How to Build and Maintain Brand Loyalty

It’s 2016 and your customer now wants to be in charge of his own experiences, especially given the range of options now at their disposal. Which website to visit, for what, how long to stay, whether to interact with the brand – it’s all up to your target audience. What will make them come to your brand in lieu of another, and make them stay? There are a couple of ways by which you can stand out. Let’s look at a few:

Gain new perspective

Stay on top of your game by updating your digital marketing strategies from time to time to better engage your customer base. Ask yourself: “What does your competitor offer that would attract your potential customers to them instead?” Do they have more options with that service? E.g. If Jabong gives me the option to use their service on a desktop and an app, as opposed to Myntra’s recent shift to app-only, guess which service I’m more likely to use regularly.

However, note that at times, even too many options can be detrimental, so remove obstacles that will prevent quick action by the user. The fewer steps required to perform a task, the better – be it at the checkout stage or even while contacting customer care. If your user has too many decisions to make, he will abandon you in favour of a quicker and easier-to-use alternative. Amazon is doing a good job on this front.

Encourage users to engage with you

Make visitors to your brand’s properties feel important and like they’re more than just a source of revenue for you. Everyone wants to have their opinions heard, so making them felt like their voices are being heard will help immensely build brand loyalty. Their feedback will also provide you with insights into potential areas of improvement. Your site’s social media presence – be it on Facebook or YouTube – will come in handy here.

Identify and invest in key engagement areas

Interactive digital marketing campaigns have a higher likelihood of engaging potential users so invest accordingly. Choose platforms that allow you to personalize the experience by engaging on a personal level, adding a human touch to the connection and making the interaction with your brand feel less like an exchange of services for money.

Look at past behaviour

Employ data visualization tools to analyze past behaviour of your target audience. What made them linger? What made them leave? Is the follower count more important to you, than the quality of your followers? Maybe it’s time to shift your focus to the kind of people you want to make up your user base.

Revisit data engagement strategies

The old way of doing things was to find a strategy that works and then stick to it, revisiting it only once every quarter to ensure smooth operation. However, if you don’t address required changes quicker (read: at least once a month), you risk alienating users and losing loyal customers due to their changed perception of your brand resulting from lack of communication. If possible, hire an outside expert to conduct an audit on your various marketing channels. This will provide valuable insight on what’s working for you, things you need to keep doing and activities that are sabotaging your marketing efforts.