The loyalty perks email: remind people what they already have
Most loyalty programmes are built once and never mentioned again. The benefits sit unclaimed, which is a campaign waiting to be sent.
A loyalty programme nobody remembers joining is a cost with nothing coming back. The perks email is the cheapest campaign in this set, because everything it promotes has already been paid for and is sitting in an account somebody has forgotten they have.
Everything here has already been paid for
Points nobody has spent. A tier somebody reached and never used. Free delivery a customer forgot they qualify for, an extended returns window nobody knows about. All of it is a liability on the balance sheet and a reason to email on the calendar.
None of it costs you anything new. Nothing at all. That's the difference between this and a discount: the margin went when the programme was designed, and the only question left is whether it produces an order or expires quietly.
- Points expiring inside a set window, which is an honest deadline instead of a manufactured one
- A tier threshold the customer is close to reaching
- A benefit at their current tier they've never used once
- A perk you introduced after they joined, so they've no way of knowing it exists
Say what it's worth in the customer's terms
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| You have points available | What those points will actually get them |
| Gold members receive priority dispatch | Your orders leave before everybody else's |
| Exclusive member benefits | The three things you can do that others cannot |
Keep the balance out of the subject line. A number there invites a straight comparison with a discount code. What the points will get is the better frame, and it points at a product instead of at a figure.
The perk that costs nothing and performs best
Access is the strongest non-monetary perk you've got. Letting a tier see a launch, a restock or a sale a few days early costs you nothing in margin and gives the member something a code never can: standing.
It's also your answer when somebody asks for a discount you'd rather not give. Early access to the next drop is a real thing to offer, and it doesn't train your list to sit and wait for a price cut.
Send it in the gaps, not alongside a promotion
A perks email sent during a sale is invisible, because everything it offers is worth less than the promotion running next to it. Its slot is the quiet weeks. It's one of the few campaigns that reliably makes money there.
It's also the right answer to a flat month, in place of the reflex discount. That argument is set out in full in the post on alternatives to discounting, and the loyalty audit there is where most brands find the campaign already built.
A programme nobody emails about is a programme nobody uses
Put a standing slot in the calendar, quarterly at least. Programmes decay quietly: benefits stop getting mentioned, staff forget the rules, and in the end the only people using it are the ones who joined in the first month.
Where the programme sits next to subscriptions, plan the two together instead of handing them to different people. That's most of what subscriptions and loyalty work is, day to day.
Find out how much is sitting unclaimed
Ask whoever runs the programme for two numbers: how many members have never redeemed anything, and how many are within reach of the next tier. Both are bigger than anybody expects. Both are segments you can email this week.
Then check when the programme was last mentioned in a campaign. If the answer is more than a quarter ago, that's the send to build first, and it'll outperform the discount everybody was about to reach for.
Theo Tziapouras
Founder and strategy at Engage Commerce, the ecommerce agency for 7 and 8 figure DTC brands.
FAQs
What if our loyalty programme is small or basic?
Even one benefit is worth an email if customers don't know about it. Free returns, a longer warranty for registered customers, priority stock access: all of it qualifies, and none of it needs a points engine sitting behind it.
Should we state the points balance in the email?
Show it, but lead with what it'll get them. A balance on its own invites the reader to weigh it against a discount code. What it will buy points at a product and produces a decision instead of an assessment.
Is expiring points pressure the same as fake urgency?
No, as long as the expiry is real and was part of the programme when they joined. Fake urgency invents a deadline. An expiry date that already exists is information the customer wants, and most will thank you for it.
How often should we run a perks campaign?
Quarterly at minimum, and in any month where the alternative is a discount nobody planned. It works well right after a customer's second order too, when they're most likely to be close to a threshold they didn't know about.
Promote what they already own
The loyalty perks email is the highest margin campaign you've got, because everything in it was paid for the day the programme was designed. Remind people what they hold, translate the programme's language into what they actually get, lead with access instead of money, and put it in the quiet weeks where it has no competition. Run it quarterly and the programme stops being a cost.
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