Creating deep emotional bonds is a key to the success of most relationships—and that goes for businesses, too. Building and strengthening intimacy increases the likelihood of customer loyalty.
After all, it is not enough to just think about the relationship before the sale. It is essential to prioritize the customer, keeping the relationship warm to have the chance to create true brand advocates. Therefore, it is essential to think about Customer Success.
Below, I show you 10 good practices that are essential to increase customer engagement and loyalty!
10 strategies for customer loyalty
Having people loyal to your company depends on building an exceptional relationship. The good news is that there are ways to put this into practice and ensure that your business gains the preference and loyalty of your audience.
Check out the 10 strategies I’ve put together!
1. Deep customer knowledge
Customer loyalty is directly linked to customer satisfaction, right? To please this person, it is essential to know your customer very well — what they like, how they behave and what their needs are.
This is a process that involves a lot of empathy and communication, but it also requires balancing the customer’s interests and desires with the characteristics of your company. This way, it is possible to offer the public exactly what people want.
The idea is to understand your customers’ emotions, study their behavior, and record this data. By testing hypotheses, you can even anticipate and act proactively.
2. Anticipating needs
Proactivity is actually a beneficial characteristic for customer loyalty, did you know? Instead of acting reactively, the idea is to anticipate and respond in advance to customers’ interests — even before they talk about these issues.
This is a way to improve the customer experience by making them feel noticed. By personalizing the relationship with the public, they tend to become more loyal. It’s like going to a restaurant all the time and the people in charge already knowing which table is your favorite, for example.
To anticipate needs, it is interesting to create segmented relationship rules. This way, it is possible to personalize communications and meet the specific interests of each person.
It is also worth considering including elements such as overdelivery in customer service and even enchantment actions. The goal is to make people feel that the brand understands them, increasing loyalty.
3. Integrating loyalty into the purchasing journey
You’re probably already familiar with the customer purchase journey, but have you ever thought about how it can be integrated into the issue of loyalty?
In practice, the purchasing journey is related to the lead’s life cycle, from the first contact with the brand until its effective conversion. The lead goes through stages of learning and discovery, problem recognition, solution consideration, and purchase intention or decision, until becoming a customer.
Once the person closes the deal, it is time to begin the retention journey. The idea, therefore, is to integrate loyalty into the entire journey taken by the public.
Instead of focusing solely on acquiring new customers, efforts are now directed towards retaining current customers. The goal is to get them to continue buying and recommending the company to others.
In this retention journey, we have four main stages: adoption, retention, expansion and promotion.
- Adoption: At this stage, customers who have just purchased the product need support and resources to get the most out of the solution;
- Retention: here, the focus is on ensuring that customers remain satisfied with their choices, avoiding churn and promoting a lasting relationship;
- Expansion: satisfied customers begin to consider the possibility of purchasing more products or services, expanding their relationship with the brand;
- Promotion: At this stage, customers become brand advocates, recommending the brand to others and demonstrating a strong level of loyalty.
To reach this stage, it is necessary to map everything from the purchasing journey to loyalty, directing efforts and personalizing the experience for positive results.
4. Marketing guided by brand purpose
Another customer loyalty strategy involves applying marketing guided by brand purpose. Instead of just advertising products and services, the idea is to work on communicating the values, mission and causes that the brand defends.
The main objective is to generate identification and create an emotional connection, stimulating loyalty. To do this, it is interesting to adopt the Golden Circle strategy, popularized by Simon Sinek.
In this case, you need to know what to communicate at each moment. Starting from the beginning, the idea is to communicate:
- Why?: what the brand believes in, what its purpose is and its set of values;
- How?: the set of methods and processes that the company adopts;
- What?: The solutions the business offers, including products or services.
A great example of the application of the Golden Circle in communicating purpose is given by Apple. The company began to focus on the purpose of “challenging the status quo” and “thinking differently”.
An iPhone may have similar features to several models from other brands, but it still has a legion of fans. After all, even if the other options are cheaper, it is the iPhone that is tied to this purpose.
5. Personalized communication
As I’ve said so far, personalization plays a fundamental role in bringing people closer and building loyalty. So, it’s essential to show genuine interest in customers when the goal is to create a deep connection to keep them close.
This includes knowing the customer’s name, their purchasing preferences, and even their interaction history. To make things easier, technologies like CRM can be very useful!
With this system, it is easy to identify specific points of each customer and better segment the audience. This is the case of sending an email calling the customer by name and offering recommendations based on previous purchases, for example.
Proper team training also contributes to personalized communication. Skills such as empathy and active listening are essential and can be worked on to ensure customized interactions.
This personalization can also be seen in small gestures of enchantment. A handwritten letter to your best customers or a customized gift to thank them for their continued partnership are ways to strengthen the emotional bond.
6. Relevant and unique content
Do you know what else is essential for audience loyalty? Offering personalized and segmented content based on your audience’s interests, questions and preferences.
This is a way to deliver continuous value to people, bringing them closer to the company and strengthening loyalty. Overall, it is possible to maintain interest and engagement.
Among content-based customer loyalty strategies, initiatives such as blogs or online communities can be quite effective.
Email messages, app notifications, and text messages are also good options for maintaining regular, personalized communication without being intrusive.
By monitoring engagement, you can understand what works best and what needs to be adjusted. This way, you can offer increasingly relevant content to each segment!
7. Success stories
In a Customer Marketing strategy, success stories are also essential for customer loyalty. They inspire people to achieve results similar to those shared.
Consider a store that sells nutritional supplements. If they share the results of other customers, people who have purchased from them may be more engaged with the valuable content and seek similar results.
This will strengthen the relationship with the brand and may even increase satisfaction with purchases. Thus, there is a greater level of connection with the brand.
Another important point is that highlighting customers in success stories also serves to value and recognize consumers, which increases the loyalty of those who receive this type of feedback and even makes other people want this type of relationship!
Furthermore, success stories increase trust and credibility by serving as social proof. The tendency is for the relationship to be strengthened, leading to loyalty!
8. Social media engagement
Did you know that social media participation plays a very important role in customer loyalty? It’s true! Being present on social media where your customers are also present gives you the opportunity to interact with them in a meaningful way.
It’s essential to respond to comments and messages, share relevant content frequently, and foster authentic conversations. Above all, this is a way to demonstrate the value your brand places on your customers and your relationship.
Social media is also a great opportunity to welcome new customers, creating a positive impression from the start of the retention journey.
9. Memorable experiences in every contact
Another key to customer loyalty involves creating positive and memorable experiences with each contact. In other words, each interaction should be an opportunity to inspire, impress and bring people together.
Doing so strengthens trust, improves brand awareness and increases engagement. However, these results can only be achieved by having consistent and positive touchpoints!
In practice, there are many ways to create experiences of this type. In online stores, the practicality and convenience of purchasing and delivery are essential points to generate this impression.
Personalizing experiences and communication is equally important. A cosmetics store that sends samples and gifts to loyal customers based on their purchase history is a good example of creating unforgettable moments.
Even problem-solving can be an opportunity to create a memorable experience. Providing prepared, agile and efficient service can be effective in generating delight and loyalty.
10. Feedback and continuous improvement
In addition to putting these tips into practice, show that you value your customers’ opinions. One way to do this is to regularly request feedback and performance reviews and act on them.
This is the case of sending satisfaction surveys to new customers or to those who needed support, for example. In addition to analyzing the metrics, it is necessary to use them to train the team to deliver what the customer really expects.
This shows that the brand is willing to listen to what the public has to say and that there is a genuine willingness to optimize the customer experience.
This is also an opportunity to gain insights to continually improve products and services, as well as processes. With this feedback, it is possible to make experiences increasingly better and more personalized, increasing the chances of loyalty.
Examples of customer loyalty
When we look at big brands with loyal audiences, it is a sign that these strategies have been successfully applied in different ways.
Amazon, for example, has always stood out for listening carefully to customer feedback and complaints. That’s how they created mechanisms to speed up delivery, with new distribution centers and even the use of drones and lockers.
Another key point is that Amazon has the ability to create an omnichannel experience. This involves purchasing through Alexa, the app, or the website, with the same experience. Or, for example, consuming online and picking up offline.
Furthermore, Amazon stands out for its ability to adapt to meet the needs of its customers. Knowing its customers very well, the company noticed the migration of content consumption from DVDs to streaming.
Instead of losing market share to Netflix, for example, the company created Amazon Prime and adapted to this new era.
Speaking of Netflix, this is another good example of using strategies to build customer loyalty. Customization, for example, is offered when the company uses algorithms to offer personalized recommendations that increase engagement.
The company has also made a name for itself by creating interactive experiences — from an episode of “Black Mirror” to a survival experience featuring host Bear Grylls.
Focusing on relevant content, the company also invested in making it available globally and in different languages, in addition to promoting diversity and inclusion to generate identification.
All of this allows you to take advantage of strategies such as active listening to the public, multichannel and even the creation of memorable experiences throughout the relationship.
Customers will want more from your business!
Customer loyalty is more likely when there are emotional ties between people and the brand. As we have seen, by connecting your business’s value proposition with the needs and desires of your audience, you increase the chances of winning loyal and engaged customers.
Therefore, I encourage you to adopt these 10 tips to have an audience that wants to continue doing business with your company!
At Enjoy Minder, we understand that every brand is unique and that the success of a strategy depends on a personalized approach. So, if you are looking for a Digital Marketing agency to help you, you have found it!
Talk to our experts and understand everything we can achieve together!
