Longwood Athletics partnered with SuperfanU and launched its first-ever Student Rewards Program called "Lancer Loyalty" and without any surprise it was an overwhelming success! It is important to reflect though why it was a success and hopefully share some insight as to what we will be able to improve upon in Year 2.
Longwood's Statistics: Student enrollment approx. 5,000
Year 1 "Lancer Loyalty" Membership: Over 1,400
7 Keys to a Successful Student Rewards Program: Here is what is crucial when starting a rewards program
- Launch before and actively recruit/register students during ORIENTATION especially during the Freshmen and Transfer week
Freshmen want to find ways to get involved. They are already technology-driven and by having a new app, they will be more likely to use
- Find out ways to cultivate and create positive experience for first-time users
Students want to a user-friendly app and most importantly an app that works the first time they try it. It’s crucial to make sure you have other knowledgeable staff or students around assisting with first-timers walking them through the app and answering any questions. CUSTOMER SERVICE is KEY!
- Survey your target market (students vs. community members) for rewards/prizes
Every demographic is different. Before you spend money on rewards and prizes, ASK your market what will encourage them to participate- this allows you to cultivate a relationship and future buy-in to the program.
***Even if you don’t have a huge budget, you can still buy high quality items but with little inventory making a more competitive rewards program. Some programs offer entries into a final raffle…
- Remember to Check-In
The goal is to eventually make this second nature for users, however, think creatively of how to remind users to check-in. (ex. PA-reads, Emcee reminders, A-Frames at the entrance, Text notifications, etc.)
- Facilitate Redeeming Prizes
This may be the one of the most challenging tasks. Our students earned points but had difficulty redeeming their prizes because we didn’t go to them, instead we asked them to come to us. Every school is different but, I feel that ultimately, your department will need to figure out which system works best for you.
- Looks Matter!!! Have an appealing look to your app
You want to have a sharp an appealing look to your app. If it looks thrown together, you will most likely miss out on potential users.
- The more you put in, the more you will get out!
I’m not going to lie, reward programs take work. However, I feel it all about how you manage it. Reward apps offer all these cool features for users and you can use them to your advantage to help further engage your users- it all comes down to how much you commit to your program. I promise you though, that the more you can engage your users, the higher your return will be and the retention you will create with your program.
Moving forward into Year 2, our primary focus will be to continue build upon our numbers. For our program, we will now be able to have more time to promote during orientation which will give us extra exposure to new users. We unfortunately, did not do a great job getting a lot of our users’ demographic information which will come in handy for specific-target promotions in the future. We will be sure to reward our users for filling out this information. For our users, apparel was huge for redeeming prizes, so we will plan to focus on those type of prizes. We are going to restructure our “Redemption Days” to help increase awareness and ease. Finally, we are going to look to incorporate our sponsor more. Special promotions and further branding throughout our application.
This was my first NACMA Blog post, and I hope the information is helpful for others looking to start or improve upon their Student Rewards Program in the future.
All the best and see you in Dallas!
Steve A. Robertson III
Assistant Director of Athletics Marketing
Longwood University
Tabb Hall, Room 120
434.395.4802
Longwoodlancers.com | @LongwoodLancers | @Lancer_Pants