Research aggregator eMarketer recently summarized a pair of loyalty industry reports that reveal good news for providers of loyalty marketing technology and services: According to the research, US marketers plan to allocate a higher percentage of their 2017 marketing budgets to customer loyalty efforts. Indeed, over one in ten marketers plan "significant increases" in spending on loyalty programmes.
The first survey cited by eMarketer comes from loyalty provider CrowdTwist and Brand Innovators. The two companies surveyed 234 US digital marketers about their investment in loyalty. From the results:
- More than half of respondents will increase their loyalty programme budgets next year.
- Almost half (44%) said they will "somewhat increase" loyalty budgets 13% plan to "significantly increase" their investments, while only 4% said they would decrease investment.
Next up comes a summer 2015 survey from Maritz Motivation Solutions, which found that "43% of loyalty programme members said the top reason for joining in summer 2015 was because of their desire to earn rewards, while 31% joined because of the ease of signing up.
The Bullet Point: Always nice to see eMarketer covering the space. While the surveys references are slightly dated, their conclusions are right on: the loyalty industry is healthy and growing, with marketers investing a higher percentage of their tight budgets building stronger, more profitable relationships with their best customers. As the Maritz study points out, to suceed with today's consumers, loyalty programmes must deliver real value in a frictionless environment. That said, it's a good time to be a loyalty marketer.
-Rick Ferguson
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