What is Brand Loyalty and How Can We Build It?

We all understand the importance of acquiring new customers. Widening your brand’s base of support should be a part of any business’s marketing strategy, but you also can’t underestimate the power of your existing customer base. Brand loyalty is what will help your company go the distance; it allows for the rise of brand advocates, lifelong customers who will drive new traffic to your business. Here’s everything you need to know about this important aspect of brand strategy.

What is Brand Loyalty?

As you may have guessed, brand loyalty refers to customers choosing to do business with the same brand over a period of time, rather than exploring relationships with competitors. Consumers will strongly favor one brand over the other, maybe due to their price point, their mission, their promotional offers, or the quality of their products. Essentially, it’s business doing all the right things to get their customers to stick around.

Why Brand Loyalty is Important

Nearly 80% of consumers reported that it would take a minimum of three purchases before they considered themselves loyal to a brand. Brand loyalty is your ticket to staying in business, so getting those second, third, fourth purchases and beyond should be top of mind. Also, it can cost several times more to bring in a new customer than to keep your existing audience around. The ROI increase alone is important, but having a strong community of advocates can really take your brand to the next level. Let’s talk about how you can secure lifelong customers.

7 Ways to Build Brand Loyalty

Use Your Voice

It’s no secret that today’s market is super saturated with brands and businesses in every category. An easy way to stand out from the crowd is to find a brand voice and story that your customers will resonate with. Make sure you keep things unique yet approachable – you want to peak consumers’ interests all while making your mark. Plus, maintaining this voice and tone across all channels helps customers recognize you and remember who you are.

Produce High-Quality Products

To keep customers around, you’ll want to continue doing what brought them to you in the first place. Even as your brand grows, product quality should remain as high as possible. It may be tempting to cut corners to lower cost, but customers will notice, and could potentially be turned away. All in all, if you’re expecting customers to return, give them something amazing to return to. High-quality products won’t make consumers feel the need to look elsewhere.

Never Underestimate the Power of Customer Service

The actions that bring about brand loyalty often happen after the sale. While reliable customer service can be pricey, it’s absolutely a worthwhile investment. Addressing customer concerns in a timely manner helps your consumers feel like they’re part of the family. Treat them with respect and they’ll know who to go back to.

Great customer relations don’t just stop at resolving concerns. If your team notices an instance of a consumer sharing a great testimonial, make sure it doesn’t go unacknowledged. It’s important to build connections based on positive feedback, as well. This lets you take a reading on sentiment towards your business, allowing you to solve problems before they happen. The result? Trust, loyalty, and retention.

Offer Brand Loyalty Programs

Here at DBMG, we talk a lot about loyalty programs, but that’s because they work. Incentivizing customers with points, freebies, and offers encourages repeat purchasers to continue coming back. Additionally, you can turn one-time purchasers into repeat customers with birthday rewards or seasonal incentives. Just make sure the program is easy to understand, delivering rewards quickly and tangibly.

Build a Community

When they say it takes a village, they’re telling the truth. A community is one of the most valuable things your business can have. As an extension of advocacy, an online group that brings your brand’s most engaged consumers together is the perfect place to learn more about your audience’s expectations.

You can also popularize a branded hashtag on social media to start conversations with your consumers on other channels. When they use it, they’ll feel like they’re a part of something bigger. Hashtags also make it easy to source user-generated content. You’ll be able to create campaigns around your customers, making your community even stronger.

Get Social

While social media can be one of the best ways to find new customers, it also allows you to engage with existing consumers. Customers will comment, raise concerns, and share what they love about your brand, but don’t let them talk into the void! Respond and engage. Once they see you as reachable and active, they’ll continue to buy into your brand story, setting the stage for future conversions.

Be Consistent

In all facets of life, consistency is key. All of the aforementioned ways to build brand loyalty can’t just be done one time. As time goes on, your consumers begin to develop a perception of your brand. When you always offer excellent customer service, deliver high quality products, provide enticing promotions, and build a community through social media, you’re showing your customers a level of greatness that they can continue to expect from you.

This also applies to the visual elements of your business. Your logo should look the same on all browsers, devices, and platforms. The graphics you produce should have a similar look and feel; keep things on-brand. These are just pieces of the puzzle coming together to create the lifelong brand advocates you need.