What is your marketing team focusing on this quarter? You might have some great ideas for campaigns and launches lying around—or you’re lost for inspiration. In that case, we’ve got you covered. Why not dedicate the next few months to boosting your brand’s loyalty?
Why Would You Even Work On Brand Loyalty?
Instead of pumping money and effort into fancy new marketing campaigns, take a closer look at your existing or previous customers. There’s something to be said for focusing on retaining and keeping those customers, instead of attracting new ones. Let’s look at some reasons.
Reason #1: It’s Good And Cheap Marketing. Really.
Trying to hit two birds with one stone? Aim at your existing customers. So to speak, then.
No marketing employee is as effective as a happy customer telling others about your business. When a real person, who’s not getting paid for it, advocates for your brand, it creates trust. Customers believe other customers.
And trust pays off: a 2019 retail study found that more than 50% of consumers would pay more for a product when they buy from a brand they trust. Another study showed that they would pay no less than 31% more than a newly converted lead would.
So investing in brand loyalty makes financial sense in terms of possible extra profit, but it is also simply cheaper to target existing customers—who are likely to buy: it’s five times more expensive to attract a new customer than retaining one you’ve already brought in.
Think about it: when you retarget those people, you are quite sure they’re interested in your product.
Last but not least, brand loyalty should also boost the word of mouth that goes around. Indirect costs aside, that is the cheapest marketing method there is.
Word Of Mouth As A Backup Generator
When you consistently work on brand loyalty, you know there will be some buzz even when you don’t have any campaigns running. Nurture your existing customers when all is going well, and they’ll take care of you—to some extent — when you run out of ideas or power.
Diminish The Impact Of Bad Reviews
Real fans of your brand will let the world know how much they love you. Receiving reviews and feedback from happy clients doesn’t just give you a serotonin boost, it also has some practical effects.
See, if the number of positive reviews outweighs the negative ones by enough, one unhappy customer won’t have the power to destroy your brand. Granted that you should also take care of this unhappy customer, though. That’s what brand loyalty is all about.
Types Of Brand Loyalty
Why would someone be loyal to a brand? It isn’t just about being at the right place, at the right time, with the right price? No. We, humans, tend to be a bit more complicated. Plus, building relationships is in our nature. We can’t help it.
But the loyalty to a brand is always built on something. Sure, there’s price and convenience loyalty—going to the supermarket nearby is an easy example of that.
Then there’s benefit loyalty, which is more product and service-based. This can also have to do with additional benefits that you offer your customers, like loyalty programs with kick-ass rewards.
Last but not least, there’s satisfaction loyalty. That’s what it should be all about: your customers coming back not because it’s easy or cheap, but because they really like you and your product.
How to get there? Let’s take a look at our top six tips to boost loyalty amongst your amazing customer base.
#1 Get Your Data Right
First things first: if you want to pump up your brand loyalty, you’ll need to know where it is at now, and what your goal is. That’s right, in the world of business, loyalty can be measured.
Brand loyalty can be defined as the tendency of customers to return to the same brands instead of choosing their competitors for a prolonged time. There are some KPIs linked to that to help you keep track of your progress.
One of those is customer retention: how many customers come back after their initial purchase — or even their second or third? That brings us to the Life Time Value of each customer. When boosting your brand loyalty, that number should go up as well.
These are numbers that you can crunch in whatever software and tools you are using, but there’s more to the science of loyalty than numbers. With the right knowledge base software, you can keep track of the progress you’re making over time after you’ve implemented changes.
But what changes should you improve? Other valuable data is more abstract. To find out what you could do to improve, we’d recommend you to talk to your customers, for instance with a survey.
Here are some examples of brand survey questions that will help you get more insights on how to improve your customer’s loyalty to you:
- How likely are you to recommend us to friends or family?
- What made you choose our brand?
- How likely are you to expand the use of our product or service?
- How did you perceive our customer support?
- Did your product or service meet your expectations?
Having the right data on hand will allow you to successfully implement tactics such as retargeting, which works wonders for customer retention.
#2 Up Your Customer Service Game
A smooth sale process, a great website, and a good product are crucial to increasing brand loyalty. But after the sale is where the real magic happens.
Make sure your customer service agents are giving your customers the best possible experience. We’re talking speed, responsiveness, and tone, and of course: giving great solutions. If you treat your customers like kings, they’ll return the favor.
#3 Triple Down On Trust
Quite the tip, right—build trust. How does one even do that? Trustworthy isn’t something you can claim to be, not for long at least. Customers see right through it, sooner or later.
First of all, building trust takes time. But that’s time worth investing in. Still, there are other ways to build trust:
- Start a blog or create vlogs to show your expertise and position yourself as an authority in your field
- Showcase those testimonials! Again, your potential customers might not take your word for it, but they might believe other customers.
- Be authentic: you don’t have to pretend to be perfect. Show your customers that you are still trying to improve by conducting surveys (that you’ll actually use) and by updates on improvements that have or will be made.
#4 Set Up Loyalty Programs That Actually Boost Loyalty
We all research other brands and shops before purchasing a new product, to a certain extent. It depends on the product or service you offer if loyalty programs make sense. For a realtor, it might not, but in e-commerce—go for it!
When there’s a chance people come back to you over time, look into reward programs. If you can collect points for each purchase, for instance, it’ll be an easy choice to go for the company you already have purchased at. No less than 83% of people in a survey said a loyalty program makes it more likely they’ll go back to a certain company.
#5 Build A Community
Sometimes it is not as much the brand that people love and rely on, but the community that comes with it. Building communities is becoming more and more important for any brand. Simply pushing out content and collecting individual likes just doesn’t cut it anymore. We want to feel connected.
Create a place where your customers can come together, like a forum, a Facebook page, or an app. By being active in these groups, your customers will stay connected to your business and you’ll be the logical choice when it’s time for a new purchase—or reference.
#6 Create Great Content That Keeps Them Coming Back For More
People love going back to places where they either know exactly what they’re getting—or where it’s a fun surprise every time. Based on that knowledge, you can create a digital content strategy to lure them in. Here’s what you should keep in mind.
Be Consistent And Up To Date
If you want customers to come back to your website or follow your socials, make sure there is something new to see. Nobody wants to read the same blog over and over.
Make It Personal
Personalization in websites and online content works wonders for customer retention. Every brand is pushing out content or offering you something. It’s great to find something that seems just for you.
Interactive Content
Your customers do not just want to consume content, including video content, but play and interact with it. At the very least, be able to react to it — and get a response back. Think quizzes on your website or competitions you launch on Instagram.
Ready To Shift Your Focus?
Having loyal customers isn’t just great for business, it’s also extremely rewarding and a great foundation to further grow your business. Want to know how we can help you boost that brand loyalty with our services? Get in touch!
