What are Digital Membership Cards?
Digital membership cards are virtual alternatives to traditional physical cards, offering significant benefits for businesses and their customers.
They are easily accessible through apps, websites, or digital wallets, eliminating the need for physical cards and offering a more convenient way for customers to access services and facilities, as well as redeem rewards with a simple scannable code.
Many digital membership cards can also function as payment methods within an organization, using a form of proprietary credit.
This is similar to how access cards are used on cruise ships or how Starbucks cards work at their locations.
Benefits of Having Digital Membership Cards
Improved Customer Experience & Convenience
One of the biggest advantages of digital membership cards is the enhanced convenience and customer experience they offer, both for your customers and your organization.
Research shows that customers prefer to carry fewer cards and physical ones often get left behind, reducing opportunities for engagement.
With digital cards, customers can easily access your services, whether it’s for entry (like ticketing) or redeeming rewards, all with a simple scannable code via an app or email.
Increased Chance of Engagement
Building on the previous point, digital membership cards can significantly boost customer engagement.
Since these cards are typically managed through an app, they provide an opportunity to send push notifications, allowing you to communicate directly with your customers—whether it’s to promote campaigns or just share updates.
Plus, if your app is on their home screen, you gain valuable digital real estate on your members’ phones.
This is a great advantage, as it can naturally drive more engagement without spending any extra money on marketing.
For businesses, engagement is a key metric used to measure the return on investment (ROI) for customer loyalty.
Automated Data Collection Through a CRM
By using a CRM, your digital membership card can help you gather valuable customer data, predict their behavior, segment members, and send personalized rewards or targeted marketing.
This can all contribute to increasing each member’s customer lifetime value (CLV).
For example, if you’re a gym, you can track things like how often members visit, their preferred times, how often they use facilities like yoga studios, or even their purchases of lessons or supplements through the app.
With this information, you can boost revenue by offering discounts during off-peak hours or sending timely renewal promotions, among other strategies.
You can also cross-reference member data using time and location filters to identify which members visit with others. This can be really useful for segmentation and creating targeted promotions!
Minimizing Risk of Fraud & Revenue Loss
One of the key benefits of digital membership cards over physical ones is the reduced risk of fraud and potential revenue loss.
With physical cards, members can easily share them with friends or family, who would otherwise be paying customers.
Digital cards help prevent this by making it much harder to pass phones around—especially when the app requires biometric verification to unlock.
It’s true that some customers may not be thrilled about this, but it ultimately benefits organizations by protecting revenue and improving operations.
Streamlined Referral & Organic Membership Growth
Digital membership cards also make it easier for members to refer friends and family, leading to organic membership growth for organizations.
With physical cards, members had to bring their referrals to a location—sometimes even a regional office—which added friction to the sign-up process.
This was because referral programs typically require both the referrer and the referred to be present to claim their rewards.
With digital membership cards, however, users can share a referral program through a QR code or unique link.
Once the referred person completes the requirements, rewards are automatically granted to both parties.
This has helped many of our clients grow their memberships without spending extra on advertising, reducing acquisition costs by up to 40%!
Best Practices for Digital Membership Cards
Use a Reliable Digital Membership Solution (If You Don’t Already Have One)
The first thing you should do is pick a solid, customizable digital membership card platform—something that gives you the flexibility to make changes, which many cheaper options lack.
Other than the standard digital membership card QR code validation system, there is a lot more to do – to fully-optimize your digital membership solution.
A reliable platform sets you up for success as you grow. For example, tweaking things like landing pages can have a big impact on revenue and renewals by improving the user experience.
A good platform lets you easily adjust everything, even small details like button size and font, which can make a real difference in click-through rates.
And that’s just the start—once you have the right tools, you can optimize even more with features like pop-ups, one-click renewals, and digital wallet integration.
This is the most important step because if your software doesn’t let you make these customizations, everything else won’t be as effective.
Check out our article on how to choose a membership management software if you’re looking for one!
Integrate With Every Aspect of Your Business
Next, it’s important to integrate your digital membership program with other systems so that data flows smoothly between them, creating a seamless experience.
This is typically done through customer relationship management (CRM) software, which acts as the hub connecting your membership platform to other tools like email marketing, sales, and accounting software, and even IoT devices like barcode scanners, auto-gates, and digital lockers.
CRM integration ensures everything works together without duplication or unnecessary complexity.
Not to mention a CRM can help collect data, build member profiles, and segment them to different groups, to increase conversion rate and get a higher rate of participation.
This is also why having a strong digital membership card solution is so crucial—it makes all these integrations possible and efficient.
Makes Payment Simple & Seamless
To give your digital membership card solution the best chance of success, make sure the payment process is smooth, simple, and seamless.
Features like one-touch top-ups, auto-renewals, and saving credit card information can make a big difference.
One of the best ways to achieve this is by offering your own proprietary wallet, where members can easily top up using their cards or other payment methods.
By reducing friction in the payment process, you keep members engaged and avoid interrupting their experience with complicated payment steps, like repeatedly entering card numbers.
Having your own digital wallet also helps create predictable revenue, even if members haven’t spent their credits yet on things like bookings or premium events.
While it might seem like a small step, this credit approach has helped many clients nearly double their revenue, since many of their members don’t immediately associate their credits with tangible currency.
Offer Personalized Value-Added Services If It Makes Sense
Instead of just using your digital membership card app as a fancy ticketing or membership benefit checker, we recommend adding occasional promotions through push notifications.
For example, if you run a café chain, you might want to encourage coffee orders during off-peak hours.
In that case, sending a push notification with a special offer directly in your app would be a great way to do it.
This works even better if you can segment your members and personalize the offers based on the data you’ve collected, as mentioned earlier.
Another thing you can do to get the most out of your app is to also allow members to trade their annual benefits within the app, based on their membership tier.
For example, a hotel with a premium membership could let members swap their five free hotel nights for five airport lounge accesses if they prefer.
This kind of flexibility has helped many of our hospitality clients improve retention by up to 15% compared to the previous year, with more members through word-of-mouth!
Incentivize Adoption Through Rewards
The loyalty and membership industry is driven by rewards, and it’s the rewards that keep customers coming back and spending more—often more than factors like customer experience or convenience.
To help your digital members succeed, focus on incentivizing their usage with rewards, gradually shaping their behavior over time. This strategy is how popular apps like Uber and Airbnb initially gained traction.
When introducing digital membership cards, reward users for engaging with your app and signing up.
The initial rush of rewards creates excitement and sets the stage for ongoing interactions.
Use gamification, like daily check-in challenges or referral bonuses, to keep members engaged and encourage regular app usage.
The same idea applies to digital wallets. To get members to adopt your digital wallet, consider offering a top-up bonus.
This strategy was key for Starbucks, which made around $1.5 billion in 2020 through its digital wallet program!
What Industries Are Best for Digital Membership Cards?
Businesses that thrive on recurring memberships or high purchase frequency, and long-term engagement can benefit the most from digital membership cards.
These cards help simplify managing memberships, renewals, and member activity. Here’s how different types of businesses can make the most of them:
- Gyms, Fitness Centers, and Yoga Studios: These businesses are about membership renewals and tracking member visits. Digital membership cards make it easier to manage billing, check-ins, and keep members engaged over time.
- Restaurants, Hotels, and Retail Shops: Even businesses that aren’t purely membership-based can use digital cards for tracking rewards, and encouraging repeat visits.
- Clubs (like golf clubs or social clubs): For clubs that need to track memberships, schedule events, and stay in touch with members, digital cards provide a streamlined way to do it all while keeping members engaged.
- Subscription-Based Online Businesses: Services like online learning platforms, streaming services, or premium blogs can simplify sign-ups, manage subscriptions, and create personalized experiences with digital membership cards, making it easier for members to stay connected.
Overall, to keep it short, any business with recurring members or subscribers can improve operations, enhance engagement, and boost retention by using digital membership cards.
Looking for a Digital Membership Solution?
Looking for a digital membership card solution? With KlikNGo, you can give your members easy access, the ability to pay, and even earn rewards—all through one simple platform.
Want to learn more? Just click the button below for all the details, or check out some cool membership case studies here!
