As the lady of the house, I have to also make sure there’s food in it without going broke. Like most women, I rely on sales and coupons. On recommendation several months ago, I joined a ‘community’ created by the marketing division of a large consumer goods company. Little did I know then how much they would teach me about marketing.

Image by Julia Freeman-Woolpert

A little background information. I joined the site just for the opportunity to get coupons and special offers. The site has forums, feedback area, polls, articles. I had no plans to participate on the site nor read any articles or emails. Yes, I am a free loader. Don’t judge me too harshly yet 🙂 read on.

A few months after joining this free community, an email arrived that said something to the effect that they have not seen me ‘around’ the site, politely asking if I was still interested. If not, do nothing and my account will be removed. If I was still interested, then open the emails, come to the site, participate. The email mentioned something that got my attention 200%. They reward those who are most active. The more participation, the more goodies the member can expect to receive. WOW!

Maybe I was searching for ways to stimulate a ‘lazy’ membership site around that time but that email was a revelation. Reward your active members, get inactive members to act by letting them know the more they do, the more they will be rewarded. Did it work?

Yes. I’ve since been a lot more active. I open every single one of their emails now and make it a point to visit the site once a week. I’ve even commented on articles, discussions, provided feedback and completed polls. Because of them, I’ve also resolved to look for ways to reward my active readers/commenters/newsletter subscribers, customers etc too. There are some caveats, although they did well covering those in my opinion.

1. Whatever the reward is, it must be of high value whether perceived or real. Something that the member would do anything (legal and not harmful of course) to get. In my case, 10 pieces of $1 or $1.50 off coupons mailed to me is very valuable. In a way you must make them feel like your resource is like the goose that lays golden eggs.
2. They don’t tell me exactly what I will receive or when. I think this depends on how you work it. If you are going to do this regularly then maybe not mentioning it is a good thing to keep people on their toes. A little bit of mystery also keeps the anticipation high. But if you want to keep them in the dark, see #1, the reward must be good!

My next thought, being the techie I am turned to, how? How do I know who to reward? How do I track these people? Ah! For that we need technology. Some simple, some not. Naturally, start with the simplest. I’ll followup with another post with one of the first ways I tried, plus a small script. If you aren’t signed up to my newsletter (see top right corner of this page), do so now to get notified of the post and download.