Got Fans? 5 Ways to Ramp Up Your Customer Loyalty Program
Season tickets aren’t just for sports fans. Do your marketing like the big leagues to improve customer loyalty and client retention.
Image courtesty Tom Fishburne – marketoonist.com
Most business owners would salivate over the prospect of having a fanatical, loyal following just like their local sports franchises enjoy – even when they’re disappointing their fans – but few businesses enjoy that kind of loyalty and patronage, even when they are not disappointing their customers. Here are five types of businesses that need to start thinking like big leaguers and sell season tickets to their customers, too.
Customer Loyalty Programs: 5 Ways to Get Your Customers to Commit
1. Got fans? Your business should be selling season tickets, too.
Sure, your business may have a few fans of its own, but if you live near a city that hosts one or more professional sports teams, you’re surrounded by fans. They may not be fans of your business (yet) but that shouldn’t stop you from selling them season tickets.
Restaurants and bars located near professional sports facilities should definitely be selling season tickets.
- Sell out your space during the hours immediately before and after sports events as season tickets to fans who want to ramp up or power down after attending games.
- Sell out your space during sporting events by streaming games live for fans that couldn’t afford or couldn’t obtain seats inside the stadium or arena.
- Become the destination for fans of your local sports teams by hosting trivia nights, contests, jersey give-aways or other special events associated with your local sports teams.
2. Got seasons? Your business should be selling season tickets, too.
So maybe you aren’t lucky enough to be located near a sports arena or stadium or whether you are or you aren’t, your business isn’t able to host sports events or even be open before, during or after games. That doesn’t mean you can’t sell season tickets!
Salons and Day Spas should definitely be selling season tickets, too.
Okay, so maybe you already do this and you think of it as pre-booking. Only instead of pre-booking clients for the next appointment, pre-book them for the whole season, or even the whole year. Putting clients on a set schedule of pre-booked appointments makes planning easier for them; plus, in doing so, you may be able to offer them a “thank you” such as a discount on retail that also increase your retail product sales and profitability.
The area of professional salon and day spa retail products offers another area of season ticket potentiality. Bundle 3-4 seasonally appropriate hair or skin care products or cosmetics and offer them at a special “season ticket” price. You can even plan out a series of 4 bundles and pre-sell them to clients as a year long season ticket package at a special price, ensuring that your clients will be using high quality, professional salon products all year long!
You might also like: Salon Marketing: The Secret to Creating Loyal Salon Clients
3. Got ups and downs? Your business should be selling season tickets, too.
Sports teams have ups and downs all the time – and so do retail businesses that cater to children or families with children. Well, OK, so most of these retail businesses only have ups, as children grow up (and up, and up).
If your business caters to families with children, think about season ticket packages you could offer to keep those families coming back in to purchase the clothing, shoes, party supplies or other items that are routinely purchased throughout the years.
4. Got grass and turf-stained clothing? Your business should be selling season tickets, too.
If you are looking for new marketing ideas for a dry cleaning business, think about selling season tickets. Dry cleaners are often viewed as interchangeable commodities, with consumers choosing the dry cleaner that is most convenient for their commute or closest to their home. Differentiate your dry cleaning business with this marketing idea: Promote season ticket cleaning offers to families with kids in school sports, band or other organizations which require that they wear uniforms. Promote season ticket rewards to customers who bring in their work uniforms or clothing (pants, work shirts, etc.) multiple times each year with the goal of getting them to return more frequently.
5. Got sports-related conditions? Your business should be selling season tickets, too.
There’s no reason that medical and dental providers shouldn’t use season ticket thinking to market their services to their patients, too. Season ticket holders for medical and dental practices might enjoy perks such as waived deductibles or multi-patient discounts when whole families book appointments together or refer friends and family to your practice.
Got fans? You should – and you could – if you learn to think like big leaguers. Instead of looking for marketing ideas that can help you bring in one new customer, one new client or one new patient, think about ways to improve retention and build client loyalty and referrals, instead!
You might also like: 5 Ways to Build Customer Loyalty without a Punch Card
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