Boosting your brand’s loyalty can be possible by pursuing these five simple steps. Consumer loyalty paired with reputation can make or break a business. With the proper techniques in place, you can develop brand loyalty and grow into the hottest spot in town!
Benefits of boosting your brand’s loyalty
1. Returning Customers
As a business, you don’t want the first time you encounter new customers to be the last. Returning customers can function as the backbone of some businesses.
Recent statistics confirm that 65% of companies’ business comes from returning clients. You can immediately recognise how essential returning customers are to the progress of your brand.
As a brand-owner, you need to do what can to secure that percentage for your business.
Maintaining returning customers is much less effort than trying to attract new ones and through the right practices (which we’ll get into soon!) you won’t have to.
2. More profit for your brand
The greater the loyalty is between you and your customers, the higher the chances are of them recommending you.
The more your business receives recommendations, the more people will be interested in spending money on your brand.
This entire cycle only grows as you give your clients more of a reason to return.
You’re allowing your business the opportunity to raise your prices at some stage, without the dread of your customers abandoning you. Not only that, but when people grow fond of your brand, you can create other revenue streams like offering online courses that your customers may thank you for.
But keep in mind that as much as your loyal customers may not mind a nudge in the prices, or new product offerings, too extreme of an increase in prices or sales persistence may scare them and new customers off.
How to boost your brand’s loyalty
1. Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are effective as they provide your clients with motivation to return to your business. It gives your clients the belief that they are receiving more than what they paid for.
Consider different methods of loyalty programs that will work for your brand and have your customers making consistent purchases.
Updated research shows that 83% of customers are more prone to continue doing businesses with a brand that offers loyalty programs.
That strongly demonstrates how incorporating these programs can enhance the performance of your brand.
Image by Clay banks via unsplash.com/@claybanks
2. Perfect your product
The quality of the products you deliver to your customers is important. If you want to achieve brand loyalty, give your customers a reason to be loyal.
But, don’t take my word for it. Jeremy Moser, Co-Founder of uSERP and multiple SaaS products told me: “Before marketing, before automation, before selling, you need a product that sells itself. Customers won’t get excited about products that don’t create more value than they cost. If your product is $20 / month, it should save them hundreds each month at a minimum. This is how you generate loyal customers that stay for years.”
If you ordered a shirt online only to find it all worn when it got to you, would you purchase from that store again? No!
So don’t be that store! Ensure that your products are:
- Exactly what you say they are
- Affordable to your target market
- In the best quality available
A recent study shows that 13% of consumers that are unhappy with a product will tell 15 or more friends about that experience. FIFTEEN OR MORE!
That proves how crucial it is to ensure your product is at its best. Bigger franchises can afford to let that slide (It’s not like McDonald's has never let us down). However, for most other businesses-this is crucial.
Image by Maddi Bazzocco via unsplash.com/@maddibazzocco
3. Connect with your customers
As a brand owner, it is a strategic plan to connect with your customers. You can do this in a variety of ways:
- You can consistently respond to online reviews (regardless of if they are positive or negative)
- You can talk with your walk-in customers to see how they are doing and ask for their feedback.
- You can encourage activity on the comments section of your blog and join the conversation.
- You can even create custom QR Codes to engage your customers at offline channels. This is a great way to launch new products and services, spread the word about your existing marketing campaigns, or even execute new and innovative marketing campaigns.
Customers genuinely enjoy supporting an establishment whose owner is more involved.
If you went out for dinner and during your meal, the owner came to say “Hi” proceeding to ask if you’re enjoying your experience. How incredible would that make you feel?
The intent here is to make your very own customers feel that amazing and significant. Most of the time, whether it’s a delighted customer or a furious one, they merely wish to feel like the business cares about them.
Perhaps you aren’t able to connect with your customers 24/7. However, doing this every so often will boost brand loyalty.
4. Customer service
Excellent customer service contributes to happy customers who then become loyal customers.
Your customer service team should always make your clients feel welcome. There is nothing more off-putting for a consumer than dealing with someone who isn’t helpful.
Negative customer service experiences will spread like wildfire. Learn how to enforce excellent customer service along with methods like word of mouth to spread the great reputation of your brand.
A few ways to practice excellent customer service are:
- Swiftly responding to queries or negative feedback
- Ensuring your team are attentive to clients
- Having a well-informed and jovial staff to take care of your clients
Studies confirm that 95% of customers report that customer service is an essential factor when choosing a brand. So if you haven’t been all too concerned about customer service, you should reconsider it.
Image by Christiann Koepke via unsplash.com/@christiannkoepke
5. Use Technology
While you may prefer to be a brick-to-mortar business instead of an ecommerce business, this doesn’t mean you should turn your back on using technology altogether.
Using technology can expand your brand in these ways:
- Connect and communicate with your customers easily
- Understand your target market through digital marketing
- Promote and advertise your brand on numerous social media platforms using social media marketing tools
Technology offers you the possibility of reaching more people that perhaps haven’t heard about your brand yet or don’t know what you’re about.
Although, this is a bit of a delicate situation because:
- Potential customers will feel discouraged if your website is not user friendly
- Research confirms that customers are more likely to visit your competitor’s website if yours is not mobile-friendly.
While technology can boost your brand and expose you to a much greater target market, make sure that your websites and techniques perform smoothly and professionally.
Conclusion
Brand loyalty is extremely critical to the success of a business. Securing loyal customers won’t only be less expensive than constantly trying to attract new customers but it will give your brand a stellar reputation.
Consumers are the foundation of any brand. Forming a strong relationship between your brand and your consumers will be easily achieved through these methods.
You want your brand to succeed so focus on brand loyalty to make this possible.
