Many modern businesses strive towards having engaged and loyal customers, Not only does that help you retain your customers and encourage them to return for repeat business, but it also motivates customers to become brand advocates. Word-of-mouth recommendations can go a long way in attracting new customers and building awareness about your brand. As a matter of fact, 92% of online consumers will trust a recommendation even if they don’t know the person making the recommendation.
In addition, 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations. Simply put, loyal customers can further endorse your business by recommending it to their friends and family, as well as other consumers across various media channels. However, in order to have brand representatives in your target audience, you must first encourage your customers to become your brand’s advocates. Therefore, here are a few ways to make your customers your number one brand representatives.
Offer an exceptional customer experience
From the moment you start capturing the interest of your customers with your marketing campaigns, you have to provide them with an exceptional and seamless customer experience. That means you have to offer value at every step of their buyer’s journey. Make sure you send out welcome messages and thank them for their purchases.
Also, don’t hesitate to personalize your offers and offers special promotions, as well as discounts. Most importantly, try to focus on delivering high-quality products and services. That way you’ll guarantee customer satisfaction, which will make your customers more likely to recommend you to others. The happier your customers are, the greater the likelihood of them becoming brand representatives.
Offer branded items
Handing out branded merchandise to your customers is not only a good way to build brand awareness, but it’s also an excellent way to inspire engagement and loyalty in your customers. That being said, 79% of online consumers have stated that they’re more likely to do business with a brand that offers them a free gift. Everyone loves getting a free gift and it will even encourage your customers to suggest your brand to their family and friends.
You can hand out promotional items with your logo on them, for example. The main reason is that 94% of consumers will remember the brand whose gifts they’ve received. In addition, 84% of consumers claim that branded items help improve their awareness of the brand. Offering free handouts to customers is a great way to improve relations with them, as well as to ensure their satisfaction.
Include them in a loyalty program
A loyalty program is a great way to retain your customers and foster their engagement, as well as their loyalty to your business. That being said, 76% of customers believe loyalty programs are part of their relationships with a brand. In addition, 83% of consumers are more willing to continue doing business with a brand if they’re a part of a loyalty program.
Rewarding customers for their loyalty can be of great benefit to your relationship with them. Moreover, your customers will be willing to endorse your brand to others and give positive reviews for your brand over channels, such as social media. In other words, the more loyalty you inspire in customers, the more brand advocates you’ll have.
Build relationships with your customers
At the end of the day, the relationship you have with your customers determines how willing they’ll be to endorse your brand further. It’s important to understand that your relationship with your target audience is not strictly based on purchases and sales. Sometimes you have to give value to your customers without asking anything in return to spark their engagement. One of the best ways to start things off is via social media platforms. Social media allows you to directly engage with your target audience.
What’s more, you can create compelling content and share it with your customers over social networks. However, if you want your content to deliver value to customers, make sure it’s highly relevant to your audience. You can choose to educate them on a certain topic, inform them about the latest news or simply entertain them with content. Moreover, you can try to solve a specific problem your audience has with your content. Either way, the more value you deliver o audience, the more engaged they’ll become and in return, they’ll promote your business through word-of-mouth recommendations.
Having loyal and engaged customers is beneficial to your business in more ways than one. Satisfied customers will recommend your business to others and they’ll advocate for your brand every chance they get. In a crowded and highly competitive market, having brand representatives speaking on your behalf may just be the thing that will make your business stand out from all the others.
Elaine Bennett is a marketing specialist and a blogger. She’s a regular contributor at Bizzmark Blog, covering topics such as business, marketing, small business, and entrepreneurship.
People say marketing is the ultimate tool to expand a business. I say it is customer experience and reputation especially when your company is local/small. I have experienced the facts you said. Especially the “Build relationships with your customers” one. Most of my customers are referred from my existing customers coz I have tried to build a personal relationship with them.
BTW, I loved your article. It’s like reading my own words.
The biggest privilege of an unwavering loyalty program is the potential to adjust your trade operations rewarding your client list. Your business will start stocking more customers who’ve high repeated purchases or average budget to spend. Also, with the buyers’ answers, you can determine where and how to improve your business offerings.
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