How To Build Customer Loyalty In 2023

Building Customer Loyalty in 2023

In 2023, the way to build customer loyalty has evolved into a complex yet essential component of a brand’s success and can be quite challenging to maintain, even if you’re one of the trendiest out there.

With more and more brands taking risks to build and secure customer loyalty, the playing field is extremely competitive. It’s not just about repeat purchases or compelling promotions, it’s about forging a genuine and lasting connection with your customers.

At Embryo, we have a range of experts that can help build customer loyalty. If you’re interested in working with us then call us today on 0161 327 2635 or email [email protected].

Knowing Your Audience Helps

Customer loyalty works in various ways, but will always be necessary to any successful business. You first want to make yourself aware that if people don’t buy into your brand, then they won’t buy your products. In 2023, it’s important to be aware that they are not just repeat buyers, but also your brand advocates and are looking to build deeper relationships with your brand. You have to be able to resonate with your audience, which is achieved by closely monitoring your audience to establish what their needs are.

A 2021 report by Cheetah Digital revealed a 71% increase in consumers looking for brands to give them something exclusive or early access. This is something that we are seeing more often. Brands like O2, for example, offer O2 priority rewards, it’s available 24/7 and shares exclusive access to gigs- no wonder it’s one of the fastest-growing loyalty programs in the UK. It just establishes how essential that brands reward long-term consumers to improve their chances of maintaining their loyalty.

Currently, in a landscape, where the cost of living is at an all-high, even long-standing customers are more aware than ever of what brands are doing to support them, meaning that they are more likely to jump ship for a brand offering a similar product if their loyalty program is better. With that being said, I think when you strip it back, it goes deeper than just affordability or what you’re doing to help customers during a financial crisis and there needs to be emphasis on your community.

Building Foundations Equals Building Customer Loyalty

In 2023, brands need to be focusing more on building the foundations with their customers, understanding what they want from you is most beneficial in increasing the likelihood of building and maintaining mutual respect to encourage a loyal customer base. Your customers need to believe in you and understand the foundations and the core values that your brand is built on and that you have them as your priority. It’s clear to see that exclusivity is a huge step in the right direction for building foundations that contribute to the retention of loyal customers.

Starbucks recently revealed their new tiered system for rewarding customer loyalty. Each membership provides different rewards, with one offering a free drink on your birthday. This allows customers to choose which one will suit their needs most, placing more control back on the customer, which is likely to make them feel more respected and valued. Again, in a competitive digital landscape, your brand needs to find a way to stand out, so by offering an app where you’re able to track your rewards, which is a quick and simple way for customers to keep customers engaged with your brand.

Loyalty schemes are something that has developed more and become extremely prevalent in the current landscape. However, understanding why this is so important from a psychological perspective, there’s less emphasis on the incentives and promotions themselves, but establishing them as a way to connect with your audience on a deeper level, fosters community building, resonating your values with your audience and building trust.

What Is Personal Branding and How Can It Help Build Customer Loyalty?

Personal branding is a great way to communicate your company’s values and missions, allowing consumers to understand what it is you’re passionate about, what your brand represents and whether or not you are something they want to support.  It allows the consumer to connect with your band on another level, thus making you seem more relatable and in turn, easier to trust and buy into. This is something health-related brands can capitalise on extremely well as it’s an emotionally charged subject.

What do you do to support your local community or the industry you work in? It’s a great question to ask yourself when looking to build loyal relationships with consumers, they want to know that you care about them and that you’re advocating for positive change within your industry. It just makes you stand out from a professional view and something that they can share with their friends, like “Did you hear XYZ, the pet brand teamed up with their local animal shelter to provide free meals and toys etc.” Identifying a way to integrate deeper into your industry can help distinguish your longevity whilst acknowledging your corporate social responsibilities.

According to a study by Edelman, two-thirds of consumers now buy on beliefs and brands are now having to up their game and become more strategic with their marketing. One way to achieve this is consistency, creating a product line or branding campaign that is consistent with the core values and overall design of the brand can help communicate the right message, thus building trust and customer loyalty.

With personal branding, comes a personal touch. What really can set a business apart from another? Whether it’s your branding itself, your website, or your social media, what makes you distinctive is something that can build your brand. Consumers are more likely to not only remember you but want to come back to you, we can compare this to when you find a funny TikTok and go back hours later to see if they have posted new content, it all works similarly.

By incorporating personal branding into your business strategy, you open up a clear pathway to communicate your brand’s mission and values. This allows customers to connect with your brand on a deeper level, which ultimately establishes trust between you and your customers, effectively building customer loyalty.

Competitor Analysis

When looking to build customer loyalty, It comes as no secret that competitor analysis can help you tailor your strategies to reach the right audience. It allows you to identify what your competitors are doing for their customers and what is most successful, which can help you to know your audience better.

Competitor analysis can often help brands distinguish customer expectations, which can help to tailor products and services to meet their needs and this can create an environment where the customer feels part of the brand, building trust.

Competitor analysis is great for helping tailor fundamental strategies, like differentiation strategies and customer retention strategies. Establishing what your competitors are doing is a great way to avoid running campaigns or releasing a product line that looks like carbon copies, it’s a great way to set you apart and demonstrate originality. It gives the unique advantage of understanding where there is a gap in the market for you to penetrate.

By spotting gaps you can help identify a need for something and provide a solution. l, which enables you to saturate a market to meet specific needs of consumers which can help build more awareness around your brand, which will ultimately lead to a more loyal customer base.

By including competitor analysis in your customer loyalty strategy, you can tailor your approach to reach the right audience by identifying what your competitors are doing successfully. This gives you understanding and helps you meet customer expectations and build trust. Competitor analysis is valuable for shaping differentiation and customer retention strategies to help avoid duplication, identifying those gaps in the market to brand awareness, and ultimately retaining more loyal customers.

In Digital PR, we conduct competitor analysis for our clients to establish the industry that they sit in, which allows us to tailor our strategy accordingly and spot the best opportunities to achieve the highest ROI for our clients.

Feedback and Improvements

Your customers are at the forefront of any successful business model, so it’s vital to listen to their needs and thoughts.

A lot of brands offer the ability to leave a review or complete a survey whilst on the platform to help improve the user experience. These are things that I’m seeing more of especially in 2023 as it’s a quick and effective way to let customers have their say. By giving them the opportunity to consumers to share their thoughts and feelings, you place them as a priority and allow them to feel heard, which improves your reputation. This can help brands connect with their customers, gaining a deeper understanding of what their customers need the most.

How to Leverage Positive Feedback

From a Digital PR perspective, leveraging positive feedback can be extremely useful to include on your website, placed in press releases and highlight what your brand is doing to become more innovative, improve customer satisfaction and increase brand visibility.

Conclusion

In the current landscape, knowing your audience and having a deeper understanding of your customers is going to be one of, if not the most important to be aware of, in establishing trust and loyalty. This goes hand in hand, with competitor analysis, which will give you all the tools to approach and implement successful tailored strategies.

If you’d like to learn how Embryo can help you build customer loyalty or any of our other digital marketing services, then give us a call on 0161 327 2635 or email [email protected].