Reports suggest that small businesses usually allocate around 7-10% of their total revenue on marketing. The numbers of often lesser in case of B2B companies, as opposed to B2C companies. However, despite several measures in place, giant competitor swoops in with deeper pockets, taking away a lot of the lucrative breakthroughs and opportunities.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Well, here’s the good news: you don’t have to play their game. You can create your own. And one of the most effective tools in your arsenal? A loyalty rewards management system.
But wait! We’re not talking about the usual customer loyalty points and punch cards. That’s old-school. Small businesses, especially those that work with channel partners, last-mile advocates, and distributors, need a smarter, more strategic approach and this 1Channel guide will unfold all the secrets that small businesses can leverage.
1. Think Beyond Customers—Your Real Army is Your Channel Partners
In the B2B business landscape, your real heroes are your channel partners (yes, even more than your customers). Bigger business, especially in the B2C landscape, focus more on customer loyalty. However, as a B2B business, especially a small business, your focus needs to be on distributors, retailers, resellers, and last-mile sales advocates – the cornerstone of channel loyalty.
Let’s say you manufacture premium home appliances. You don’t sell directly to customers, but through a network of dealers. These dealers also sell big-brand products, so how do you ensure they push your appliances over, say, a Samsung or a LG?
This is where a comprehensive loyalty management software like 1Channel’s come into the picture. Creating an engaging rewarding system instills a sense of exclusivity and appreciation, which pushes the channel partners to be more “loyal” to your brand instead of the competitors.
2. Build Emotional Connections, Not Just Transactions
Every business starts out from scratch. As a small business that’s in the initial stages of growth, this is something you put at your advantage. It is true that money is one of the biggest motivators behind the work that everyone puts into your business but it isn’t the only one.
People, especially your channel partners, like feeling recognised and valued for the work they are consistently putting in. Small businesses, like we mentioned before, have an upper hand, especially with the “close-knit” circle of channel partners. You get to foster a personal touch in terms of the rewards and interactions with the channel partners, which most of the large corporations struggle with.
Integrating a loyalty management program lets you look beyond the prospect of sales numbers and truly recognise the efforts that your channel partners are putting in. A great example of this is to gamify the loyalty program process by including badges like:
- Rising star
- Consistency king
- Customer favourite, etc.
For every milestone that your channel partners reach, the software will not only award them with the exclusive titles but also provide them with interactive rewards. Don’t wait to the point of when “push comes to shove” trying to overthrow the lucrative rewards that the large companies are providing.
3. Make Rewards More Exciting Than Just Cash
There’s no foregoing the fact that cash rewards are nice. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that cash rewards are monotonous – they don’t create lasting excitement.
So, as a small business trying to thrive in the competitive loyalty program landscape, you need to focus on creating a well-structured loyalty program that’s diverse and includes aspirational rewards that truly spark motivation in your channel partners.
With 1Channel, you truly get to redefine your loyalty programs by including elements like:
- Experiential rewards
- Tiered loyalty programs
- Exclusive business benefits, to name a few.
Beyond the prospect of standard cash rewards, the channel partners associated with small businesses also look for exclusive opportunities, training programs and first point access to new products. So, switching up your loyalty program rewards is where you truly get to foster better loyalty among your channel partners, to a point where they choose to push your products over your competitors.
4. Use Data to Outsmart Big Brands
One of the biggest advantages that small businesses have over large corporations is access to cumulative and real-time data. Big businesses usually have to depend on large data teams that look into individual customer behavior, sales trends, and partner performance.
Many small businesses fall short when they don’t leverage the power of data. With a holistic loyalty program management software like 1Channel, you get to push those worries to the side. When you have access to powerful data insights, you get to customise your loyalty programs to best reflect that.
With a robust LMS like 1Channel, you can track:
- Which partners drive the most sales
- What incentives work best
- Which regions underperform and why
- When sales peak and drop
So, instead of blindly offering discounts that don’t motivate your channel partners anymore, you can use the data to personalise the incentives based on that.
5. Automate, So You Focus on Growing Your Business
Small business owners don a lot of hats. They are the CEO, the content marketer, human resource executive, product tester, finance guy and a lot more.
With so many things already on your plate, the last thing you want is to add to it when you have the option to automate it all. Thanks to 1Channel’s loyalty rewards management system, you can say goodbye to the nightmare of manual tracking and rewarding loyalty bonuses to your channel partners.
Instead of manually calculating incentives, tracking who sold what, and figuring out rewards, you get to focus on growing your business.
A well-rounded loyalty management tool will not only track the sales in real-time but also update the rewards that the channel partners deserve – right there on the dashboard. Not just that, the software will also notify the partners when they have a reward waiting to be redeemed. This way, everyone in the network is happy and satisfied.
6. Make Your Small Business Feel Like an Exclusive Club
This one can be a little harder to grasp but let us elaborate.
Big brands cast a wide net, but small businesses can create an exclusive, tight-knit community of partners who feel like part of something special. This is the sentiment that you need to take advantage of and a comprehensive and customisable loyalty management platform like 1Channel’s makes it possible.
Some of the strategies you can implement with your small business LMS to make it more “exclusive” are:
- Creating invite-only loyalty tiers
- Offering early access to new products
- Holding private networking events
- Recognising top partners in newsletters and social media
Doing this triggers a common psychological feeling in the channel partners – they feel like they are part of something exclusive. When they feel like that, they are also likely going to stick with you instead of being lured by your competitors. Being part of your business’ loyalty program should feel like a priviledge to the channel partners instead of feeling like a scheme.
The Small Business Advantage with 1Channel LMS
Big businesses may have deep pockets, but small businesses have agility, authenticity, and personal connections, qualities, which you can further amplify with the right loyalty rewards management system like 1Channel’s.
More than your focus being on “beating your bigger competitors”, your focus should be to make your channel partners be more loyalty to your small business. In short, you don’t need to “outspend” your big competitors, you simply need to “outsmart” them.
Want to get started? Book your free demo with us today!
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