5 Loyalty Program Email Examples to Use in Your Campaigns

When you send reward program emails to loyalty customers, you engage with them on a personal level. From personalized titles to special offerings unique to each guest’s buying patterns, you remind customers why they return to your restaurant again and again. 

A successful loyalty email campaign leverages real-time customer data. This article outlines email examples, valuable insights into successful emails, and actionable steps for leveraging loyalty program emails to reach your goals. Use these insights to make decisions that boost customer loyalty, revenue, and brand awareness.

Why Loyalty Program Emails Matter 

Customer loyalty program emails keep your restaurant at the forefront of your guests’ minds. A well-executed email program keeps customers engaged with your business.

It’s where you can spotlight member-only early access to new menu items or exclusive rewards. Email is a channel to ensure your loyal customers continue finding it worthwhile to keep coming back to your restaurant.  

According to our 2024 Loyalty Trends Report, more than 80% of campaigns leverage email to engage customers. Emails provide a direct mode of communication with guests, keeping them updated on your latest loyalty card program offerings. A Deloitte survey found that 68% of respondents found it helpful to receive an alert when sales, deals, or special events happen.  

Emails remain the ideal avenue for one-on-one engagement with customers—especially for buying decisions. Use this to your competitive advantage by ensuring each email contains the necessary components.  

5 Key Components of Successful Loyalty Emails 

Your customer’s inbox is flooded with emails every day. For it to make an impact, yours must immediately stand out. These are the five essentials of a successful B2C loyalty email:

1. Use clear and concise statements to capture your offerings. Include a title that expresses your offer and draws in the customer. The email copy should be easy to read and avoid using generic marketing language.
2. Leverage personalized language. Modern guests desire as unique a restaurant experience as possible. Customized emails and rewards foster a one-of-a-kind interaction.
3. Send emails at the right time and cadence. Find a balance between sending too many and too few. Additionally, data can help determine what time of day your loyalty members are most likely to engage with emails. 
4. Add an incentive to each email. Conclude the email with a call-to-action (CTA) that will encourage customers to take another step, further engaging with your brand. 
5. Have a goal in mind for each email campaign. Your email’s goal informs its content, CTA, tone, and how it interacts with other marketing campaigns and channels. 

Even if your customers don’t take advantage of the rewards in each email, they still interact with your brand by opening it. They know sending deals and exclusive perks is a regular loyalty program feature within your business.  

The more compelling and valuable your email offer, the likelier the guest will remember it as a positive interaction. Your customers will quickly see you put genuine effort into effective loyalty program design. 

5 Examples of Effective Loyalty Program Emails 

Use these five successful loyalty program email examples to inspire and guide your restaurant’s initiatives:

1. Welcome email: Upon receipt of a Dunkin’ Rewards loyalty program launch email, new members immediately see how their dollars translate to earn rewards points, their options for using those points, and how they can unlock even more. The welcome email starts by outlining the benefits before briefly touching on what a customer could receive with ongoing loyalty. It also showcases how customers can use the loyalty app. 

2. Reward milestone email: Starbucks Rewards sends milestone emails to its loyalty program members whenever the customer reaches a new stage in their loyalty customer journey. The email ends with a CTA encouraging customers to earn points and strive for the next milestone.

3. Special offers email: Noodles & Company started a new month by offering loyalty program members unique deals on regular menu items. The email broke down the deals on a per-week basis. By using a simple color palette and fonts, the email easily guides customers’ eyes through the deals. 

4. Birthday or anniversary email: To celebrate a customer’s birthday, Dutch Bros sends an email offering a free drink. The emails often include fun and on-brand graphics, such as a Dutch Bros beverage decorated like a birthday cake. At the bottom of the email, Dutch Bros includes the loyalty member’s current points balance.

5. Customer feedback request email: Dairy Queen sent a feedback request email to their customers that kept the message simple. Language such as “your opinion matters” or a CTA like “share your thoughts” makes customers feel valued. The email also included how long it would take for the customer to fill out the survey.

6 Tips for Crafting Your Loyalty Emails 

In addition to the five key components of a successful loyalty email, there are six data-driven strategies to use when designing your loyalty program emails: 

1. Personalize each email by using the customer’s name. Begin the email by greeting the customer by name in the subject line. Doing so can help them feel valued as a customer.
2. Show your appreciation for the customer’s repeat business. Thank your loyal customers openly for their repeat business. Additionally, incorporate exclusive deals into the email that are just for them.
3. Ensure the writing is short and sweet. To ensure a customer reads the email, make the writing catchy, short, and easy to read. Most loyal customers will appreciate you being conscious of their valuable time. 
4. Consistently send emails, but don’t overwhelm an inbox. Determine the best time to send emails so you strike a balance between sending enough emails to generate awareness and not so much that customers unsubscribe. 
5. Experiment with different styles, language, and tone. Get creative with how you use on-brand graphics, fonts, and colors. Analytics will help determine which resonates with customers and how you should capitalize on it in the future.
6. Remind customers why they chose your loyalty program. Offer unique rewards for customer milestones, send appreciation emails, or document impactful ways you use the program earnings, such as donation matching.

One helpful technique for discovering the style of email your guests like best is A/B testing. Send two emails that differ in format and content yet advertise the same reward.  

Next, compare the engagement rate of both emails to determine which style resonated with subscribers most. The results of A/B testing allow you to improve email analytics and decide how loyalty emails fit within your broader marketing strategy.

Integrating Loyalty Emails with Broader Marketing Strategies 

A successful loyalty program email campaign is an impactful component of your overall marketing strategy. Your emails should also interact with other marketing channels like social media and your loyalty app.  

You can even use different platforms to cross-promote loyalty program sign-ups or rewards. Here are four ways you can work emails into your broader loyalty marketing strategy that are consistent with your brand and customer experience: 

1. Use email marketing as one step of the customer journey. Emails move potential customers deeper into the marketing funnel, so they’re closer to signing up for loyalty programs and becoming authentic brand advocates.  
2. Apply customer segmentation data to send personalized offerings. Metrics from all marketing channels tell you guests’ buying habits, demographics, and preferences. Use the data to send customized emails to guests within each segment. 
3. Create personalization in email. Unlike blogs and social media, emails allow you to address the customer directly and cater the email’s content to the individual. Personalization draws the customer closer and increases the likelihood they’ll engage with other content.  
4. Advertise other marketing channels in the email. Promote your blog, guides, webinars, or other exciting resources in an email. An interested customer will click through to check out more of your offerings.  
5. Keep tone, brand voice, and customer experience consistent. Aim to make each email feel like your restaurant wrote it. A distinct voice and tone across all content channels ensures guests are more likely to recognize your brand.
6. Use an all-in-one loyalty platform for your campaign. We offer a unified experience for businesses large and small. Our end-to-end platform includes loyalty, online ordering, and marketing automation to maximize your campaigns' financial results. 

Loyalty email marketing is one way to boost your customer base, revenue, and loyalty program enrollment. By carefully measuring the right metrics and integrating email marketing with your broader strategy, you increase the chances of achieving your loyalty program goals.  

Analyzing the Impact of Your Loyalty Emails 

Loyalty program data—particularly zero-party (0P) and first-party (1P) data—grants insight into guest desire and behavior. Use these data points to make data-driven decisions that support your restaurant’s growth. 

Use these six metrics to know how customers receive your loyalty emails: 

1. Open rates: Track how often customers open your loyalty emails. 
2. Customer retention: Measure the number of customers who stick with your loyalty program month after month. 
3. Churn rate: Track the number of customers who cancel their enrollment, particularly within a given period like each month or quarter. 
4. Engagement rates: Measure which parts of the email a customer engages with and how long they stay on the email before closing out. 
5. Conversions: You’ll likely measure several different kinds of conversions, such as loyalty program membership sign-ups, referral program engagement, email subscriptions, or other actions a customer might take to show a commitment to your brand. 
6. Customer lifetime value (CLV): The CLV is the value a customer brings to your restaurant over the entire course of their enrollment in your loyalty program. 
7. Net Promoter Score (NPS): A metric to help determine the likelihood of a customer recommending your restaurant to others based on their experience. 

The analytics you gather over time form the backbone for making strategic decisions for your loyalty email program. Data shows you how to iterate on emails to ensure they’re as successful as possible.  

Activating These Emails In Your Campaigns 

With plenty of insightful tips and tricks under your belt, it’s time to activate your loyalty program email campaign. If you’re designing a new loyalty email program, use your current customer insights to create your first emails. As you iterate on your techniques, you’ll learn more about the most effective strategies for your restaurant.  

Use the examples of other successful loyalty emails captured here to inspire your campaign. Additionally, create an internal checklist of the essential components each of your emails should contain. 

These insights coupled with your brand guidelines and marketing goals will inform how you design a successful loyalty email campaign. Your dedication to providing loyal customers with a valuable rewards program will shine through your efforts to engage them with email marketing.  

Ready to elevate your loyalty program marketing strategy to the next stage? Schedule a demo now to discover how our tools streamline and simplify your strategy.