Ok, so you have a dispensary loyalty program in place and you’re pretty excited about it. You know you’re offering your loyal customers some great deals and are ready to build your budding relationships. Now what? How do you increase your signup rate and make sure that your program gets used? Here are 8 ways you can encourage your customers to sign up for your marijuana loyalty program – and to use it.

1. offer the right incentives!

When seeking new recruits for your loyalty program, you’re likely asking for some information that can seem pretty personal. From birthdays and emails to addresses and phone numbers, some customers may be reluctant to hand over their private information. So how can you help them get over that hurdle?

In addition to sharing how you’ll ensure their privacy, let your customers know about the great deals your dispensary loyalty program makes them eligible for. Give them specifics; instead of “ten percent off” make sure to let them know how much money that is off of their favorite product. This can really help your customers visualize the benefits of joining your program.

Part of offering the right incentives is crafting your program in a way that works for you and still appeals to your target demographic. We’re fans of the points-per spend rather than the points-per-visit style of loyalty program.

You’ve likely seen one of the classic loyalty program examples — the old school punch card system. Usually found at places like your local sandwich or ice cream shop, this format only really works well for places that sell similar items with only a few variations. Essentially, each visit gets you a point and a certain amount of points gets a standard reward e.g. “free cone after 5 visits.” Since everyone spends about the same to merit a point, everyone is being rewarded equally.

But that isn’t the case for marijuana loyalty programs.

A dispensary loyalty program will contain a plethora of products covering a wide price range. Therefore, a points-per-visit system won’t proportionately reward high-value customers. Allow me to illustrate: With a points-per-visit loyalty program, you may have someone come in 5 times and only buy papers and another person come in 5 times and buy an ounce each time, but they both will have earned the same 5 visit reward. It’s not very likely that the ounce buyer will continue to use your dispensary loyalty program after seeing someone who spent considerably less get the same reward.

Offering the right incentive, then, and making sure that your program fits your customer-base can help you better promote it and generate interest.

2. message them where they are

Texting is the #1 form of mobile communication in the United States today. 99% of texts are opened and 90% of them are opened within the first 3 minutes of being received. Getting your customers’ phone number, then, is vital for promoting your dispensary loyalty program.

springbig provides the ability to promote a marijuana loyalty program through short-code texting in accordance with FCC regulation and provides the delivery rate only seen with long-code texts. Since your customers have to opt-in to receive texts, you already know they want them, making it a great way to connect. Simultaneously, though, a customer’s phone number is not something to abuse with mass blast spam messages. This will probably earn you a swift blocking. With springbig, your texts campaigns can be customized, ensuring you aren’t just messaging your clientele where they are — you’re also giving them what they want.

3. personalize!

To avoid the impersonal feel of a mass text or email, create messages that send in response to specific customer behavior. For example, an after-visit thank you message or a “we miss you” message after a set time period of customer inactivity. This personal touch will make customers feel valued as individuals and not just like cogs in the machine.

4. celebrate!

Mark the date: whether you want to celebrate your customer’s birthday, your dispensary’s birthday, or another special occasion, setting up a special reward to commemorate an event is a great way to get customers in during a particular time frame. We all love getting things for our birthdays, so a nice discount or treat is a wonderful way to encourage your customers to visit.

5. daily deals

As a species, we’re pretty big fans of marking the passage of time. In fact, it seems like there’s a holiday to celebrate practically every day (National Donut Day, anyone?). Why not help your loyalty members celebrate with special deals. Who doesn’t love “Waxy Wednesday” or “Saturday Shatterday?” You can create your own customized daily deals that are only valid for your loyalty program members.

Think of it: It’s Wednesday and Greg has just gotten off work. He wants to unwind — it’s humpday, after all — when instead of hitting up the local hipster bar for the IPA of the day, he remembers it’s Waxy Wednesday at your dispensary and checks his texts for your most recent message. With springbig, you can send out a daily deal text blasts at a specific time (may I suggest happy hour?) and help encourage your loyalty members to stop on by. Switch it up and vary your deals so you always have something new to offer.

6. segmentation: know your audience

Everyone’s familiar with the trope of the bartender knowing one of their customer’s “usuals”. Well, what if you could provide an extended version of this? Instead of waiting for a customer to walk into your dispensary and spend points on their favorite product, you could be enticing them with deals on their favorite products directly on their phone.

springbig allows you to create your own segments based on recognized buying patterns. For example, if you’ve noticed a sizable group of customers interested in Cheeba Chews. You can create a mass text message to everyone in that segment informing them of an ongoing sale on their favorite product. It’s simple for you, but it makes your customers feel like you really know them and want their business. You can even segment your customers into tiers based on how much they spend and offer more rewards to your big spenders.

7. have your budtenders evangelize

In order to encourage customers to sign up, your budtenders need to be able to sell your loyalty program. For your customers, they are the face of your business. Your budtenders should be trained in all the benefits and features of your program and in how to overcome objections. springbig makes this easier by directly integrating into your POS so your budtenders can use the same tablet and system as before. Make sure they give specifics and relate their examples to each individual customer for maximum effectiveness.

8. reward, reward, reward

Sometimes the best way to promote your program is to make sure your customers are reaping the benefits. Whether you establish rewards for sending in new customers or institute special one-time-only rewards to get everyone talking, when your rewards program is good and easy to use, your customers will share it with their friends and get them on board too.

If you don’t have a dispensary loyalty program in place (or aren’t happy with your current program), what are you waiting for? springbig makes establishing and running a marijuana dispensary loyalty program easy and makes it simple for your dispensary to reap the rewards. Plus, with our dispensary SMS software, you can easily promote your awesome deals. Request a demo and try it for yourself!