When it comes to the success of an online incentive program, communication is key. It may seem like a no-brainer: send out some emails, make a few announcements… how hard can it be? But many companies neglect to utilize participant data to its fullest potential in communication incentive strategies. Using a data-driven approach to formulate your communication strategy with program participants is the key to an effective, active incentive program and—most importantly—increased ROI. Research, research, research Take a close look at your participant data: it could be that results are underwhelming because your communication approach isn’t appealing to their demographic. For example, a recent study found that 60% of millennials would prefer to communicate with businesses via two-way texting, as opposed to traditional phone calls and emails. As millennials enter the global workforce in ever-increasing numbers, it’s important to keep their preferences in mind when developing communications strategies. Use the information at your disposal When starting up an incentive program, it’s common practice to ask participants for basic information during the sign-up phase like their age, birthday, location, and preferred methods of contact. If you’re currently running an incentive program, chances are good that you already have all of this information on hand. Use it! Those details can be used to send out personalized communications to your participants that will make them take notice and appeal to their sensibilities. Measure your data Once you have your incentive program off the ground, it’s important to remember to keep track of your communications data. Use it as a metric for the health of your communications initiative. A good incentive program provider will equip you with the tools you need to accomplish this: things like message delivery rates, open-and-click statistics, and corresponding participant activity. Use this vital information to tweak your incentive program communication to ensure a higher ROI.

1. EARN HIGHER ROI WITH A
DATA-DRIVEN INCENTIVE
STRATEGY

2. One of the essential techniques for getting maximum thrust out of an incentive plan
is pairing online incentive technology with a data-driven implementation and
measurement strategy. How do you do that? By knowing what data to look at,
where to find it and how to interpret it as key performance indicators (KPIs). Here
are the best practices we recommend for improving your incentive strategy using
data.

3. #1 Set strategic goals for your incentive plan.
Data-driven goals are the lynchpin of a data-driven incentive strategy. If you work
with specific goals in the very beginning and those goals are informed by specific
data, you’ll have a much clearer picture of the impact your incentive plan is making
on your business.
You want to increase
inspection and aftermarket
services to both increase
margin and head off issues
with clogged coils in your
brand’s air conditioners.
You look at sales data to
determine fewer customers
have been signing up for
inspection and aftermarket
services over the last few
sales quarters.
From this data-driven
approach, you may decide
on a sales incentive
program goal such as
“increase inspection sign-
ups by 20% in six months.”
Lets say that…

4. #1 Set strategic goals for your incentive plan cont.
Strategic incentives goals should have some context backing them
up. You should have the answers to questions such as:
You should gather enough benchmark data for an ROI projection. The best
source of incentive program benchmark and ROI data is the incentive
company you partner with.
What’s the average return on
investment (ROI) for incentive
programs with similar goals?
What incentive program
results do companies similar
to yours experience?

5. #2 Track enrollment and participation in your
incentive program.
Once your incentive program is underway, you’ll want to get very familiar with the activity levels of who
sign up to the program, i.e. the participants. Pay close attention to how many participants fall into each of
these four groups:
1. Invited but not signed up
2. Registered
3. Registered but inactive
4. Registered and active/engaged
Numbers in the registered groups will, of course,
grow over time, but you may notice issues shifting
them into more engaged statuses. If the data shows
a high percentage of participants in the “invited but
not signed up” group long after the program’s
launch, it’s time to kick off a marketing campaign to
remind those participants to register.

6. #3 Track rewards redemption rates.
Participants of online incentive programs earn digital points that they
can spend in the program’s online rewards catalog. It’s important to
track redemption rate data because it tells you two things:
How much you’ll be
spending on rewards cost, if
you’re using a billing model
that lets you pay for reward
points as they’re redeemed.
How much value
your participants see in
your incentive program.
1 2

7. #3 Track rewards redemption rates cont.
• Redemption rates won’t skyrocket right off the bat.
It takes time for participants to get familiar with the
program, bankroll points and spend them.
• If your redemption rate falls below these
benchmarks, you might consider adjusting your
payout structure or enacting points expiration rules
to encourage redemption. Looking at redemption
rate data regularly will help show you when and
where you need to tweak your incentive strategy.

8. #4 Research strategic incentives
communication and measure its effectiveness.
• Clear, compelling communication is essential to
strategic incentives that earn ROI. To get the right calls
to action to your participants in the right way, do a little
digging into what makes your particular participant
audience tick.
• What influence does their demographic have over their
communication habits? For example, research shows
60% of Millennials prefer to communicate with
companies through two-way texting.
• Even better than grouping your participants into broad
generational categories, treat them like individuals and
ask them how they want to be reached. The best way to
capture this information is to include a field for it on
your incentive program enrollment form.

9. #4 Research strategic incentives communication
and measure its effectiveness cont.
Study activity and behavior data from
your incentive program reports to
determine what kind of messages you
should send.
• For ex: Many companies see high
reward points redemption rate during
the holidays. If your reward
redemption reflects this trend, onsider
a redemption stimulation campaign
during other gift-giving occasions, like
Valentine’s Day.
Measure communication interactions to
maximize messages’ effectiveness. Use
communication tools to study your
messages’ delivery, open and click rates.
• For ex: If messages about online point
balances get higher open rates than
messages about program updates,
place important updates on the
incentive program website when you
send point balance reminders, as
participants are more likely to visit the
site at that time.

10. #5 Track sales performances and results.
You should closely monitor all results and performances
within your incentive program. When you’re running a
sales incentive or B2B loyalty program, for instance,
take advantage of online incentive sales tracking
technology to enable capabilities such as:
• scheduling multiple sales promotions at the same
time
• invoice uploading for faster sales claim
authentication
• the ability to segment regions, distributors, sales
teams or departments into different groups to target
them with specialized promotions
When you track results, make sure you’re
tracking not just one time frame vs.
another, but comparing participants’
performance vs. non-participants’
performances. Comparing both sets of
data could reveal that the incentive
program still boosted performance, even
if overall sales or revenue was down.

11. Compile customer data from incentive program
enrollment forms and profiles participants fill out,
as well as invoices and other sales claims
documentation submitted to the program. You can
use incentive technology to integrate your incentive
program with your CRM system to facilitate back-
and-forth customer data exchange, streamlining
information and creating a more rounded picture of
your customer base.
#6 Gain more customer data and utilize it effectively.
Customer and sales incentive programs lead to larger or more diversified purchases. Adding this
information to your customer database can greatly improve your sales and marketing strategies.

12. With today’s online incentive
technology and tools, businesses
can power their incentive
strategies with ample sources of
data. You can use this data to tell
the story of your incentive
strategy, how and why it works
and how this story aligns with
your overarching company,
business, marketing or sales goals.