Should a customer loyalty program come with fine print and what basically amounts to “black out dates”? You know, the program that offers you points or discounts by coming back, but you can only get those rewards on certain days. Or sometimes the rewards aren’t eligible during other promotions. Is this fair to your loyal customers? Here’s a better question - is it smart? Fe...

World-renown coffee chain, Starbucks, is launching a new loyalty program for 2010. Starbucks has struggled to maintain loyalty programs in the recent past, due to customer groups and their continued efforts to try and bend the rules to their favor. Under the new loyalty program plan it appears that many Starbucks customers will be losing a 10 percent discount but will be gaining a variety of benef...

Does your small business have a loyalty program or a rewards program? In short, these types of programs “reward” customers for being “loyal” to you by coming back and shopping repeatedly. As a company, you’re committed to keeping them happy and providing an incentive for them to come back and shop again and again. In it’s simplest form, an example of a loyalty p...

Email newsletter campaigns are a forgotten piece of marketing for many small businesses and entrepreneurs, largely because they don’t exactly know how to do them correctly and what goes into it. Here are 16 tips to help you get started with an email newsletter and how you can make sure your recipients will enjoy reading: 1) Get a good email list: It all starts with the right email list. Don&...

Do you offer coupons as an incentive for customers to buy from you? Especially in a down economy, coupons can be an excellent tool in any loyalty program or rewards program for a small business or entrepreneur. The important question you should be asking is how are your customers receiving those coupons from you? More research is coming to light that indicates HOW you deliver coupons to your custo...

During this recession, the most important thing you must do is protect your existing customers. Small business has plenty of obstacles to deal with, such as staying on good terms with your bank, finding new customers, having to cut staff (but hopefully not) and, of course, healthcare issues. But your existing customers are yours. You must protect them at all cost, if necessary. That’s why cu...