Loyalty programs are crucial for fostering lasting connections with users in today's digital landscape, offering personalized incentives that drive engagement and retention. In a competitive marketplace for tech startups, loyalty programs serve as a strategic tool, cultivating brand loyalty and enhancing user experience, ultimately contributing to sustained growth.

Startups can take a variety of routes when building a loyalty program. Coupons, codes, access to limited offers, and punch cards are all common methods to build loyalty amongst customers. For mobile apps, another common method used is through rewards and points.

Let’s take a deeper dive at a loyalty feature we developed and added to the CREDOTri app, a motivational community built for triathletes. The reward program is built around activities the user engages in every time they interact within the app–searching for a new race, logging a training session, or visiting another triathlete’s profile.

The loyalty program is designed to increase interactions and reward the user for their progress along their unique triathlon training journey. Additionally, it provides added incentive for users to explore new features within the app that could be beneficial for them. Once the user has enough points, they can redeem the points for triathlon gear.

When building any loyalty program, the key focus should be about what ties the rewards activities together, so users feel inspired and motivated. This intentionality in the design allows the reward system to thrive.