30 Use Cases for Using Incentives Across Your Entire Customer Lifecycle

In September, we gave you a primer on great ways to drive customer advocacy through incentives. We covered some essential points on incentives, reminded you to avoid bribery at all costs, and started you off with some ideas. 

We’re back again because since then, we’ve been letting more ideas percolate, and we have come up with more ways to use incentives across your buyer’s entire customer lifecycle.

Let’s jump into the 30 use cases—10 for each stage: attract, engage, and delight—we’ve dreamed up to wow your leads throughout their entire journey. 

Attract: Lead Generation Incentive Ideas

Offer a small-value gift card or subscription if:

1. A potential customer books a meeting with your team.
2. A customer books time at a conference.
3. A customer gives you a referral, and the referral takes some action toward becoming a customer.
4. A customer completes a research survey.
5. A customer registers for a webinar. 

You want to avoid becoming known as the company or brand that constantly gives away freebies. People are just going to be hanging around waiting for that next offer or gift rather than feeling truly appreciated and completely surprised by it Of the first few incentives on our list, try using one, or at most, two. Otherwise, you run the risk of turning your well-intentioned incentives into bribes for your customers to take the next step. Consider using BHN Rewards (formerly Rybbon) to provide rewards digitally.

Give away items at conferences.

6. Gift attendees with a swag bag that includes items such as a company T-shirt or coaster at a conference booth.

7. Offer a VIP gift at a conference. Promote the gift ahead of your event as an incentive for a customer to take action, such as registering or—even better—upgrading their registration.

Use gifts to welcome and thank clients.

8. Give new clients a warm welcome. Send them a gift card or welcome package once they are at least partially signed on as clients. Design the incentive to make them feel appreciated as customers.

9. Incentivize product survey responses. Send something as simple as a $10 gift card as a thank-you to customers for filling out a product survey. They will be attracted to take the next step, and it’s not bribery because the gift card’s value is small.

Utilize social media with its ever-growing power for lead generation, especially among younger clients. 

Avoid using these incentives en masse. Instead, when you sense a hot opportunity to attract your customer to take an action, choose one incentive to employ to make them feel welcome and appreciated.

Engage: Conversion Incentive Ideas

Offer rewards to qualified leads who have taken action.

Revive near-miss opportunities.

13. Sometimes, you can have a near miss. Maybe you have an awesome discovery call, and that lead went into the sales-accepted stage, but they kind of fell off the radar and didn’t necessarily convert, or they selected a competitor. Wait for a time, then revive the seemingly lost opportunity to convert by offering something cute.

A good example is a pair of high-quality shoelaces that will work with any shoe, along with a cute note inviting them to “coming running back” to your company. Six months after the near miss is a good time to use this incentive idea. 

Engage with potential customers.

14. Invite target accounts to an industry-related happy hour function. Make it a “punny” experience by coming up with a non-cheesy pun theme. Some ideas include a party featuring donuts. Your messaging might say, “Do-Nut Let Your Strategies Slip Another Month.” Or host a happy hour event with messaging that says, “Let the Good Strategies be-Gin.” 

Nurture relationships with existing customers.

Attract leads with freebies and experiences.

18. Offer them a free e-book or other valuable inbound content that makes them more knowledgeable about the product or service and want to buy or use it. If you end up converting them with this simple incentive, offer another if they sign up, such as a small-value gift card.

19. Offer bundled services to make converting more attractive to your leads. People tend to choose bundled products and services because, when done right, it truly saves money and—even more valuable—time and effort for them.

20. Use the good ol’ barter system. Offer a small portion of your services or a partial product and send it with a note that if the customer agrees to take advantage of the full product, you will send them a set of free business cards or something relevant to their company. You could offer signage to a real estate company, for example.

Delight: Customer Happiness/Advocacy Incentive Ideas

Acknowledge major milestones.

21. Use milestones to make your incentives even less like a bribe and more like a reward. For the six-month anniversary (or whatever date makes sense) of them being a client, send a small-value gift card or certificate to the customer’s favorite store, if you know it. 

22. For significant milestones, up your incentive game. Send a gift not just to the account manager but perhaps to the entire team. We’ve shipped customer teams cupcakes in jars to help them celebrate significant milestones such as one year as a customer.

23. Use another milestone if your customer sticks around—and why wouldn't they?. After two years as a client, offer a gift they could share. For example, you could throw a prepaid group lunch party to celebrate a significant milestone.

Give customers recognition throughout your relationship.

25. To delight your new client, send them a small-value gift card or quality gift such as flowers in a vase for signing on as a new customer. 

26. Send out a birthday card and maybe a small-value gift card to a party store to help them plan their perfect birthday party. Birthdays are an excellent opportunity to make someone feel special and appreciated as a client. 

27. Send customers an email telling them if they leave a review on a major public review site your company is listed on, they’ll receive a small-value gift card. Once they are your customer, they’re sure to be delighted by your product and services. Why not utilize incentives and their delight to increase business and make everybody happy? 

28. Capitalize on the very definition of the word incentive by offering a free small-value gift card or other gift if your current customer refers a client to your company. Be sure to tell them they will only receive the incentive if the referral makes it to a certain point in the process.

Never Forget the Value of Customer Incentives to Attract, Engage, and Delight!

We worked hard to develop these 30 use cases for customer incentives because there is no “loser” here. Even for customers who didn’t convert, you always have an opportunity to show them they are still valued and appreciated with a small incentive. Ideally, they will decide to convert after all. 

Don’t offer too many incentives, don’t be pushy, and avoid even the appearance of bribery. 

You are limited only by the stretches of your imagination. BHN Rewards can send digital rewards to recipients around the world.

Here are some more great things to consider when choosing digital reward providers for your incentive ideas.

What other gift incentive questions do you have on your mind? Email us at marketing@smartbugmedia.com or tweet us @SmartBugMedia.