Marsello releases its first Loyalty Pulse Check

As part of our ongoing mission to empower brands with personalized loyalty solutions which lie at the heart of smart marketing, Marsello recently undertook a survey of its customers to help us understand their views on loyalty and loyalty programs. The resulting Loyalty Pulse Check is something we intend to do annually so that we can analyze current and future trends, and use those to inform our product development and remain at the forefront of loyalty thinking.

Download the full report here.

Some of the standout insights include:

The challenging operating cost environment

Of all the challenges being faced by those in the Small to Medium Business (SMB) market right now, the two that came out most strongly from the survey were the cost of living (and the impact that has on consumers) and rising business operational costs. This is perhaps not surprising given the uncertain economic climate which all businesses continue to operate in, but it was a stark reminder of just how concerning this is.

The full report provides some insights on how loyalty programs can help address this challenge.

Customer loyalty remains important

Having a strategy to address customer loyalty was seen as being important by over 90% of respondents, with 70% rating it as very important. When it comes to loyalty programs, both the behavioral loyalty benefits (eg repeat purchase and retention) and attitudinal loyalty benefits (eg creating a stronger brand connection and building stronger customer relationships) were recognized which was great to see.

Yet despite this ringing endorsement for loyalty, the levels of investment being made into loyalty strategy were lower than what we might have expected. It remains an interesting dynamic that despite the understanding of the value of long term retention and loyalty, it is often shorter term promotion and acquisition activity which gets the major marketing focus.

There is a gap between recognizing the importance of data, and effectively realizing the data benefit

One of the most interesting findings was that, while using a loyalty program to collect data and translate this into actionable insights was seen as a very important benefit of loyalty programs for 60% of respondents, only 22% felt that they were doing this particularly well. This sentiment was reinforced by the finding that gaining actionable insights from data was one of the top 2 challenges in managing a loyalty program.

This all suggests that the data to actionable insights promise that is so central to loyalty program propositions, are not being met in reality.

Marsello is responding this challenge with its launch of Marsello.ai. Check out the video and register your interest here.

Download the report for the full analysis.

Or to speak to someone at Marsello about your loyalty program needs you can book a call with an expert.