Here are four approaches to building community—and long-lasting relationships with customers.
Most loyalty programs look remarkably similar. Sign up, earn points, get rewards. It's a familiar formula, and one that often ends with customers forgetting they signed up in the first place.
And yet, some brands have customers who show up to run clubs, help develop new products, join private events, and buy collections before anyone else even knows they exist. So what's the difference?
Across our Masterclass series (virtual sessions designed to help marketers elevate their SMS, email, and AI-driven campaigns) with Craft Club, The INKEY List, Nadine Merabi, and Represent Clothing, we noticed that the brands building the strongest loyalty programs aren't relying on points alone. They're giving customers a genuine reason to want a deeper relationship with the brand.
Here's how they're doing it.
1. Post-purchase flows are treated like a product unto themselves
“No customer is just loyal when they land on your website,” Craft Club Founder Nikos Maniaty says.
Sounds obvious, right? But too many brands treat conversion as the finish line. In reality, it’s just the beginning of a long and (hopefully) prosperous relationship.
Every single brand in our Masterclass series has made post-purchase education a serious investment, not an afterthought. Craft Club—an Australian brand that sells crafting kits around the world—has seen explosive growth over the last five years. Their secret sauce? It comes after someone buys.
The team has invested heavily in how-to guides, video tutorials, and post-purchase support designed to help customers feel confident with the kit they've just purchased. They even use Attentive sign-up units to understand what customers are trying to create, then use those insights to shape the journey that follows. Because if someone finishes their first project feeling successful, they're far more likely to come back for a second.
The same principle applies whether you're selling crafting kits, skincare, or just about anything else. Take The INKEY List, for example. Every skincare brand has a skin quiz these days, but what makes INKEY different is what happens after the purchase: you get information about your specific product, how to use it, how to pair it, and how to build a routine that actually works for you. Post-purchase flows are treated like a product unto themselves, and they're passionate about helping customers get the most value possible from what they've already bought.
2. Early access is the ultimate loyalty perk
Every brand in our Masterclass series agreed on this one: Early access is one of the most powerful tools in loyalty, and yet most brands are still leaving it on the table.
Getting there first feels good. For the right customer, it feels like their favorite brand has really seen them—like they got a little tap on the shoulder that said you're one of us. That's so much more than just a transaction; it's a relationship. And the best brands know exactly when to lean into that feeling.
Take Black Friday. Most retailers throw the doors open and let everyone in at once, but the smartest brands are secretly ushering their best customers in first.
The INKEY List is a great example of how to do this well. The brand gives its most loyal customers first access to major sale moments, so they're not just getting a better deal—they're getting in before everyone else. And that kind of VIP treatment pays off: INKEY is seeing those customers drive 2–3x higher LTV than customers outside the program.
Represent Clothing goes even further. Head of CRM Niall Young O'Brien assigns passwords and sale windows that correspond to a customer's loyalty tier. The result? A Facebook community where superfans compare their access times and share what they managed to grab before anyone else. That's when you know it's working.
3. The loyalty moments people actually remember
Long gone are the days when loyalty was confined to digital touchpoints or discounts. The smartest retailers are investing real money in “super-sized” experiences that bring their best customers closer to the brand.
Most people couldn't tell you how many loyalty points they have. They could, however, tell you about the time they met a founder, got invited to an exclusive event, or helped shape a product before it launched. Those are the moments people remember, and they came up again and again throughout our Masterclass series.
Our favorite example comes from luxury fashion brand Nadine Merabi. They have a points-based system like most brands today—Merabi Points—but the really interesting stuff happens far away from the loyalty dashboard.
For their most loyal customers, Merabi organizes exclusive experiences that bring them closer to the brand. VIP members have been invited to private events, including a launch party for their Midnight Collection, and some have even taken part in a campaign shoot, becoming the face of the brand for the day. That’s the kind of reward you’ll want to tell pretty much anyone about who’ll listen.
Represent Clothing takes a similar community-first approach with its run clubs. On paper, it's a clever loyalty mechanic: show up, run, earn points.
In reality, it's become something much bigger. More than 500 people regularly attend runs across major cities, turning what could have been a standard rewards program into a real-world community.
The INKEY List has taken things even further.
Its loyalty program, INKEY Insiders, has become one of the brand's biggest growth drivers. Members get access to exclusive perks like early access to product launches, anniversary gifts, member-only discounts, and invitations to special events. The most loyal tiers unlock even more, including opportunities to meet founders and spend time with the product developers behind the brand.
During one of its biggest loyalty activations, Insiders Week, loyalty members generated 41% of the brand's revenue, and customers who redeemed loyalty points spent three times more than non-members.
But perhaps the most interesting part is Inkey Labs.
Rather than simply rewarding customers, the brand invites them into the product development process itself. Selected customers join calls with the team, share feedback, and help influence what products get built next.
These moments are some of the brand's biggest revenue drivers, despite having very little to do with discounts. People remember these experiences, talk about them, and come back for them. They can’t be easily replicated or scaled, and it’s a feeling that can’t be achieved with a discount code.
4. SMS is the VIP Channel
For brands in the UK, SMS is where VIP communications happen. If a customer is willing to share their mobile number, it’s a serious signal to brands that this customer is invested.
When a customer hands over their mobile number, they're doing something different from following an Instagram account or joining a mailing list. It's a more deliberate act—a signal that says I actually want to hear from you. It’s also direct, immediate, and personal, making it the perfect channel for early access drops and time-sensitive moments.
Represent's approach is a good example of what that looks like in practice. Their SMS messages don't feel like marketing, they feel like a tip-off from someone in the know. “We've got 100 codes—reply YES if you want one.” They send birthday messages that actually feel personal and VIP access drops that land like a text from a friend. It's the same deliberate, premium approach they bring to everything else, just compressed into a single message.
The INKEY List and Craft Club go a step further, offering discounts to customers simply for being on SMS—perks that, in many cases, are more enticing than anything available through their loyalty programs. It gives customers a reason to stay subscribed and makes the channel feel valuable in its own right.
And the results reflect that. Nadine Merabi saw a 26% higher click-through rate when delivering early access via SMS, while brands across our Masterclass series consistently pointed to SMS as one of their highest-performing channels.
That's the brilliant thing about SMS; when it's used thoughtfully, it doesn't feel like marketing at all.
What it all adds up to
What we’re seeing at Attentive is that the brands pulling ahead aren't chasing every customer, they're going deeper with the right ones.
How they do that varies from brand to brand. For some, it's education and support after the sale. For others, it's early access, exclusive experiences, or a text message that feels more like a heads-up from a friend than a marketing campaign.
But the thinking behind it is always the same: understand what your best customers actually value, then give them more of it.
That's what makes these programs so effective. A competitor can always offer a bigger discount, but it's much harder to recreate a sense of belonging. That's what keeps people coming back.
Want to turn one-time buyers into loyal customers? See how leading brands use Attentive to create personalized experiences that keep customers engaged long after the first purchase.
