Nowadays, getting more people interested in your business and loyalty program seems easier than ever – mostly due to the Internet. The keyword is “seems,” though, as it’s not always a walk in the park.

In fact, attracting more customers can be quite difficult for certain types of businesses. That’s due to the extreme competition we’re witnessing on the market nowadays.

It’s also because of the Internet, ironically, since consumers can quickly browse a company’s website and decide if they want to do business with said company in seconds – sometimes without even checking out everything the business has to offer.

So, in case you need some help getting people’s attention to acquire more customers, here are 4 creative methods you can try:

1. Social Media Contests

Social media contests are an extremely efficient way of attracting new clients, and even new loyalty program members. The easiest thing you can try is hosting a Facebook contest or a Facebook giveaway.

Keep in mind that not everybody who sees your social media contest or giveaway posts will be somebody who liked your page (who would normally be an existing customer). It can actually be someone who will receive that notification as a suggested post. Alternatively, some people might see their friends and family liking, sharing, and commenting on your post.

Well, all those individuals are potential customers.

Just keep in mind that, besides the prize, you should consider offering the contest winners the chance to sign up for your loyalty program. Make sure to throw some free loyalty points, a tier upgrade, or another redeemable reward into the mix to make the offer more appealing.

This way, even if not all those people were thinking of visiting your place of business again, you’ll still be able to send them all sorts of promotions and messages that will entice them to come back.

2. Encourage Client Reviews

Basically, we’re talking about rewarding people who review products and services. Naturally, you should also encourage all your patrons to publicly review your products and services online – specifically on social media.

Why? Because more and more people will hear about your business this way, and their first exposure to your business will be through somebody’s positive experience.

If you’re not convinced that most of your customers want to do that, offer an incentive. For example, tell them that everyone who makes a review will receive a discount or a free in-store reward. Another thing you can try is offering extra loyalty points for every review each patron makes. Just be sure to clarify that it must be an in-depth review, not a basic, one-sentence review.

As for making this info public, you can easily let your customers know about that by posting on social media, having your staff talk with them about it, or just using in-store brochures that promote this. If they’re loyalty program members, getting this info across to them will be even more straightforward.

Now, we realize you might be worried about negative reviews. That’s not to say that your services or products aren’t great, but we always have to think about potential unhappy customers, right?

Of course we do, which is why you should always act when you notice people posting negative reviews. Try to get in touch with the reviewers (especially if they are bloggers), and find out what the issue was. If possible, offer them a refund, discount, or free product to try and amend the situation.

Doing that can actually cause them to change their opinion on your business, and edit their review or update it to let people know that your brand truly cares about customer satisfaction.

And if the reviewers in question are loyalty program members, you could even offer them a free upgrade to the next loyalty tier or a redeemable reward.

3. Creative Referral Programs

Referral programs are an excellent way to attract new customers. Best of all – they are referred by existing clients, so you know your odds of turning them into recurring customers are bigger. Not only that, but referred clients are generally 4 times more likely to buy from you.

Just remember that your referral program has to be creative to a certain degree – if you want it to stand out, that is. In case you don’t have many ideas, we’ve got you covered. Here are some things you can try out:

• Run referral contests. Once more, you can leverage the power of social media, and let your clients know that for each person they refer, they’ll receive a certain number of loyalty points, cash rewards, or product rewards – whichever option works best for your business. To make the whole thing more appealing to your patrons, offer a large reward for whoever refers the most people in a certain timeframe. Make sure you don’t forget about second and third-place winners.
• When your customers make an online order or payment, offer them a free reward if they are willing to refer their friends or family, or just let them know about your services and products. The referred customers should then receive a certain discount (we recommend anything between 20% and 30%) when they make their first order or purchase.
• Offer your patrons a discount if they refer somebody. The person who is referred gets to enjoy the same discount too. To make it more interesting, use the calendar to your advantage. For example, when it’s Saint Valentine’s or Christmas, you could run a promotional campaign emphasizing how important it is to “spread the love” or “share the joy” with friends and family to get your clients in the mood to refer someone.

Speaking of Referral Programs

Our loyalty program platform will actually offer merchants the possibility to implement creative referral programs to go alongside their loyalty strategy. Better yet, taking advantage of referral programs will be very easy for both merchants and their clients.

Essentially, you’ll get to make sure that every one of your customers will receive a unique referral link. You won’t have to send the links manually, of course, as the whole process will be automatic.

Once your patrons have the link, they’ll be able to share it through Facebook or SMS. It’s also possible for them to use any other app on their mobile devices that has a “Share” feature.

As for redeeming the referral rewards, your clients and their referred friends will be able to do that when they make an in-store purchase or when they complete the registration process.

Oh, and if you’re not sure how our platform works, here’s a quick outline of Spoonity’s main features.

4. Run a Cause-Related Program

Nowadays, many people will spend money on a brand only if they know some of their money is going to a worthy cause.

That’s especially true for Millennials. They are particularly passionate about doing business only with brands that want to make a difference by donating to a cause.

So, if you want to attract clients from this generational group, you can either create or adjust your loyalty program to ensure that a part of the profits is donated to a cause, or run a marketing campaign for certain products or services which advertise that your business will donate some of the money to charity.

We recommend the first option, as it won’t just help you attract more clients, but also new loyalty program members as well.

Have Any Other Suggestions?

Then be sure to leave your thoughts in the comment section below. We’re all eager to hear other ideas that can help businesses attract more clients and loyalty program members.

And feel free to share this article if you feel this information will be relevant to other people.