What’s in this article:
- e.l.f. launched its beauty squad program to see the digital journey toward purchase made by its customers who purchase through channels that are not under its control
- The beauty brand has gained more than 2.5 million members over the years that the loyalty program has been in place
- Companies that reach out to inspire and reward loyalty in their customers are rewarded with information and insight
With more consumer protection laws coming into play in the wake of CCPA and a cookie-less future on the horizon, loyalty programs may be the key to getting customers to willingly share the data needed to achieve personalization.
The more you know about your customer, the more you can personalize your marketing. But you also have to be on the right side of privacy laws. That’s where loyalty programs can help.
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Beauty brands whose products are often sold through other retailers have an extra challenge in connecting with their customers. While e.l.f. does sell directly to customers through its site, it also sells through major retailers like Walmart, Target, CVS, and Amazon.
Though e.l.f doesn’t get to see the digital journey toward purchase made by its customers who purchase through channels that are not under its control, it can connect with them through loyalty programs. That’s why e.l.f. launched its beauty squad program back in 2016.
Customers are given several incentives to join and keep the company in the loop about their purchases. They earn points for every purchase and can scan in their receipt as proof of purchases made at stores, which lets the company not only know what they’re buying but where they’re buying it.
To motivate you to sign up, you’re offered 25 bonus points and a surprise birthday gift. Then you can see your account status and how many points you will need to qualify for particular rewards. I put in my own information to see how it plays out.
Glossy reports that the beauty brand has gained more than 2.5 million members over the years that the loyalty program has been in place. The information gleaned from it “helps expand the brand’s SMS text message marketing, personalize product recommendations on its DTC eCommerce and form the bedrock of its lookalike audiences.”
Ekta Chopra, e.l.f. Beauty Chief Digital Officer, told Glossy that brands should have been preparing a privacy-compliant strategy since GDPR and CCPA went into effect: “If brands don’t have a CRM strategy or an approach on how to build their first-party data, they’re going to have a lot of challenges navigating these [internet privacy] changes.”
The strategy for e.l.f, as described by Glossy, is to reduce “reliance on third-party cookies” and aspire to create a “media-style platform native to its eCommerce to more directly engage with customers and therefore create its own continuous data ecosystem.”
Tracking those digital breadcrumbs that customers leave on their journey to purchase is getting more challenging. But companies that reach out to inspire and reward loyalty in their customers are rewarded with information and insight.
That is not to say that marketing will all be in-house. As Chopra pointed out e.l.f. will keep up its advertising presence on Facebook and Instagram. The brand has also made excellent use of TikTok challenges, as we saw in Don’t Make Ads: Make Engaging Entertainment.