You’re always on the hunt for the best tactics to increase brand awareness and nurture the relationship you have with your customers. And if you’re here, it probably means that you’ve decided to include loyalty campaigns in your marketing strategy.

The next step in your to-do list, therefore, is to find a company that will help you build one. You might have found several agencies already, but they all have different specialties and ways of working. So how do you decide? How do you make sure that the agency you choose is the best one to provide you with a successful loyalty campaign?

As a starting point, discover the first steps that will help you define your project and select the right loyalty agency.

Define your goals and needs

First and foremost, you need to clarify what you are looking for. Who is your target audience? What message do you want to communicate? What is the main goal you’d like to achieve through a loyalty campaign? These are important questions, and you should know the answers to them before hunting for a loyalty agency.

To be successful, a loyalty program not only needs to be creative and appealing but also needs to reflect your brand values and your customers’ interests. As such, it is essential that the loyalty agency you decide to work with provides you with the most relevant and helpful solutions. For example, if your strategy is mostly focused on kids and families, you should choose an agency that can support you with the right expertise, concepts, and rewards for this specific audience.

Once you have selected a few agencies that seem to be right for your project, what do you need to base your final assessment and decision on?

Key elements that make a great loyalty agency

Customization

Loyalty campaigns are a fun and impactful way to engage your customers and communicate a message that resonates with your brand. This is exactly why it is extremely important to choose a loyalty agency that offers you the right concepts for your audience and one that can customize them to your brand territory, visual identity, brief, and market.

Pay attention to the following signs: If your Account Manager asks the right questions, listens, and follows your needs and requests detailed in your brief, it will show in the pitch.

Creativity and innovation

Creativity is one of the key points in a loyalty campaign. The right loyalty agency needs to be able to provide you with creative and appealing rewards, combined with strong marketing mechanisms.

How can you assess the agencies’ level of creativity and innovation? Take a look at their website, their content, and, of course, previous campaigns they developed. During the pitch, check for original concepts and appealing visual design, and look for products that stand out.

Ask the loyalty agency for what is hot at the moment, and more importantly what is expected to trend when you launch your campaign. A loyalty agency that has global presence will also be able to share their experience in other markets and personalize proven concepts to your specific market, making you the innovator.

Don’t forget: Innovations can come from anywhere, including sourcing and production solutions such as sustainable alternatives.

High level of expertise

The retail industry is highly competitive, and merely offering loyalty campaigns is not enough. To win over your competition, you need to provide your customers with meaningful and memorable experiences that they won’t resist. So, you need to collaborate with a loyalty agency with a high level of expertise and knowledge. The agency needs to be on top of what is happening in the loyalty world and well informed about consumer behavior. To assess their competence, look into their ability to conduct field research, gather consumer insights, inspire you with new trends and hypes. This is the most reliable way of creating a loyalty program that will perform well.

Besides, you can’t do everything yourself! Hence, in addition, you also want to look for an agency that can provide you with a wide range of services. From briefing and research to campaign delivery, what does it offer? Choose an agency that can help you all the way from beginning to end, and beyond.

Proven results and happy clients

A good loyalty agency would be able to showcase past campaigns. How will they show you good results and their happy clients? Look at the retailers they work with, their partners. Check if clients tend to work with them on more than one campaign. You’ll know that you found a good one when the agency has produced several editions of a campaign with the same retailers.

Also, feel free to ask the agencies for consumer response during these campaigns. Remember that a loyalty program is all about how customers perceive it. Look for an experienced agency that can use all the insights and experience from past campaigns to design a creative and successful loyalty program for your brand.