It’s something that takes time, a lot of thought and a good deal of effort to get right. But, if you want to succeed, building brand loyalty is vital.
With so much choice and competition out there nowadays, most businesses accept that it’s hard work to attract consumer attention and just as hard to keep your customer engaged enough to return for more than one visit.
Here are the basic building blocks that can help you leverage your brand and nurture loyal customers better than your competitors:
Be Clear About What Your Brand Is
The first thing you need to settle is what your brand means for you as a company but also for your customers. This goes far beyond a striking logo and quirky content on your website – it’s your underlying values and the impact these have in the wider world.
If you are a business that has innovation at its core then you need to innovate. If you want to provide the best customer service on the planet, you need to focus on how you deliver this to your customers and continue to provide what they really want.
Your brand needs to be consistent wherever and whenever a customer interacts with it. That means you social media timelines should match your website and the service you provide in one part of the world should match what you deliver in another. You can’t do this without a clear brand identity.
Understand Your Market
Of course, key to developing a successful brand that people are going to be loyal to is understanding your customers’ needs. That means knowing what your product or service delivers and why it’s important to those individuals. One way to do this is to engage with customers frequently and get their feedback. Most brands evolve over time and it’s usually in response to customer demands that their key focuses develop.
Create A Sense of Belonging
Customers engage more deeply with brands that mean something to them. Understanding their needs is part of that but so is how you engage with them on a regular basis. How do you tell them about new trends or products, keep them informed about the latest deals or nurture customers so that they become loyal? It’s easier than ever for people to switch to something new provided by another company nowadays – all they have to do is go online and search.
It’s also easier than ever for companies to reach out to their customers and create a sense of belonging, wherever they are in the world. Whether this is through product development or marketing, focusing on how you draw them into the fold and continue to engage their attention is a constant battle.
Measuring Performance
You can’t hope to improve your interaction with customers if you don’t measure your performance. If you are losing more customers than you are gaining it could be for a variety of reasons – perhaps you customer service is at fault, maybe you simply don’t give them a good enough reason to return once you’ve made that initial sale. If you can measure it, you can see it, and if you can see it, you can do something about it.
Get the Keystones Right
These are the things which set you apart from the competition which you need to get right. These include:
- Always maintaining high standards.
- Providing excellent customer service.
- Recognising your customer needs.
- Engaging wherever you can, including on social media and through email marketing.
- Making it human.
This last point is vital. Consumers want to engage with someone that they feel an affinity to and increasingly want that personal touch.
Finally, one area that that is important in building brand loyalty is identifying brand ambassadors or influencers – the people online who are passionate about your brand and willing to spread the word. These individuals are powerful tools in cementing your brand identity and shouldn’t be underestimated or undervalued .
The truth is that brand loyalty has many components and takes a good deal of work to get right. If you’re willing to invest your time in it, however, you’ll find that customers keep coming back for more because they feel a sense of attachment to your brand and want to continue doing business with you.
Contact us if you have any questions about branding or any of out other design and marketing services.