Brand loyalty is something that every business should aspire for but is not the easiest thing to achieve. It requires working hard to ensure that the products and services are top-notch, that customer service is above reproach, and that audiences have a positive association with the brand every time they come across it. At the same time, this is crucial to ensuring that your business will have repeat customers. Here are some tips to ensure your customers return to your brand again and again.
Center your brand around a community
If you truly want your customers or clients to positively associate with your brand, you need to prioritize centering your brand around a community. Unfortunately, the term “parasocial relationship” has had a negative connotation for a few years now. Still, the positive side of it is that your customers will see your brand as an institution that is partnering with them during difficult times. Here are some tips for building a community around your brand, especially through online interactions:
Consider developing a community mobile app where you, your representatives, customers, and clients can interact about your products and services. This strategy is employed by various skincare brand owners, especially if they have a background in being a beauty guru on YouTube or Instagram. They give their customers an opportunity to talk about their experiences with the products, which allows them to connect with others who have a similar experience or give them skincare advice. Oftentimes, the skincare CEO would also post about her own day-to-day comings and goings and additional tips to make the products work better for the members of the community. The benefit of this kind of setup is that your audience will see your brand as more than just a corporation run by a bunch of executives in suits, but by people who truly care about individuals and want to make their experience better.
Consistently deliver value
Well-crafted and perfectly executed campaigns are ultimately futile if your products and services are not up to scratch. It doesn’t matter how well you promote and advertise your brand if you don’t deliver in any way through your services and products. To truly deliver products and services of quality, you need to ensure that you are always backing up your claims through what your customers are receiving and that you are truly making their lives better through your offers.
And this takes hard work because you might need to invest in your research and development (R&D) to ensure that your company is consistently refining the products and services. This means taking steps to ensure that you are focused on your customers’ needs. Once you have a proper insight into your brand’s unique selling proposition, this is when a high-quality campaign is necessary and can help boost brand loyalty.
Capture feedback as well as you can
Incorporate useful criticism to make your services and products better. No matter how specific your target market is, no customer base remains static, and you can expect that your market will fluctuate and that your demographics might also change at any given time. However, if you keep on engaging your current audience base and capturing their feedback through well-timed surveys and helpful questionnaires, you will have a deeper insight into what your patrons are thinking, what their purchasing patterns are, and how you can improve your business.
Customer service and experience should be prioritized
Instead of focusing too much on sales and hitting your targets, one of the best ways to build brand loyalty is by prioritizing customer experience and service. This is a marketing orientation that communicates with your audience that they are the most important part of your operations and not their wallets. An opposite approach would be something like your brand rewarding new customers instead of prioritizing old and current customers—a strategy you might want to avoid if brand loyalty is truly your priority. Here are some tips to show your audience that their experience matters to your brand:
- Be responsive when they get in touch. Hire a team of community managers whose sole job is to respond to customers as soon as possible.
- Use appropriate platforms and technologies to build up a profile of your customers’ preferences so that you can keep on improving.
There is so much value and benefit to investing in a loyal clientele. While building a customer base is always vital to your company’s growth, it should never come at the expense of existing clients and customers.
