending a fraction of the price on POP displays at physical retail locations, you can reach your target audience and promote your offer cost-effectively.
5. Gives products maximum exposure
Because of their attractive look, point-of-purchase displays give retailers a lot of flexibility to place the product in the areas with the highest traffic.
Instead of squeezing items on the lower shelf, you get the chance to uncover them strategically in the places where most visitors will see them. POP displays also create an excellent opportunity to expose any other products that complement the promoted items.
The beauty of POP marketing is that it can be used not only by retailers who sell physical products or companies that want to increase sales of specific items. If you run a coffee shop, nail salon, hotel, or gym, you can also use POP displays to let the customers know about the possibility of subscribing to your loyalty program.
By using this kind of strategy, you are enticing customers to engage with your brand and giving them reasons to become frequent users of your products or services.
How to promote loyalty programs with POP marketing
Good customer relationships and a solid base of returning clients are the foundation of every business. Customers who feel appreciated for choosing your company instead of the competition are likely to remain loyal and return to use your offers in the future.
So if you want to make your offer more attractive, design a loyalty program and promote it with POP displays. How exactly can you do it? Here’s a step-by-step plan.
1. Invest in design
The point of purchase at your shop, saloon, hotel, coffee shop, or gym has to be clever enough to catch the customer’s eye and make them interested in the loyalty program.
From the first glance, it needs to be apparent what benefits the customer gets from joining the program. You need to design your POP marketing material according to the specifics of your business and include relevant messaging that resonates with the customers visiting your place.
Also, the signing up process needs to be quick and easy, so you can consider adding innovative techniques such as QR codes on POP displays and even on the receipts. These QR codes can link to your loyalty program sign-up page, which customers can access with a tap on their phones.
You can use PassKit to create digital membership cards, loyalty cards, or coupons to enhance your loyalty program. Customers can upload them to their Apple Wallet or Google Pay and use them at your store while making purchases.
2. Make it easy to redeem points or rewards with PassKit
PassKit is software that lets you create contactless reward programs. Without using complicated programming or coding knowledge, you can incorporate a loyalty program into your business, no matter how big or small. Here’s how:
- Go to the PassKit platform and create a free account
- Choose the type of card you want to make: loyalty, membership, or coupon card
- Decide about the design of your card. With PassKit, you can be sure that it will be in accordance with the most recent design guidelines of Apple Wallet or Google Pay
- Choose a barcode type if you want your card to be scannable (either at your POS, on POP displays, or with the PassKit Pass Reader)
- Add graphics: your logo and the hero image
- Decide about the color palettes of your card
- Complete the information on the loyalty card template
- Add backfield data and supplementary sections
- Enclose useful links like official websites, social media profiles, etc
That’s it. After you save your design, it’s ready for download and distribution. Now all you have to do is promote your loyalty program using POP displays to encourage customers to sign up on the spot.
When your customers join the program, they will see all their rewards in one place. They won’t have to download an additional app. It’s enough to add the new PassKit cards to their built-in digital wallet.
With digital passes, you can award your customers for their online and offline purchases. What’s more, the potential of the smartphone allows you to add upgrades and benefits to the membership cards easily.
3. Offer rewards for different purchase levels
You can win your customers’ loyalty by offering them a variety of rewards. One of them is discounts. But when they gather enough loyalty points or cross a certain spending threshold, you can offer them more benefits like additional free products or services.
Plan the program in such a way to offer customers different benefits according to the purchase levels – the more they spend, the better benefits they get. Doing this will help you establish long-term engagement with your customers, as you are building an emotional connection. You show your customers how much you value them when you offer more exciting rewards for the highest spending classes.
4. Give customers a choice of rewards
Rewarding customers for using your products or services is a great way to increase the connection with your brand, but what if the reward is not attractive to the customer? Maybe they are not interested in the bonuses you offer and will have no motivation to collect the points.
By offering a variety of rewards, you increase the chances of responding to the customer’s needs. You also make them feel in control of the loyalty program – they will appreciate the possibility to choose the reward most attractive to them.
5. Provide information about the benefits of your program
The sole fact that you have a loyalty program is not enough for the customers to join. They need a solid incentive to become a member.
Use POP displays to ensure the customer is well-informed about all the advantages of joining the program. Attractively present the information:
- Add noticeable colors
- Add vibrant images
- Place QR codes with links to sign-up pages
- Play with fonts
- Highlight copy
- Include a strong call to action
6. Stick to one loyalty card type
What kind of loyalty program should you choose? To answer this question, you need to analyze the nature of your business and go through the different types of customer loyalty program ideas. It will let you figure out what program will help create loyalty for your brand. Here’s a list of the most popular types of loyalty programs.
1. Points program
In this program, retailers reward customers with points for their purchases. After the consumers collect the appropriate number of points, they can redeem them for discounts or merchandise.
The basic rule here is that customers have to spend upfront to get a reward in the future. They need to make several transactions to see the loyalty program’s benefits. And this is a disadvantage of this kind of program – it takes a long time to collect enough points to see the value.
2. Cashback loyalty programs
The concept here is very similar to the point programs. After spending a certain amount of money, the customers get some of the money back, usually in coupons they can use exclusively at a retailer.
Though consumers won’t get a reward in a short period with this kind of program, collecting points to get cashback makes shopping entertaining and leaves shoppers feeling that they are on an excellent way to live a frugal life.
Famously You is an example of a company that uses cashback rewards. Consumers can use the rewards to reduce the costs of new purchases. Beyond that, they get birthday bonuses, exclusive sales, and other prizes.
3. Punch card programs
In the past, companies gave members paper cards to fill out. Each time they bought a product or service, they punched the card. After filling out the card, customers got a reward, usually a free item or an extra service.
Nowadays, many companies replaced paper cards with electronic versions. They are more convenient for both parties – the customer and the retailer. To get an idea, you can check out Loopy Loyalty which helps you create loyalty punch cards to let your customers save money in an easy way.
4. Tiered Loyalty programs
Members must cross a specific milestone with tiered loyalty programs to get a particular reward. Usually, the milestones are based on the money spent. To enter a higher level, the member needs to spend more money.
The tiered loyalty programs have many benefits. The higher the level that a customer reaches, the better benefits they get. It creates a feeling of exclusivity and is more engaging than the programs mentioned above since it adds a gamification element and awakens the desire to reach a higher status.
For example, Lancome’s Elite Rewards is a tiered loyalty program where members get 10 points for every dollar they spend. Then they can exchange the points for rewards – depending on the tier. They get early access to promotions, complimentary Shoprunner Membership, or access to Lancome events, parties, and more.
5. Premium loyalty programs
Premium loyalty programs charge a fee. When they join the program, members have to pay a fee to access instant benefits they can use whenever they want. Amazon Prime and Walmart+ are two examples of well-known premium loyalty programs.
Premium loyalty programs are not for everyone, though. An average customer is usually not ready to pay a membership fee – the entry barrier is too big. Premium loyalty aims at the best customers who are happy to pay for better service. It strengthens the relationship between customers and the brand.
Loyalty programs are a kind of game that you play with your customer. If both parties follow the rules of the game, both parties win. Make sure the rules are clear and simple and the rewards relatively easy to get to make the customer want to enter the competition and make an effort to collect the rewards. It’s the best way to boost sales, build customer loyalty and increase customer retention.
So now that you know how to promote your loyalty program using POP marketing, here’s a list of things you should and shouldn’t do when you want to use POP marketing to grow your business.
Do’s and dont’s of POP marketing
Do:
Remember that brand recognition is the primary purpose of creating POP displays
While the end sale is also important, the main focus should be on making your brand visible. Therefore, the displays should fit well with your brand’s overall strategy, and you should ensure that the POP display makes the brand noticeable.
Be bold and creative
While the POP display should be aligned with your overall branding strategy, make sure that it stands out and leaves a lasting positive impression, even if the display is only temporary.
Look at the packaging as a part of the display
The packaging and the display should complement one another to form a cohesive whole.
Don’t:
Be afraid to invest in your POP display
This kind of marketing is very effective since customers make most purchasing decisions while they are at physical retail locations – about 70% of retail sales happen in the store.
Treat the display as a way of directing the customer to your website
The display might help promote your e-commerce business, but the main focus is securing an in-store transaction.
Use the joint power of POP marketing and digital loyalty programs to grow your business
A mobile wallet is a payment method that 66% of individuals regularly use – recognizing it as the most convenient payment mode allowing contactless shopping. You can use the growing popularity of Apple Wallet and Google Pay to create a more personalized customer experience and engage your target audience by making different types of loyalty cards using PassKit.
After you design your loyalty program, promote it using POP marketing. Create POP displays at your physical location or website to educate customers about your loyalty program and motivate them to join it.
And what’s the great advantage of this method? It’s really cost-effective. You don’t need to invest a lot of money to create POP displays, and the monthly cost of a PassKit subscription starts at $39. Sounds good?
No worries if you are still not convinced that this kind of solution is for you. We give you as much as 45 days to test PassKit for free. Just sign up here and see how easy it is to create your loyalty program and increase customer engagement with PassKit.
