Direct Marketing: Finding Loyalty in the Cloud

Direct Marketing's latest issue published an article titled, Finding Loyalty in a Cloud. The article was coauthored by Brad Ball co-founder of LoyaltyMatch and provides insight into loyalty program SaaS software.

From the article:

Software-as-a-Service tools mean companies don’t have to be big to have a loyalty program

There was a time when marketers focused on new products and new markets to find customers. Once the customers flocked to them retention became the goal and the challenge. For many large companies a loyalty program became the primary tool in building customer loyalty. The “not so large” did not have that option. Now size really doesn’t matter because Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) loyalty program platforms allow small and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to reward customers using their own loyalty programs.

The advent of Software-as-a-Service and Cloud Computing has revolu­tionized the software industry by providing businesses of all sizes access to enterprise-grade software and services. SaaS and cloud environments are characterized by web-based delivery, multi-tenancy and centralized management and updates. They provide a new approach that is unlike that of traditional software. As a result, new infrastructure and supporting services, such as on-demand loyalty programs, are available to everyone.  

When choosing a loyalty program software platform businesses should take a strategic, long-term view and avoid short-term decisions that could result in an ongoing drain of valuable IT resources and exponential costs to the organization. It is equally critical that busi­nesses consider the need for scalability, in terms of the growth of the loyalty program member base and the expansion of other business functions.

Download: the article from Direct Marketing January issue (7mb)

Killer Startups: RewardingYourself.com powered by LoyaltyMatch OnDemand

Letting you get the most out of your loyalty programs is the goal of RewardingYourself, a web and mobile service for knowing which reward items you're entitled to. RewardingYourself is compatible with thousands of loyalty programs, and the whole world is already covered. It's all indexed on a database you can search without even having to register for an account first. And when you're ready to sign up for an account, then you'll be able to get one at no cost. Registration to RewardingYourself.com is free, and once your account has been activated you'll be able to start interacting with all the people who use the site to the full.

And the RewardingYourself.com database can even be searched by people who don't belong to any loyalty program. In fact, one of the main uses of the site is letting you know what each loyalty program's got to offer well before signing up for it.

Still, I think the most interesting aspect of this service is how it lets you compare the items offered by your loyalty program against retail items, and realize whether it's best to use your points to get what you want or use your own cash to buy it. Keep in mind, though, that this comparison feature is available only to those who have signed up for a RewardingYourself account first.

Source: KillerStartups

RewardingYourself Comparison Shopping App Asks Will That Be Points or Cash?

Free mobile app and web site lets shoppers compare cost of cash prices versus loyalty program currency

Kitchener, Ont. – November 16, 2011 – Loyalty and engagement computing leader LoyaltyMatch Inc. today launched RewardingYourself, a mobile app to help shoppers find the best deals when making in store, local, online or loyalty program purchases.

The RewardingYourself mobile app allows shoppers to compare local, online and loyalty program prices then decide whether to use cash or loyalty program points to make the purchase. The app is free now at the Android Market and Blackberry App World.  It will be available at the Apple App store later this month. A web app is also available at RewardingYourself.com. Shoppers who are not members of a loyalty program will still find the app essential for comparing cash prices.

RewardingYourself compares more than three million products from more than 50,000 stores and hundreds of loyalty programs and is powered by the LoyaltyMatch OnDemand social loyalty Software as a Service (SaaS) gamification solution and a patent pending virtual and real currency comparison engine.

RewardingYourself will introduce new social features in time for the “Black Friday” kick-off to the holiday shopping season including integration with the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) social platform. This will allow the 40 million BBM users worldwide to initiate peer-to-peer shopping with other BBM users, invite friends to join the program or download the RewardingYourself app and post personal messages to all their friends describing their shopping  and rewards experience.

“It is estimated that approximately $16 billion dollars in rewards points go unused each year in the United States,” said Brad Ball, president and ceo, LoyaltyMatch Inc.  “Globally, four billion loyalty members have more than 30 trillion points, which aren’t being used. We launched LoyaltyMatch.com to help loyalty program members get the most out of their points and miles. Since the beginning our members having been telling us that what they want is a tool to help them compare prices and points. The RewardingYourself shopping app is that tool and all of existing LoyaltyMatch.com members from over 100 countries have been automatically enrolled in RewardingYourself,” he added.

About LoyaltyMatch Inc. 

LoyaltyMatch Inc. is the loyalty and engagement computing company with a product portfolio that includes LoyaltyMatch OnDemand with Social Loyalty and RewardingYourself.com LoyaltyMatch OnDemand (www.loyaltymatchondemand.com) provides a cloud-based loyalty management and gamification platform with social loyalty engagement (www.social-loyalty.com). RewardingYourself (www.rewardingyourself.com). is the first comparison shopping app for loyalty program rewards. Together they offer the fastest path to the development and delivery of loyalty and engagement initiatives and have revolutionized the way businesses manage customer value. LoyaltyMatch Inc. is based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

LoyaltyMatch Social Loyalty Gamification Platform Selected For Intuit Entrepreneur Day

Canadian company to demonstrate its innovative social loyalty Software as a Service gamification platform

Kitchener, Ont. – September 29, 2011 -- LoyaltyMatch Inc. announced today that following a rigorous review process it has been selected to present its LoyaltyMatch OnDemand™ social loyalty Software as a Service (SaaS) gamification solution at the third annual Intuit Entrepreneur Day being held at Intuit headquarters in Mountain View, CA, on October 6, 2011.

LoyaltyMatch OnDemand is the first SaaS solution focused on enabling small and medium companies to gamify and integrate Facebook, Twitter and other social loyalty streams, web activities including reviews, comments or referring a friend, or mobile checkins or purchases, with offline activities including purchases or attending an event. OnDemand allows companies to collect and update a consumer’s actions in real time providing marketing teams and SMEs with the tools and data needed to provide their customers with options that could influence what they buy.

"We are thrilled to be invited to this prestigious event. It’s a exciting opportunity for us to meet with Intuit leaders to show them what our product, our technology, can do for their customers,” said Brad Ball, president and ceo, LoyaltyMatch Inc.  “Attending this event and gaining access to Intuit’s millions of customers would be a pivotal step in our growth as a company,” he added. “We see Intuit Anywhere, the latest option for developers to connect their apps to the Intuit Partner Platform, as another opportunity to add value for Intuits and our customers. At LoyaltyMatch we are now beta testing the offering with the LoyaltyMatch OnDemand platform.”  

According to data released by M2 Research, the gamification market currently is worth approximately $100 million and is expected to reach nearly $2.8 billion by 2016.

Legends Resort Tahiti launches Smiles with LoyaltyMatch OnDemand

Legends Resort Moorea is a magnificent individual villa Hotel property that spreads across 17 acres of land on the island of Moorea, Tahiti. Set in a majestic landscape, surrounded by tropical fruit trees, the property offers breathtaking views of both the multi-colored lagoon waters and the deep blue Pacific ocean. Legends’ Smiles loyalty program was transitioned from a paper based process to an automated solution with LoyaltyMatch OnDemand.

LoyaltyMatch Inc. OnDemand Launches New Social Loyalty Features to Integrate Online and Offline Consumer Actions

LoyaltyMatch OnDemand SaaS platform unifies web, mobile, social media and purchase activities allowing a better, more complete experience for potential and loyal customers

Kitchener, Ont. – September 21, 2011 -- LoyaltyMatch Inc. has introduced the newest version of its OnDemand loyalty program Software as a Service (SaaS) platform enabling the full integration of online and offline consumer presence including social media, mobile, web and purchase data. The Man Shops, the Spokane, WA, based men’s haircutting chain, is the first to use the updated platform (www.themanshops.com).

LoyaltyMatch OnDemand enables companies to integrate Facebook, Twitter and other social loyalty streams, web activities including reviews, comments or referring a friend, or mobile checkins or purchases, with offline activities including purchases or attending an event. OnDemand allows companies to collect and update a consumer’s actions in real time providing marketing teams with the tools and data to provide their customers with options that could influence their purchases.

“We launched LoyaltyMatch OnDemand with Social Loyalty last year to provide companies wanting a SaaS loyalty program solution to have all the features they want at a reasonable, scalable cost,” said Brad Ball, president and ceo, LoyaltyMatch Inc. "A loyalty program on its own isn’t enough anymore. It has to leverage all the social aspects that consumers expect, while allowing companies to collect actionable data. Ultimately, our loyalty and engagement platform is about getting companies closer to consumers. That’s what OnDemand allows them to do."  

Mike Howe, managing member at The Man Shops, added, "Our customers tend to be young and social loyalty savvy. We knew right away that LoyaltyMatch OnDemand would give us the features we wanted and make it easy for us to maintain our program without having to spend a lot to integrate different data sources and handle its administration.”

LoyaltyMatch OnDemand helps companies of all sizes motivate their customers with incentives given through online and offline activities, while providing the marketing tools to increase engagement and lift revenue. OnDemand can be deployed as a standalone solution or integrated with existing social, web, mobile, e- and m-commerce, or POS systems.

Gowalla pivots. States check-ins now a commodity!

Reborn as a Travel and Story Telling App.

The location wars had a number of casualties. Some companies shut down, some sold off their remaining tech and talent. Others are still out there plugging away, but at this point, it seems clear that Foursquare won the all-important battle over the check-in. Even Facebook is slowly backing away from that particular space. Now the fun can really begin.

Source: TechCrunch