Your brand strategy is not just colours, fonts and a logo. It is the very reputation of your business and how everyone (not just your customers) sees you. Branding is all encompassing, it's your posts on social media, your fonts, content, values, company culture all the way up to the attitudes of your company executives and so much more. Yes there are some elements that are more customer facing than others, but building a brand that customers will want to interact with means being aware of all of the little details.
What is Brand Strategy?
A good brand strategy is a set of goals, actions and behaviours that could transform your business into a worldwide name. Resonating with your audience and building a community (small or large) of people who love your product is a key element to long term growth.
Defining Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty means customers consistently choose your brand despite competitors offering similar (or in rare cases, better) products. If a customer was to just leave the second they find a better alternative, were they really that loyal? Your community of customers will associate positive feelings with your brand and have similar values. Maybe a competitor's product is slightly better, but you might also work with environmental causes that customers really appreciate, or go out of your way to ensure your employees have a healthy a work-life balance. If Company A makes nicer clothes than Company B, but you find out that Company A only gives it's staff 5 minute lunch breaks for a 12 hour shift and 2 days of holiday a year, chances are, a lot of people are going to boycott that brand regardless of how nice the clothes are. 2020 and every year since has seen a larger emphasis on brands doing the right thing. The more open and transparent a brand is about it's values, the more it can resonate with people.
Why It Matters
Repeat business is essential for brand growth. You may have heard of the term ‘Customer Lifetime Value’. Convincing a returning customer to buy again is easier and cheaper than acquiring new ones. It's much more valuable and cost effective to retain one customer that buys from you 100 times, than it is to acquire 100 customers to buy from you once. A strong brand loyalty strategy should be a cornerstone of any marketing plan, emphasising the importance of understanding customer needs. Amazon highlights this concept due to its importance in retaining customers and increasing repurchase rates.
Core Strategies for Building Brand Loyalty
Know Your Audience
Understand your target audience in detail. What do they like? What do they not like? What are the deal-breakers that would make them close your website instead of checking out? It can sometimes help to create buyer personas to tailor and personalise your offerings. Interact with your audience to find out why they bought your product over someone else's.
Deliver Consistent, Exceptional Quality
We're not suggesting you hand deliver all your products with a white glove. Understand your customer's pain points, both large and small. It's not always about the obvious elements, think about the tiny inconveniences that seem irrelevant but make some brands a nightmare to work with and figure out a way to eliminate that problem.
Build a Strong Online Presence
It's no secret that your website will play a large part in how people perceive you. Develop a user-friendly Shopify website and again, look at the tiny elements that could make a world of difference to your customers when shopping on your website. Let them choose their own delivery courier during checkout, work with delivery companies that provide drop off windows to customers. It all has an effect on a customer's experience with you. If a delivery is late, yes a lot of blame will be put on the courier itself, but the customer's opinion of shopping with you could also be affected.
Utilise Social Media Channels
Social media is your chance to build your brand's reputation for free. Engage with customers, shout about your core values, post about how your business demonstrates those values. What is trending on TikTok? Can you utilise that to create some entertaining content? You could also encourage your community to create user-generated content. Potential customers physically seeing the joy of your existing customers, speaks 100 times more volume than a ‘High Quality Products’ trust signal on your website.
Make sure to be consistent across channels but to also pay attention to what that platform is for. LinkedIn is more for business updates and is a great chance to showcase how you treat your employees. Instagram and TikTok are great for short form entertaining content about new product launches or jumping on trends.
How Can We Help?
To build brand loyalty, you should focus on understanding your audience, delivering quality, establishing an online presence, and encouraging user-generated content. Our brand strategies lay a solid foundation for advanced marketing tactics and long-term benefits. A synergy of our Shopify development, brand and digital marketing services ensures that you have both a memorable website and are seen as a standout brand in the eyes of your target community.
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