Building a Customer Loyalty Communication Strategy

A loyalty communication strategy is the plan for what a program tells members, through which channels, and when, from enrollment to win-back, and for how each message is triggered, personalized, permitted under consent rules, and measured against members who did not receive it. A program does most of its work in the gaps between purchases, and it does that work through communication. The design of the program matters, but a member who never hears from it, or hears from it badly, can drift away however good the rewards are.

The forgetting problem is real. Forrester found that in 2021, 38% of US online adults agreed they frequently forget to use the loyalty programs they belong to, up 15 percentage points from 2019. Deloitte's 2026 loyalty research found that 40% of respondents admit to sometimes forgetting to redeem. And McKinsey lists the causes of breakage, the value members earn but never use, as problems redeeming points, members forgetting they are enrolled, rewards that are unappealing or less relevant, and reward thresholds that are unachievable or expensive. Two of those, forgetting and difficulty redeeming, are at least partly communication problems; the other two are program design, which communication cannot fix.

Communication is how a program holds attention. The same Forrester research found that a majority of US online adults are more likely to participate in programs when the brand gives them a way to track benefits, sends updates on what is available, and keeps them informed. That is what members say rather than what they measurably do, but it points one way: keeping members informed is a lever worth building, and worth testing against a holdout.

This guide is about member communications specifically: what to say, where to say it, and when. Two caveats first. Communication amplifies a good program; it cannot rescue a weak value exchange. And more messages is not the goal; the right message at the right moment is.

It is tempting to begin a communication plan with channels: which emails, which app pushes, which texts. Start earlier, with relevance. A generic message stays generic however well it is delivered, and members tune out communication that does not speak to them.

McKinsey found in 2021 that companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those activities than average players (a comparison between companies, not proof that personalization alone caused the gap), and Deloitte's 2026 research found that 51% of Gen Z and 53% of millennial respondents say they would spend more with a brand that personalizes their experience. A loyalty program is unusually well equipped to deliver that relevance, because it knows what each member has bought, earned, and redeemed.

Practically, that means segmenting communication by where the member actually is. A new enrollee needs different messages from a lapsed one, and a member close to a reward needs a different nudge from one who just redeemed. The program data shows which is which. Use it before choosing a channel. For illustration: a member 200 points short of a reward and a member who redeemed yesterday might both be due an email this week, but the first needs to see the gap and the fastest way to close it, and the second needs a next reason to earn.

Effective loyalty communication follows the member through a lifecycle, with a different goal at each stage.

Welcome and Onboard

The first days after enrollment set the tone. A strong welcome confirms the value the member just signed up for, shows how to earn and redeem, and offers an easy first action. The goal of onboarding is a first engagement, not just a greeting, because a member who has earned or redeemed once has seen the program work.

Engage Between Purchases

Between transactions, communication keeps the program present: balance and progress updates, new ways to earn, challenges or missions, and content worth opening. This is where a program earns the right to stay in the inbox. Signia does this in a B2B program on BLOYL™: its Aspire program tailors communication so that each Hearing Care Professional customer receives relevant messaging and offers, automates customer notifications and marketing campaigns, and rewards members for completing certifications and continuing education courses. The program reports an 87.3% average engagement rate on a recurring basis, a whole-program figure rather than one attributed to messaging alone. (Metrics disclosed by Brandmovers.)

Prompt Redemption

Redemption deserves its own messages. McKinsey found in 2021 that members who redeem spend about 25% more than enrolled but inactive members (a correlation rather than proof of cause), and it recommends that programs remind customers of their point balances with targeted communications. Remind members what they have, show them what it is worth, and make the next step effortless. Redemption also has a cost: every reward claimed is one breakage would otherwise have absorbed, so model the cost of a redemption push alongside the expected lift.

Retain and Win Back

When a member goes quiet, a timely message can bring them back before they lapse for good, and reactivation works best with a concrete reason to return: a bonus, a limited-time promotion, or an offer based on what the member used to buy. The guide to loyalty across the consumer lifecycle stages covers what each stage needs beyond communication.

Once the message and the audience are clear, choose the channel that fits both.

Email

Email is the natural home for regular program updates, statements, and newsletters: it carries more detail than a text, it can be personalized at scale, and members can return to it. It also carries rules: commercial email has legal requirements, covered under Consent below.

SMS and Push

For short, time-sensitive messages such as an expiring reward, a flash bonus, or an order update, SMS and app push notifications reach members immediately. Deloitte's 2026 research found that younger consumers in particular favor features like instant notifications and real-time tracking. Use these channels sparingly and only with clear consent; their value is their immediacy, and their risk is intrusion.

In-App and Dashboard

The program's own app or account dashboard is where members go to check status and redeem. Treat it as a communication channel, not just a utility: surface progress, the next reachable reward, and personalized offers where the member is already looking.

Visibility is part of the message: on BENGAGED™, Aquatrols customers log in to dashboards to view pending points and track category bonus status. The dashboards are fed by sales data that distributors send to a third-party aggregator, so customers see earned value without uploading invoices.

In-Store and Print

For brands with physical touchpoints, staff, packaging, receipts, and signage carry the program into moments email cannot reach, and can drive both enrollment and redemption at the point of sale.

B2B Programs

In channel programs, messages go to people at partner businesses: owners, buyers, and sales staff, each with different needs. Email and the program portal usually carry most of the load, and some partners want communications routed through the account owner. Map who receives what before launching, and keep partner-level performance details visible only to the people entitled to see them. The consumer research cited earlier does not measure partner behavior, so treat it as directional for channel programs and let the program's own data set the plan.

Scheduled sends deliver the same message to everyone on a calendar; triggered communication sends the right message to one member when their behavior calls for it. Triggered messages are built to arrive when they are relevant, and they keep working without a campaign team rebuilding them each month; whether they outperform the scheduled program is something to confirm against a control, as covered under Measure and Optimize.

Triggers are only as good as the data behind them. A balance reminder or near-reward nudge needs current transaction and points data flowing from point of sale, e-commerce, or ERP systems into the messaging platform. If that data arrives in weekly or monthly batches, as distributor sales data often does in B2B programs, time the triggers to the data, not the calendar, or members will receive balances that are already out of date.

The moments most worth automating are the ones tied to value and risk:

• Enrollment: a welcome sequence that leads to a first action.
• Near a reward or tier: a nudge showing how close the member is.
• Points about to expire: a reminder with a clear path to redeem. Expiry reminders must match the expiry terms members were given.
• Activity drop-off: a re-engagement message before the member lapses.
• After a redemption: a thank-you with a next step.

Set a priority order and frequency caps, so a member who qualifies for several triggers at once receives the most relevant message rather than all of them. For illustration: if a member's points are due to expire on the same day they come within reach of a new tier, send the expiry reminder, because it protects value the member has already earned, and hold the tier nudge for the next eligible send. Build the triggers once, test them against a control group, and refine them over time.

A loyalty program is a promise, and communication is how it is kept, message by message, over months and years. The strategy that works is not the loudest one. It starts with relevance, follows the member through the lifecycle, uses each channel for what it does best, automates the moments that matter, respects consent and cadence, and measures its effect against a control. Get that right, and communication becomes a reason members stay.

The case, in numbers