Today’s blog post focuses on building customer loyalty in an online environment. We discuss what customer loyalty is, how trust and brand perception can affect loyalty, and the importance of regularly engaging with your customers to establish a stronger connection to your brand.
What is customer loyalty?
Customer loyalty is defined by the team at Hubspot as “a customer’s willingness to repeatedly return to a company to conduct some kind of business due to the delightful and remarkable experiences they have had with that brand.”
An example of customer loyalty would be if you are the customer of an online sporting goods company (eg. sportsfix.com.au). You are the coach of a junior soccer team and you have purchased equipment from this supplier a couple of times before. The equipment was high quality and reasonably priced and the support staff were very helpful in answering your questions. You signed up to their email list and look forward to receiving regular updates with details on the latest products and offers.
Trust and brand perception
Customer loyalty can be affected by how your brand is perceived, and whether it is viewed as trusted amongst competitors in an online environment. Marketing experts at Content Marketing Institute outline 7 steps to getting brand trust right, including:
- Knowing your brand trust goals (what does success look like and how will it be measured?)
- Appointing a brand trust lead (who is responsible for monitoring and perceiving brand trust)
- Being authentic through brand storytelling (highlight your businesses values, goals and culture)
- Offering a consistent customer experience (provide high quality, personalised support)
- Focusing on relationships (take the time to understand your customers)
- Embracing transparency (show customers the truth about your brand)
- Building social proof (respond to public reviews/feedback about your brand).
Engaging with your customers
We published a blog post back in April on establishing a stronger relationship with your customers, outlining ways to keep customers informed, how to build brand authority with your .au website and being able to demonstrate the ability to adapt. It may seem obvious, but the more your customers hear from you, the more often you are providing an opportunity for interaction. If your business is sending regular emails, updating your website, monitoring and posting on social media and other forums, the higher the likelihood of customers interacting with your brand and its products/services.
The way your customers perceive your brand is likely to be a reflection of their opportunities to connect, and the processes you have in place to support this. Through dedicating time and resources to getting brand trust right, you can implement a strategy to build customer loyalty in an online environment and stay ahead of your competitors.
Have a question, comment or idea for a future blog post? Email us at blog@afilias.com.au today.