Welcome new members with discount on first purchase

For a loyalty program to build a committed customer base that grows over time, you need to attract new members to that program. Today’s new member is tomorrow’s loyal customer. Gifting new members with an immediate reward entices consumers to join and fuels their motivation to spend.

Strategy

Welcome members into your loyalty program with a discount as an immediate reward for joining.

Here’s the scenario: A new member joins your loyalty program. You offer them a 25% discount on their first purchase. To create a sense of urgency, you set the offer to expire in 1 week. Let’s look at how this is done in the SessionM platform.

SessionM solution

The SessionM loyalty platform enables you to forge stronger, more loyal and more profitable relationships with your members. The platform provides an integrated set of capabilities - including data management, loyalty management, offer management, campaign orchestration, and analytics & optimization - that enable you to build compelling member loyalty programs.

Key modules

The strategy described in this article uses the following modules:

Offer
Management

  • Single use, multi-channel closed loop offers
  • Define offer type, value and restrictions
  • Select eligible menu items
  • Real-time validation at POS
  • Comprehensive offer reporting and tracking

Campaign
Orchestration

  • Manage scheduled and behaviorally triggered campaigns across email, push, SMS, digital channels
  • Real-time interaction management
  • Rules-based promotions
  • Centralized and actionable campaign analytics

See SessionM Features for a full discussion of SessionM platform features and functions.

Implementation workflow

The following procedure describes the workflow for implementing the loyalty program described in this article. The procedure captures the workflow at a high-level, providing you with a sense of the scope involved in implementing this program in the SessionM platform.

Take note

As you follow this workflow, note that this strategy uses a custom event to detect when a new member joins the loyalty program. Events capture member actions, for example, purchasing a product from your brand. The SessionM platform provides a set of predefined purchase events. Working with the SessionM delivery team, you can define custom events that capture member actions that are not already defined in the platform. Once defined, custom events are available for use in rules and behaviors. For example, the following workflow uses the “New Member Registration” custom event to detect when a new member joins the loyalty program.

You can read more About custom events in our explainer guide.

For step-by-step procedures for implementing the functionality in a SessionM module, see the Procedures section in the SessionM Help Center.

Step 1. Offer Management module: Define 25% discount offer

  • Create the "Welcome Discount” offer. Set the offer as a 25% discount. Set today as the start date for the offer so that members can redeem it immediately. Set the redemption period to 1 week from when the offer is issued to the new member. Again, a short redemption period creates a sense of urgency for the member to complete a purchase.

  • Select the products in your brand’s catalog that qualify for the discount. You may want to limit the offer to a certain set of items, or you may want to make your entire catalog eligible for the discount.

  • Publish the “Welcome discount” offer. The offer is now active and ready for use as an incentive.

Step 2. Campaigns module: Define promotional campaign that emails discount to new members

Create a promotional campaign that “listens” for the “New Member Registration” event. When the campaign detects the event, it sends an email message welcoming the new member and notifying them of the 25% discount.

  • Name the campaign and set its end date to a date far in the future. A campaign with a distant end date is known as an evergreen campaign because it runs continuously.

  • Define the outcome (award) that the member receives. For this strategy, set the outcome to the "Welcome Discount" offer created in step 1.

  • Select the event that triggers the outcome. For this strategy, select the “New Member Registration” custom event that detects when a new member joins the loyalty program. Apply a restriction to the event that limits a member to a single award for joining. That is, if the member joins the program, leaves and then subsequently rejoins, they do not qualify for a second 25% off discount.

  • Define the message sent to the new member (the “Welcome” email) and the behavior (customer action) that triggers the message (the “New Member Registration” custom event). Select the third-party message provider that provides the email service (for example, "SendGrid"). Select the template that defines the content of the "Welcome" email.

  • Launch the campaign. The campaign now "listens" for a “New Member Registration” custom event to occur. When the campaign detects the event, it triggers the notification email and offers the discount.

Analysis

Successful loyalty programs adapt and evolve. It’s crucial to evaluate your program to determine where it is performing well and where it needs to improve. Built on a series of intuitive dashboards, the SessionM Insights reporting & analysis tool enables you to understand program performance by measuring key performance indicators such as customer spend and customer frequency.

This strategy attracts new members to your loyalty program. Using Insights, you can analyze how many members are enrolling on a daily basis, how many members are part of each tier level and more. When a new campaign generates a spike in enrollments, Insights ensures that you have the correct reports to showcase your success.

For detailed information on SessionM Insight features and functionality, see About Insights on the SessionM Help Center.

Key takeaways

Use incentives to attract new members

You need to attract a steady stream of new members to your loyalty program today that you can nurture into tomorrow’s loyal customers. Offering an immediate incentive for joining your loyalty program is an effective method for attracting new members. This strategy offers a discount of 25% that new members must redeem within a week.

Use custom events to track member actions

By defining custom events, you can track almost any action that members perform. You can leverage these custom events for audience segmentation, personalized rewards and more. This strategy uses a custom event that detects when a new member joins the loyalty program to trigger the award of a discount.