Non-transactional behavior rewards increasingly appealing to consumers [INFOGRAPHIC]

Loyalty marketing specialist Colloquy has revealed that more consumers are seeking loyalty rewards for non-transactional behaviors. Rather than simply being rewarded for buying something, consumers want to be rewarded for different behaviors. These sorts of elements have gained immense traction, from deals such as extra points for sharing on social media to points for being a particular type of customer - say for subscribing to a newsletter or meeting certain ongoing threshold requirements for specific behaviors. While the data below focuses on the broader retail landscape, there are many ways that travel brands can use loyalty programs to incentivize particular behaviors: for example, airlines could begin to use mileage incentives as another means to manage load factors. By incentivizing a traveler to choose one flight over another, or via an alternative routing that is less popular at that particular moment, the airlines could alter consumer behavior in their favor. Especially given the fact that loyalty programs have been proven to induce some irrationality in certain consumers, these additional points might bring far more benefit to the companies as an evolutionary demand-management tool.

Here are the four tips that the specialist give to brands of any size seeking to target non-transactional behavior to boost loyalty program results:

1. Read and react: "Non-transactional data provides marketers with a wealth of information about their customers and what they do outside the brand. It's critical to analyze that data and to tweak loyalty programs to modify customer's behaviors."
2. Make the benefits matter: "Program benefits and rewards should be relevant and aspirational...devise rewards that will capture the consumer's imagination, increase engagement and lead to loyalty."
3. Use data to improve relationships: "By farming data to know what is important to program members, marketers can craft more meaningful experiences and communications that will show the customers the company cares."
4. Tap into the latest technology: "Gathering data is possible in so many different ways today. Marketers should continually strive to explore new methods and practices, learning about their customers by using the technology of tomorrow today."

More on the topic of loyalty marketing via multi-motivators can be found here. NB: Digital behavior image courtesy Shutterstock.