Spoiler alert: repeat customers aren’t buying from you because your prices are the lowest, your shipping timelines are amazing, or because they saw a targeted ad on Facebook.

They’re buying from you because of the way your brand makes them feel.

The world’s most successful brand communities have a knack for cultivating strong emotional connections with their customers, and a lot of them do it with rewards.

Rewards allow you to establish a reciprocal relationship that fosters trust over time.

Rewarding your customers with points can help you add value to each interaction they have with your brand, but awarding points alone won’t be enough to forge an emotional connection. Your customer’s emotional investment in your brand will be strongest when they’re actively engaged.

So what happens when your customers disengage? With so many distractions online, sometimes your customers forget the value your rewards program has to offer, even when they love everything about your brand.

Thankfully, you can easily get every customer re-engaged by getting in touch with them at the right time.

Add some excitement to their birthday celebrations

There’s no emotion more powerful than happiness. It’s addictive. When we experience happiness we’ll naturally look for ways to feel this emotion again.

Birthday points are a simple, personalized way to tap into the feelings of happiness that your customers are after. It feels amazing when someone wishes you a happy birthday. By adding to the excitement of their birthday celebrations with birthday points, you’ll strengthen the emotional relationship they have with your brand, making them more likely to engage with your community long term.

Birthday point reminders make your rewards program part of every customer’s special day.

You can take advantage of these good vibes by sending a birthday points reminder email to your customers on their special day. A great birthday email will not only let them know about the points you’ve gifted them, but also how they could use these points to unlock a reward. When customers see tangible value in the points you’ve offered, they’ll have more incentive to use them towards a purchase, which gives them a compelling reason to visit your store and re-engage with your community.

MoroccanOil-Birthday-Bonus

Moroccan Oil does an incredible job with their birthday points email. Not only does it celebrate their customer’s day with bonus points, but it also shows them just how close they are to unlocking a new reward. By showing their customers how they can transform their points into a tangible reward, they provide even more incentive for their customer to visit their store to complete a purchase and experience the delight of a points bonus all over again.

Finding simple ways to add a little joy to your customer’s experience with your brand goes a long way to strengthen your emotional connection with them. When they associate these feelings of joy with your brand, they’ll have every reason to come back to engage with your community again.

Remind them when their points are about to expire

We’re all guilty of holding onto things a little longer than we should sometimes. That’s because no one wants to feel like they are going to lose something. Humans are hardwired to avoid loss.

This also holds true when it comes to your customer’s unused points balance. If your customers have hard-earned points that are about to expire, letting them know what they stand to lose becomes a powerful motivator for them to put those points to use, giving them a good reason to re-engage with your community.

Points expiry emails make a member’s hard-earned points valuable again.

Sending a points expiry email can help your program members see value in their points again, reminding them why they joined your community in the first place. A great points expiry email will not only let your customers know that they have unused points, but will also make it easy to see the value they could gain from those points. When they see this value, they’ll be more likely to take action and use their points to complete a purchase - before they lose them.

Boathouse-Points-Expiry-Email

Your customers are going to be more likely to take action when these emails are fun and engaging. Boathouse’s points expiry email has definitely found the perfect balance of enjoyable and valuable. Instead of just sharing their customer’s current balance, they show them how they can redeem their points for a tangible reward. When they see what they can gain from their unused points, they’ll see value in both spending their points and coming back to their store if only to avoid the feeling of loss.

When customers feel like you want to help them get the most out of your community, you’ll establish a sense of trust. This trust grows exponentially when you do everything you can to help them avoid losing out on your program’s value. When customers trust your brand, they’ll be more likely to share your community with others, helping you grow your business more sustainably over time.

Celebrate their new VIP tier achievement

There are few feelings as satisfying as celebrating a new milestone or reaching a goal. It’s one of the reasons tiered VIP programs are so effective. With clear milestones and exclusive rewards at every tier, VIP programs can give your customers that extra bit of motivation they need to continue engaging with your brand.

However, once your customers achieve a new VIP tier they may be so thrilled with their new VIP status that they completely forget about any entry rewards they might have earned.

Nudges help you keep this recent reward top of mind, by reminding your customers they've earned something extra that can be applied towards their purchase just before they checkout. When you add value to their on-site experience, your customers will be more likely to re-engage with your program

Once your customers have actually used a reward they’ve earned, you’ll strengthen the emotional investment they have in your brand even more.

Celebrating a new VIP tier achievement with your customers will show them that you want them to enjoy the full value they’ve earned as part of your brand community. When you help them see and take advantage of value sooner, they’ll be more likely to come back to your store to make additional purchases.

Keep their points balance top of mind before they check out

There’s nothing worse than finding out you could have redeemed a reward after you’ve already checked out. When a customer earns points for completing a purchase, they’re excited about the value they’ve gained for being part of your community. However, the further they move away from that initial purchase the less exciting those points become — until they miss the opportunity to use them.

Keeping their unused points balance top of mind before they check out is an easy way to help them see (and take advantage of) value in their unused points. Showing your customers that you want them to get as much value out of your program as possible, they’ll feel like they are part of a reciprocal relationship. When they feel like they gain value in each interaction they have with you, they’ll be more likely to continue engaging with your community.

Jimmy-Joy-Points-Nudge

Jimmy Joy uses Nudges to make it easier for their customers to understand the value of their points balance. Their Nudge not only shows their customers their current points balance, but it also shows them the rewards they could redeem their points for. By making it easy for them to visualize the value their points could add to their purchase, they’ll be more likely to use them and seek more opportunities to earn and spend them in the future.

The excitement your customers feel after they’ve used a reward on their next purchase will motivate them to continue engaging with your program, re-energizing their desire to earn points by completing any number of valuable actions as part of your community.

There’s no wrong time to re-engage your customers

Re-engaging your customers at the right time is critical to building a strong brand community. When your members are engaged with your program, they’ll see more value in what your community has to offer and be much more likely to share your brand with others. These actions strengthen the emotional connection they have with your brand and set new members up to experience similar joy.

The truth is there’s really no wrong time to engage with your customers - if you have something valuable to offer them. Using the four moments we’ve highlighted are surefire ways to strengthen every emotional relationship within your community.

It’s this emotional connection that will drive them to make repeat purchases and share your community with others, helping your community grow long past your customer’s next purchase.