6 Ways to Build Brand Loyalty

In today's tech world, potential customers often scour multiple websites to research a service they're considering before making a purchase. Then they continue to conduct research even after making a purchase, resulting in fewer and fewer customers remaining loyal to one specific brand.

Why Loyal Customers Are the Most Profitable

Repeat customers cost less to market to, spend more, and buy more frequently. Yet, only 27% of initial sales result in a second sale of a product or service. Therefore, it would seem evident that companies need to invest in building brand loyalty to improve the perception of their brand among current and potential customers.

For example, a potential consumer may not remember the brand name of a service they looked into long ago. Therefore, brand marketing must be executed effectively so that members of the target audience can subconsciously connect with your brand when they encounter any of its brand elements (e.g., logo) and revisit your site.

Here are six tips to help turn your casual target audience member into an entrenched fan who knows your brand name by heart, remembers your brand personality, logo, and what you're all about, and keeps coming back for more.

1. Engage With Your Confirmed Customer

Don't sit back and rest on your laurels because you have a base of people who have benefited from your services. Connect with these valuable customers and work to create a sense of community and belonging. Build brand loyalty by sharing your brand's exciting new developments, important news, and opinions to keep this audience engaged and enthusiastic.

Use social media to inform your potential customers of new trends, special promotions, and the next steps for your brand. Make it feel like a friendly conversation—don't go the hard sell route!

You can also use social media engagement to listen as well as communicate. You'll discover what your best customers love about your service(s) and what they'd change if they could—then you can change it to improve the overall perception of your brand for the better.

Finally, a timeless tip that remains effective. Send your customers simple thank-you notes. For example, a simple "Happy Birthday" or "Happy Holidays" message will go a long way. Remember, people want to feel that you care about them beyond business transactions, and they will share their positive experiences with others, leading to effective word-of-mouth marketing.

2. Recognize Your Customers' Needs and What Makes Them Tick

Many businesses fail because of churn. Therefore, it follows that the fastest-growing companies tend to have the lowest churn rates. A constant flow of customers or donors out of your back door will kill your business or nonprofit! One way to cut down on churn is to use your customer behavior data to foreshadow what your consumers are likely to want and then offer it. This strategy is another effective way to generate word-of-mouth marketing, which can improve your brand's perception.

3. Brand Marketing: Make Sure Your Brand Stays Consistent

Consistency is a crucial factor in building customer loyalty. Your brand needs to look and feel the same to consumers each time they interact with it. Therefore, brand elements, such as a brand's logo, name, and colors, should be consistent everywhere your brand is present. A great way to ensure brand consistency is by developing a Brand Book that provides guardrails for how your brand presents itself to the public, to influence how consumers will perceive your brand.

Use a Logo that Would Resonate With Your Audience

The colors you choose represent your brand's personality and provide a visual expression of the feeling, mood, or role your brand is trying to elicit. Select a color palette informed by your brand strategy, keeping this in mind to enhance the perception of your brand and foster brand loyalty.

Example:

The color red prompts viewers to feel active, emotional, and passionate about a brand. Comparatively, blue signifies a brand personality of trust, comfort, and confidence.

Example:

Apple is consistent in its use of white throughout its entire brand palette, evoking simplicity, cleanliness, and elegance. You can also think of the white as a blank canvas to be creative, as Apple embodies the Creator brand archetype and is perceived as a brand for those who want to create.

Have Apple's products become symbols of advanced technology and luxury that enable creativity solely because of their brand-building color choice? No. But the fact that all of Apple's products look like something out of a Stanley Kubrick movie makes sense in terms of their brand's essence, so it's definitely helping.

Think about what you want your brand to convey—spark a response, calm anxiety, portray simplicity, etc.

4. Focus on What Your Brand Does Best

Build brand loyalty by getting your target audience to identify with your brand's core values and mission. Here's how people see you:

What You Do and Why Is Who You Are.

The more specific you can be about your brand's message, the more your audience can understand what you can offer them. You may be forced to pick the one thing you are the best at, but that's the story you should stick to.

Wait, you say, surely offering more products, services, or even identities, would endear my brand to more people? But in reality, the more niche you are, the more affection you will trigger in people who like you because they can more clearly see themselves in your brand. If you try to please everyone, you end up making no impression whatsoever.

Example

Nike produces a variety of sportswear and sporting gear, including yoga pants, tube socks, water bottles, and dumbbells. But close your eyes and think Nike, and you may only think of hero shots of athletes—Nike IS a Hero brand. What kind of brand are you?

5. Use Influencers to Promote Your Brand

One of the ways to build brand loyalty is by having celebrities promote your product or service. However, celebrities are expensive and could actually end up tarnishing your brand's reputation by doing something unethical. For instance, Lance Armstrong's association with Nike made the company look great when he was consistently winning the Tour de France, but his doping scandal tarnished the brand.

Consumers increasingly find recommendations from customers to be the most reliable form of testimonial. So, look for online influencers who have a close relationship with your brand. A platform like Julius with HPR allows brands to identify influencers who communicate with their audience demographics.

Offer your customers fifteen minutes of fame by sharing a post they wrote or retweeting them to create a buzz around your brand.

6. Make Sure Your Customer Service Is Top Notch

One of the primary reasons for losing customers or failing to gain new ones is poor customer service. You should ensure your customer service is impeccable, particularly on social media channels where customers expect quick responses. Remember, whatever you are selling, you are a service business, and your reputation needs to precede you.

Brand Loyalty: Final Thoughts

In an otherwise cold and technical world, people are constantly searching for a sense of human interaction and emotion. When building brand loyalty by improving how your brand is perceived, make sure you're investing in understanding your target audience, including your customers, personally, gaining their trust by making good on your brand promises for positive word of mouth and good feelings about your brand. This will help ensure that your base of loyal customers and fans continues to grow.