How Do You Gamify Your Influencer Loyalty Program?
Let's say you hire an influencer for your brand. They devise creative ways to promote your brand's products or services via various mediums.
Though you pay for their service, you feel there's always a gap between your brand and influencers. They promote your products, but it feels like something is missing. They don't seem as enthusiastic as you hope, or their engagement levels are not as high as expected.
If you notice this change, it's high time you incorporated an influencer loyalty program. We know what you’re thinking. “But loyalty programs can be boring!”
What if we could make it interesting by gamifying their experience? That’s what we will talk about today.
This article will focus on what an influencer loyalty program is, the different sectors in which this type of loyalty program reaps benefits and how to gamify it. Let's dive in.
What Is an Influencer Loyalty Program?
An influencer loyalty program is a structured system. It’s set up by a brand to keep its influencers engaged and committed to promoting their products or services to their audience.
Why do we need Influencer Loyalty Programs?
With time, your influencer's engagement will start to dip. So, to encourage them to work towards their goals and make them feel more valued and appreciated, an influencer loyalty program is the best way!
But how is it different from a customer loyalty program?
An influencer loyalty program aims to expand the customer base, while the other tries to retain it. It focuses on building and maintaining relationships with the brand's influencers to improve their influence and advocacy for the brand.
An Influencer Loyalty Program typically involves:
Early access to new products and experiences:
Influencers get a sneak peek at the recent offers from the brand before they hit the shelves. This makes the influencers feel more special and valued.
Personalized discounts, compensation, and rewards
Who doesn't like discounts, payments, or rewards just made for them? It's a way for brands to thank the influencers for their support.
Co-branded merchandise or product lines
In some cases, brands and influencers team up to create special merchandise or product lines featuring their names for a short time.
VIP treatment and experiences
Inviting influencers to events, giving them backstage passes, or even having an in-person meet and greet with the brand's big shots will make them feel more connected to the promotions they do for the brand.
Overall, an influencer loyalty program helps brands nurture relationships with influencers and keep them excited about promoting their products or services to their audience. These programs happen to be a win-win for both.
Benefits of Implementing an Influencer Loyalty Program
Fosters ongoing relationships
A loyalty program isn't a one-time game. Instead, it builds long-term connections between influencers and brands.
Motivates continued promotion
By offering attractive incentives and rewards, this program motivates influencers to promote the brand consistently. So, this positively impacts and results in an increase in content creation and engagement.
Tailored content and campaigns
When brands have a deeper understanding of influencers' preferences and interests, they can create more personalized campaigns that resonate with the influencer's target audience.
Improved communication and feedback
The program offers open communication channels between brands and influencers. So, both sides can share valuable feedback and insights and help improve their strategies.
Consistent recognition and increased visibility
Influencers receive recognition and appreciation for their efforts and have visibility within their niche communities.
Opportunities for collaboration and networking
Influencers can collaborate and network with other influencers and brands through the program. So this fosters mutually beneficial partnerships and expands their professional connections.
Loyalty Programs Work across Different Sectors
Carpenters Loyalty Program
For a plywood manufacturer, carpentry tools and equipment store, hardware store, and a specialty wood supplier, an experienced and skilled carpenter is a better influencer. Why? Because they can recommend clients, talk about valuable products, offer tips and tricks, etc., that will directly benefit their income.
A carpenter loyalty program lets them earn points from participating vendors for every purchase of tools, supplies, or equipment. These points can be redeemed for discounts on future purchases, exclusive deals on new tools, or even specialized training workshops tailored to carpentry skills.
E.g. Greenply loyalty program
Green Samriddhi is an esteemed loyalty club for contractors and carpenters associated with Greenply.
Members can earn points by registering for Greenply product purchases and redeeming exciting rewards. They also win rewards and receive consistent updates from the Greenply universe.
Electricians Loyalty Program
Working electricians can shape customers' buying decisions by serving as an important mediator between manufacturers and end customers. An electrician loyalty program offers rewards for their consistent purchases of electrical equipment and other supplies from brands. They can receive discounts on high-quality tools and free safety gear or get invited to industrial events where electricians can network, learn about new technologies, or get in touch with new clients.
E.g. Havells offers SAMPARK loyalty programs exclusively designed to build a better relationship with their channel partners.
Any retailer or dealer can register themselves in the program for the products they sell to customers. This program covers only selective SKUs for the following divisions: DP, wire, Aqua, fan, water heater, etc.
Contractors Loyalty Program
Let's take the manufacturers or dealers of paint products as an example. No matter how brilliant your colors are, they won't sell by themselves. Besides traditional television advertisements, which are expensive, it's best that you choose the key influencers in the paint industry: paint suppliers and painters.
In a loyalty program for contractors, they could earn points or rewards for purchasing paint products from different suppliers. This helps you sell more paint products, retain customers, build strong relationships, and enhance lifetime value.
E.g. Kansai Nerolac's RISHTA RANGON KE SANG is an exclusive paint contractor loyalty program where they can upload their purchases and earn points on every transaction.
Plumbers Loyalty Program
Plumbers play a crucial role in maintaining our daily comfort and sanitation. They ensure the proper functioning of water supply systems, drainage, and sewage disposal in homes, businesses, and public facilities. Despite their importance in daily life, we don't often give them the recognition and appreciation they deserve.
By introducing a plumber loyalty program where they can enjoy discounts on purchasing pipes, fixtures, fittings, and other plumbing-related products, plumbers can recommend a supplier/ product/ store to customers and plumbing agencies, increasing your brand’s awareness in the community.
E.g., Parryware's Bandhan loyalty program for plumbing technicians focuses on training and educating about their products. They also receive rewards for purchasing Parryware products.
In this digital age, participants of loyalty programs in these sectors now use social media platforms, resulting in an exponential increase in brand awareness and community engagement. This is how Influencer Loyalty Programs work. But this has been tried and tested across brands, and it has now become the time to gamify the Influencers’ experiences with a brand to retain their engagement and band of loyal customers.
How Does Gamification in Influencer Loyalty Programs Work and Make a Difference?
While the usual rewards and points for purchasing or referring a service online are the norm for influencer loyalty programs, brands are now looking for exciting ways to amplify brand loyalty.
One simple yet effective way to engage your influencers via your loyalty programs is by adding the gaming element. When an element of fun pops in, naturally, it boosts engagement.
Instead of just earning points or rewards for purchases, gamification has the potential to turn the entire process into a game where influencers can compete, earn badges, unlock levels, and participate in challenges. Sounds fun, right?
How Does Flyy Help Gamify Influencer Loyalty Programs?
As you have noticed, almost all influencer loyalty programs in different sectors, including electricians, plumbers, and contractors, let influencers earn the same rewards and points. Though this is appealing for influencers, businesses now look for other ways to boost engagement, and gamification is a brand new idea. Using gamification in an influencer loyalty program makes you stand out from your competitors.
Flyy Example
Our platform helps in gamifying loyalty programs by providing customizable game elements for rewards, tracking, and engagement. Thus, it makes it easier for brands to manage and incentivize their influencer networks effectively.
Here's a small gist of our gamification ideas for influencer loyalty programs for plumbers.
Leaderboards: a real-time leaderboard showcasing top-performing plumbers and retailers. This fuels users to climb the ranks through consistent engagement.
Refer and earn: Provides plumbers & retailers with a seamless referral process, detailing the steps to refer friends and earn bonus rewards, reinforcing a sense of community within the app. Users will also be able to track and nudge friends to join.
Lucky Draw: Lottery tickets can be distributed against certain parameters with exciting rewards. It not only creates a sense of excitement but also increases engagement.
The Future: Gamified Influencer Loyalty Programs
Keeping the engagement flame burning isn't a piece of cake, even among influencers who gain monetary benefits from your brand.
Though influencers' loyalty programs are tailored to meet specific industries and target audiences, they do lack some aspects. Here, gamification can help bridge the engagement gap. In fact, gamifying your influencer loyalty programs adds an exciting dimension to the relationship between brands and influencers.
Are you wondering how to gamify loyalty programs? Get in touch with us at Flyy. We are a dedicated gamified referral and loyalty rewards platform that can help gamify your brand’s influencer loyalty program and more.
