What is a subscription-based loyalty program:

A subscription-based loyalty program is a customer retention strategy where businesses offer exclusive benefits and rewards to customers who subscribe to a payment plan. By paying a subscription fee, customers gain access to personalized perks, discounts, early access to new products, and enhanced customer service. This model creates a sense of exclusivity, fosters long-term customer engagement, and provides a predictable revenue stream for businesses, while customers enjoy ongoing value and a deeper connection with the brand. Alpine IQ launched its first subscription-based loyalty program in 2020 and we even power the largest subscription member club in all of Canadian markets today with over 1 million members. 

In this blog post, we are breaking down the benefits and how to set up a subscription-based loyalty program with Alpine IQ. 

What are the benefits of having a subscription-based loyalty program?

In today’s fiercely competitive market, customer loyalty has become more vital than ever before. While a standard free loyalty program can certainly offer some advantages, we firmly believe that a subscription-based program can take your customer retention and sales potential to unprecedented heights. Allow us to illustrate the remarkable benefits:

Increased Customer Engagement: A subscription-based loyalty program encourages customers to make an ongoing commitment, fostering a stronger bond with your brand. However, it’s important to note that other member club payment strategies such as our Starbucks style “Scan to pay” app feature can be even more fruitful with less of a barrier to entry than asking for a ‘Netflix’ style subscription.

Predictable Revenue Stream: The beauty of a subscription-based model lies in its ability to generate a predictable revenue stream. With customers subscribing to your loyalty program, you gain regular, recurring income, providing you with greater stability and allowing for more accurate financial planning and growth projections.

Enhanced Customer Lifetime Value: By incentivizing customers to subscribe to your loyalty program, you extend their lifetime value significantly. Subscribers are more likely to remain loyal to your brand over an extended period, making repeat purchases and advocating for your business among their network. In fact, any strategy that holds a customer’s funds for future purchases incentivises them to return to your store over another. This increased loyalty directly translates into higher revenue and profitability for your company.

Deeper Customer Insights: A subscription-based loyalty program grants you access to valuable customer data that goes beyond basic transactional information. With an ongoing relationship established, you can gather insights on customer preferences, buying patterns, and behavior, enabling you to refine your marketing strategies, personalize experiences, and deliver targeted promotions that resonate with each subscriber.

Continuous Relationship Building: Unlike a standard free program, a subscription-based loyalty program allows you to continually nurture and build relationships with your customers. Through regular communications, personalized offers, and tailored experiences, you can keep your brand top-of-mind, foster loyalty, and deepen customer connections, leading to long-term customer retention and advocacy.

Exclusivity and Differentiation: A subscription-based loyalty program sets your brand apart from competitors by offering exclusive benefits to subscribers. These perks could include early access to new products, priority customer service, personalized recommendations, and unique experiences. By providing an elevated customer experience, you differentiate yourself in the market and create a compelling reason for customers to choose your brand over others.

—–

How to set up in Alpine IQ

Before building your subscription-based loyalty program, there are a few things you need to determine:

1. Pricing: The price of your subscription-based loyalty program
2. Discounts and Rewards: What discounts your subscription members will receive for purchasing
3. Cadence: The cadence of the subscription. Most common are monthly or annually. 

How to setup a subscription-based loyalty program in Alpine IQ:

1. Setup a non-stock SKU inside of your Point of Sale system and remember the name of the SKU..
   ** This is only available for tier 3 and above POS integrations. See if your POS system qualifies here.
   
2. Create an audience inside of Alpine IQ:
   1. Audience: Performed event > Purchased SKU – Contains – ((name of your membership SKU))
   2. Toggle the in range and select input the desired date range depending on if your subscription model is monthly or annual. You can also provide customers that are in this audience to get additional points or boosts for their purchases.
3. Build your discount/discounts inside Alpine IQ
   1. Make sure you have the audience you built above as the selected audience for the discount/discounts to appear as a result of the customer falling into those audiences
   2. Under Ecomm and POS input your discount % or $ that the member receives

From here your subscription-based loyalty program will be set up and ready to go! 

To know more about Alpine IQ and how it can help you create an effective loyalty program, visit us at www.aiq.com.