Rewards-based loyalty programs can be highly effective marketing tactics for B2B and B2C businesses aiming to drive customer engagement and specific, desired business goals and objectives. These loyalty programs should, in essence, be communication vehicles providing robust reward offerings and frequent and relevant touch points to keep participants actively engaged.

However, loyalty programs contain several variable components and each business and audience is different. There is no silver bullet in loyalty program creation, no off-the-shelf program design that will work for every business. Because of this, the following best practice considerations should be taken when designing a loyalty program to effectively speak to your customers:

Defining loyalty: Businesses can easily confuse loyalty programs with frequency programs or relationship programs, but it is crucial to know the difference. A frequency program is designed to incite customers to simply buy more, more often. A relationship program means that there is a basic level of interaction established between business and customer. A true loyalty program involves a company knowing who the customer is, how often they buy and what products they prefer. With this information a company can then deliver custom, relevant information to each customer, which will trigger specific, desired behaviors. 

One of the most important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) is staying current with the latest updates to the Google algorithm.  At the end of last month, Google announced their latest update: Penguin.    

The goal of this update to how the search engine ranks websites is quite simple and consistent with previous updates – to eliminate spam in Google organic search results. Each time a new update is released, rankings of established sites change.  This is due to the way in which Google weighs the authority or importance of a website.  

Which websites were impacted the most?

Google has yet to share their secret sauce with us, but we know that algorithm updates have an impact on existing search results.  Where you’re ranked for a given keyword is based on a number of factors such as web site age, site load speed, inbound links, and so on.  Sites that have a significant number of inbound links that were acquired in an unnatural way have been largely discredited. 

Due to the nature of SEO, Google can detect if you acquired inbound links quickly or from non-authoritative sites.  As such, they have removed their authority or influence when calculating search rankings.  Google sees artificial link building as ‘gaming the system’ and therefore discredited sites that depend on this method for inflating their own authority.

Google has openly encouraged websites to improve their rankings through natural link building instead of artificially.  Sites that create valuable content including white papers, widgets, or other quality content, attract links from other websites pointing to their content.  In addition, social media sharing and bookmarking signal to Google that a particular site is seen as valuable.

Which Sites Survive the Penguin SEO Update and Which Get Burned?

Sites that engage in link building in an unnatural way are more easily identified and therefore impacted by the most recent Google algorithm changes.  Examples of poor link building techniques include: paying for links, duplicating anchor text, submitting duplicate content to article directories, and acquiring links from questionable sites.  Your authority is directly related to the quality of the sites pointing to your website.  If you’re only getting links from a bad neighborhood, that doesn’t look good.

The truth of the matter is that Google’s Penguin update took another step forward in their quest to provide quality search results.  By discounting sites designed simply for the purpose of passing authority from one site to the other, as well as non-authoritative sites, Google is focused on improving the quality of their results.

The best strategy has been, and always will be, the development of quality content for your website.  If you want to stay in Google’s good graces, think differently about your link building techniques.  Focus more on your own website and the value you can create for others.  By creating value and a positive user experience, you’ll attract links from other sites naturally and improve your rankings.

When we launched GoToMyPC in 2001, the rules of online marketing were still being written. Along with GoToMyPC, companies like Netflix, Classmates and ZoneLabs were learning from each other. Since then, the craft of advertising online has matured from an art to a science, as evidenced by the GoToMyPC ad which I dissect below.

In his book Enchantment , Guy Kawasaki encourages entrepreneurs to immerse their audience in their “cause”, in order to enchant them. One of the immersion techniques Guy promotes is to offer a hands-on trial, in which the prospective customer can touch, feel and experience your product before purchasing it.  

If you care to learn more about the enchantment process, you may want to watch my interview with Guy HERE, in which he provides a number of enchanting tips and tricks.

Characteristics Of An Effective Direct Response Trial Offer

In Chapter 5 of Enchantment, Guy identifies the following characteristics of an effective trial offer.

I tested the efficacy of Guy’s criteria by reviewing a cross section of online, direct response trial offers. In most instances, the majority of the above characteristics were present. In one particular GoToMyPC trial offer, Guy’s suggestions are coupled with a number of additional persuasion techniques. I illustrate the use of these tactics of influence below.

Guy’s Recommendations In Action