Loyal customers are the best customers. Not only do they buy more, they spend more. And then they’ll go home and talk about your brand to their friends and family. Maybe even make a social media post talking about how satisfied they are with their recent purchase. All the good stuff.
So, you want more loyal customers? Embrace loyalty marketing.
What is loyalty marketing? As defined by Wikipedia, “Loyalty marketing is an approach to marketing, based on strategic management, in which a company focuses on growing and retaining existing customers through incentives.” The key word here is incentive. An incentive is something that motivates a person to take an action. With loyalty marketing, you’re giving your customers a reason to stick around. Whether that’s through a sale, service, rewards, or something else entirely, the idea is that the sum of these incentives will ultimately create more loyal customers for your brand.
The more times that customers do business with a brand, the more loyal they tend to become. Research from Yotpo tells us that for 37% of consumers, it’ll take more than 5 purchases to develop brand loyalty. Furthermore, 33% will consider themselves loyal after 3 purchases, 17.65% after 4 purchases, and 12.35% after 2 purchases.
Of course, incentivizing repeat visits is not the sole driver of loyalty. It’s a critical component of loyalty marketing, but you need to go a step further. You’re not just trying to create repeat customers. You’re trying to create advocates. People that will go out of their way to sing the praises of your brand. They don’t just do business with you because it’s convenient. They do it because it’s a pleasure. Because they couldn’t imagine an alternative.
Here’s a shortlist of key ways to foster loyalty.
Aim to satisfy. Loyal customers are happy customers. Whatever your product or service may be, your goal should always be to send ‘em home satisfied. And you’re not going to accomplish that just by having a quality product/service. (You should do that just to, you know, stay in business). You’re going to accomplish that by fostering a positive customer experience. You want to have great in-store experience. You want to have the best customer service possible. You want to prevent frustration wherever you can.
Stay engaged. Customers like it when you keep them in the loop. Let them know what’s going on. Whether you’re holding events, having a sale, or announcing a new product, it’s a good idea to inform your customers across your platforms (e.g. social media, email newsletter, your website, etc.)
Support causes your customers care about. If you want to create loyal customers, you have to get them to care about your brand. Give them a reason to think of it as more than just a business that’s trying to make a bunch of money. They want to know that you represent their values.You can do this by supporting various causes that align with your target audience. There are tons of ways to do this. You can hold events, fundraisers, donate to charities, and so much more. Give it a shot.
Build Loyalty With CoGoBuzz
Ready to get on board with loyalty marketing? With CoGoBuzz, we’ll create loyalty for your business, both digitally and automatically.
Easy and affordable, our state-of-the-art marketing service leverages advanced WiFi, SMS, and Email solutions that incentivize customers to return to your business. CoGoBuzz makes it so much easier to build a relationship between your business and customers by giving you a platform to communicate with via the mobile devices they use so much.
Because customers login through WiFi with their Facebook profile, email, or phone number, we’ll hook you up fully realized customer profiles, giving you all the valuable data you need to cater to them. On top of that, you’ll take advantage of a fully digital SMS-based loyalty program that simplifies engagement to a simple text message, allowing you to engage with your customers wherever they go.
Click here to learn more about CoGoBuzz!
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How has your business embraced loyalty marketing? Let us know in the comments!