What does 2022 have in store for the loyalty marketing landscape as we enter the beginning of what is now referred to as the ‘para-Covid period’? As loyalty marketers, we will need to prepare for a business world in which customer loyalty is re-imagined, the rules of engagement are being rewritten and core values are being revisited. This makes reflections on loyalty marketing trends for the coming year both extra challenging and extra special. In the uncharted territory in which we find ourselves today, it makes sense to reflect on the road ahead in 2022 and help redefine the business of loyalty

B2B rewards programs are customer retention solutions with specific features and loyalty logic designed to help the companies to establish brand loyalty with the businesses that they sell to. Organisations in this vertical aim at growing their market share, by ensuring that the existing clients or contacts stay loyal, satisfied, and engaged.

As times are changing, non-monetary incentives are becoming increasingly popular. Incentive travel plays a major role in most of the big enterprises and is seen as an important subset of the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions. It is directly related to the company goals and top performers and is an effective travel bonus for incentivising or motivating employees or business partners.

It’s important to realise that habits are developed and maintained through two mechanisms: nudging and gratification. To help you kick the habit of just focusing on true loyalty, we suggest you reflect on three key issues, and one caveat as follows:

Safeguarding the privacy of your loyalty program members has rapidly become a strategic priority for program managers. As programs are rolled out across multiple platforms and global markets, protecting member data in line with continually changing geopolitical policies and guidelines has become a formidable challenge.

Business owners are always looking for ways to make their employees feel more rewarded and recognised as this helps increase productivity, loyalty, and efficiency. Managing your employees, the right way and appreciating their hard work makes them feel happy and satisfied and they will be willing to put in more work which will ultimately increase your return on investment. If you are looking for ways to reward your employees then here are some ways to help you get started.

There’s a range of loyalty program mechanics that are simple to use. Before you set up a loyalty program, there are also some simple tactics to keep in mind.

Gamification is the use of game-play mechanics for non-game applications and it has grown in popularity as a loyalty program tactic. Indeed, when used effectively digital games have achieved fantastic results.

 Equally, there have been numerous examples where the gamification execution has failed to deliver. This can be extremely problematic for businesses as the financial investment and staff resources required to design and deploy gamification can be considerable.

 The top three reasons why gamification tactics and campaigns failing to deliver the desired ROI have been identified as:

Employers are witnessing the dawn of the hybrid workforce. But firms are now facing challenges around motivating and engaging hybrid workers and how to draw lessons from what just happened to the world of work. 6 ways to reward employees for collaborative hybrid work practices

Why Your Business Should Implement Employee Recognition Programs

With so many different people working together, it can often be challenging to lead a business. However, if you want to retain your talent and boost productivity, you should look beyond monetary rewards. Research has shown that businesses that recognise the achievements of their employees tend to have more productive and engaged employees.

Compared to a few decades ago, several organisations have transformed the way they recognise employees and their achievements. However, there are still many that do not want to move away from traditional methods. This reluctance to change the way they appreciate their employees come from misconceptions. Thankfully, it is now possible to clear those fallacies and ensure decision-makers invest time, effort, and resources to make their employee recognition programs more successful.

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the global pandemic has caused challenging trading conditions for a lot of businesses. Lockdowns have meant drastically reduced or zero product sales. Customers have become less motivated to buy from you and are more cautious about their spending. And if your company runs a loyalty program, the knock-on effect may well be that program members have given up on it.

After a period of dis- or even un-engagement, cancellations, and plummeted sales figures, it is time to reconnect with your B2B loyalty program members.

‘How can rewards be used to drive effective loyalty programs?’. Answering this question, we once again turn to member psychology in relation to rewarded behaviour.

During the past decade, as loyalty programs have come to terms with analysing Big Member Data, it has been consistently observed that members increase their spending after reward redemption for a short period of time. This is part of the Motivational Cycle. So how can you use this cycle to your advantage?

Cash vs Experiences - Building meaningful and longer-term connections with customers through loyalty programs is an essential strategy for brands to survive in crowded marketplaces with little differentiation and low switching barriers. Rewards offer opportunities for unique relational positioning.

Just last month, in a program audit for one of our (Fortune 100) clients, we found that 66% of members’ decision to actively engage with the B2B loyalty program could be attributed to ‘rewards’. This is part one in our trilogy of B2B loyalty program rewards and ensuring you have the right reward for the desired behaviour or action.

There are lots of different reasons why a B2B loyalty or sales incentive program may not deliver the results you are looking for. You could be targeting the wrong type of participant, or maybe the level of rewards isn’t worth the effort of taking part.

Earth Day is an annual event on 22nd April designed to shine a light on the serious environmental problems our planet is facing. At Motivforce each of us do our bit to help every day. Here are some of the actions that our people around the world are taking personally; the green initiatives that we as a business are supporting; and the sustainable measures that our clients are introducing.

As another World Earth Day has come around again (on 22nd April 2021) and we are still very much in the middle of a global health and economic crisis, it has become clear that environmental stewardship is no longer a ‘should do' but a ‘got to do' imperative. That we urgently need a little more action and your B2B loyalty program could (or should) be driving the action.

As loyalty marketers it is hard to not fall asleep at the wheel and lose sight of the bigger picture. But if you sometimes do, be prepared to make the business case for your program when you hear the call from the C-suite. That is why we present you with a nudge - a marketing metrics refresh

There is an age-old debate about the best way to motivate people in a B2B environment. Should we motivate people to reach their sales targets by rewarding them with merchandise such as gadgets, gift vouchers, Gucci bags? This is known as ‘extrinsic’ motivation.

Or, should individuals motivate themselves by seeing sales as a valuable and personally rewarding activity in itself? This is called ‘intrinsic’ motivation.