Edward Boatman • May 8th
Making your first sale is exciting, but those sales aren’t worth much if none of your customers return to make a second purchase. Whether you’re just getting started or you’re an established brand, building and leveraging brand loyalty can be difficult.
Brand loyalty is a key part of making sure people trust your products and keep coming back to your brand. Building brand loyalty can be a long process, but the return is worth the effort. Learn more about the importance of brand loyalty and how you can build brand loyalty to propel your business.
Brand loyalty refers to how likely your customers are to make multiple purchases from your brand. Ideally, you want your customers to be loyal to your brand so they continue to purchase your product. Unfortunately, you probably have several competitors that your customers may choose the next time they need a similar product or service.
Let’s say you stay at a hotel and have a great experience. The next time you’re traveling to that area, you’re probably going to check to see if that hotel has any rooms available before you start looking for a new hotel to stay at. This same principle applies to restaurants, wireless providers, and just about every other business you can think of.
Brand loyalty is incredibly important because it determines how likely people are to keep coming back to your brand. When you have a strong customer base that trusts in your brand and invests in your new products, you have the support you need to develop better products and make your brand the best it can be.
You ultimately have a limited number of potential customers, and you usually have to spend a lot of marketing dollars to tap into that potential customer base. When people make one purchase from your brand and decide to switch to another product, it severely limits the number of potential sales you can make.
Loyal customers will keep returning and purchasing the same products — or newer iterations — which means you don’t have to focus all your resources on attracting new customers who make a single purchase.
Source: Qualtrics
Brand loyalty might seem simple, but there are a lot of factors that affect brand loyalty and the way customers feel about brands as a whole. Building brand loyalty starts with understanding how customers decide which brands they’re loyal to.
Celebrity endorsements and marketing gimmicks can attract customers, but quality is what makes people stick around. You might try a restaurant because you heard it was good, but you’re not going to keep eating there if you don’t like the food. People apply this same principle to your brand, which is why it’s so important to focus on the quality of your products or services.
If there’s one thing you want your brand to be synonymous with, it’s quality. In a world where dropshipping and private label products have overtaken major retailers like Amazon, people value quality more than ever. When you offer your customers a quality product that meets their needs, they’ll count on you next time they need that product.
Establishing your brand and building a strong brand identity is a lot of work, but your branding directly affects brand loyalty. Your branding is designed to influence people who interact with your brand — the visuals, language, and values you align your brand with impact the perception people have of your brand.
When it comes to branding, consider how all your decisions affect how customers connect with your brand. The language you use can evoke emotions and change how people perceive your products. Colors can also have a significant impact on the way people feel about a brand — even if they don’t realize it at the moment.
Keeping a consistent brand identity is paramount. Using a digital brand guidelines platform, you can seamlessly communicate your brand guidelines and standards to your internal stakeholders as well as to those who need it outside of your organization.
Marketing is one of the biggest things that connects people with your brand. Your marketing efforts will be the first time many people learn about your brand. Even if someone is already familiar with your brand, every bit of marketing makes an impression on them.
Whether you’re marketing through traditional channels like television and direct mail or through social media, think about the message you’re conveying and how you're conveying it. Language isn’t the only thing that affects people when it comes to marketing — it’s also important to consider the visual elements we talked about in the branding section.
If you want people to be loyal to your brand, you have to show them you’re committed to offering the best service. Customer service is one of the biggest factors people consider when it comes to brand loyalty. If you offer 24/7 live chat customer service that delivers results, people are more likely to keep coming back to your brand. If you make it difficult for customers to find your phone number or talk to an actual person, they’re not likely to trust your brand.
The smartphone industry is one strong example of brand loyalty. When smartphones initially launched, the Apple iPhone was the model everyone was after. Samsung didn’t launch its first Galaxy smartphone until 2009 — two years after the release of the first iPhone. As a result, Apple has held a significant share of the smartphone market for years.
Starbucks is another great example of brand loyalty. A lot of people who drink Starbucks drink it regularly, and they tend to choose Starbucks over other coffee shops. That brand loyalty has propelled Starbucks into one of the largest chains in the world with more than 38,000 locations worldwide and over 34.6M active members in their Starbucks Rewards loyalty program.
As a brand, building a strong identity that customers connect with and keep coming back to is one of the biggest challenges. You know how instantly recognizable and trustworthy brands like Starbucks are, but why is that? It all starts with these core strategies for building brand loyalty.
The quest for quality is the one thing nearly every customer has in common. When people buy a product, they expect it to perform at a certain level. If your product doesn’t meet their expectations, they’re probably not going to purchase it again. What’s even worse is that a negative experience with one of your products may lead people to avoid your brand entirely — even if you offer other products that may appeal to them.
Focus on offering high-quality products before you focus on anything else.
In recent years, it’s become common practice for companies to make customers go through a maze to reach customer service. When you purchase a product and you can’t find a phone number or email address to contact for help, it feels like you’re dealing with a brand you can’t trust. Trustworthy brands provide top-notch customer service that’s easily accessible for customers. You can take your brand up another notch by offering a warranty or a solid return policy that instills trust in customers who buy from your brand.
Loyalty programs are an excellent way to encourage customers to keep coming back and making purchases with your brand. Loyalty programs typically offer points for each purchase a customer makes. When a customer saves up enough points, they can redeem them for a reward. You can offer customers a discount on their next order, a free gift, or early access to a limited sale you’re offering. When customers get exclusive benefits through a loyalty program, they have an incentive to stick with your brand.
For example, outdoor sustainability brand Patagonia combines their mission with the loyalty rewards through a program called ‘Worn Wear.’ This invites customers to buy used Patagonia products, repair existing items, and recycle those worn-out. When customers take advantage of this program, they can receive a Worn Wear Merchandise Credit of up to $100 per item, helping with sustainability and loyalty in the same transaction.
Source: How to Build a Sustainable Loyalty Program for a Fashion Brand
Engaging with customers is one of the best ways to build brand loyalty in an organic way. People have a lot to say about most products and brands, but the effect of that feedback varies from brand to brand. You can encourage people to engage with your brand by responding to engagement — even if that involves something as simple as liking comments on your social media posts.
The best way to engage with customers is to provide value based on their engagement. You can answer questions customers have about your brand or product, offer tips for using your products, and more.
Some of the biggest brands in the world have built loyal followings by building a community of customers. You might not feel like you’re part of a community when you’re shopping at Walmart, but brands like Nike and Gatorade do an excellent job of building a community. Athletes who see Nike or Gatorade commercials relate to those commercials, and using those products ties them together with that community.
Brand loyalty is one of the biggest keys to making sure your brand succeeds in the long run. Finding new customers is costly and time-consuming, so repeat customers are an invaluable resource for your brand.
With Lingo, you can focus on branding to build a loyal customer base that propels your brand. Lingo allows you to share your brand assets and guidelines with everyone who needs them and maintain consistency across teams. Book a demo or contact us to learn how Lingo can help you build brand loyalty and establish your brand.