Customers who feel a strong connection to your business are more likely to stay loyal to you, purchase more of your products or services, and recommend you to their friends.
Customer loyalty is critical, especially when most industries are so competitive. Additionally, it’s a lot cheaper to retain existing customers than attract and convert new ones.
So what can you do to build stronger connections with customers and inspire brand loyalty? Let’s look at five marketing techniques you can use right now to develop lasting relationships that drive customer loyalty.
1. Connect with customers on a personal level through SMS marketing
SMS marketing is an incredibly effective way to connect with your customers. This involves sending customers promotional text messages personalized to the user to share updates and special offers right to their phones.
Also known as text message marketing, SMS marketing can help you build strong connections with your customers because it offers a convenient way for them to learn about exclusive discounts and updates regarding your company. Here are some steps you can take while building an SMS marketing campaign that will allow you to connect with your target audience:
- Establish your campaign goals to ensure your SMS marketing campaign will help you reach them.
- Add a clear call to action (CTA) to each message to drive users to your website.
- Use segmentation to make your SMS marketing campaign as personalized as possible and drive the right people to your website.
Compared to other marketing channels, SMS response rates can reach 45 percent, while email tends to top out at 6 percent. This means customers are more likely to see and click on your SMS messages than your promotional emails. As a result, SMS marketing offers an excellent opportunity for you to reach your target audience.
If you’re looking to bring your SMS marketing to the next level, Emotive offers special SMS marketing software that will help you automate and analyze your SMS marketing campaigns. They offer two-way text messaging marketing that allows customers to engage with your messages, providing a human touch that will build stronger connections with your ideal customers and increase your conversion rate. Emotive also enables seamless integrations with programs you’re likely already using, making it an excellent choice for building upon your existing tech strategy.
Another great feature is their automated segmentation, which uses customer data to personalize messages and make your customers feel like your company truly understands them. This, again, is ideal for helping you to earn your customers’ loyalty, as they’ll feel far more connected to your business.
2. Create content that shows you understand your audience’s needs
One of the most effective ways to build stronger connections with customers is by proving that you truly understand their needs and recognize the pain points they experience. And, you can do this very effectively with content that provides the information they need and addresses the issues they face.
To come up with content that shows your audience you understand their needs, go right to the source and send out surveys to ask customers what they would like more information about. Learning about what your audience needs will help you write more relevant and actionable content that builds a connection with your readers and helps them alleviate their pain points.
Take a look at this fantastic example from Tipalti Approve, a procurement operations company. Their guide to indirect procurement offers essential information to their audience about this complex topic that they’re experts in.
The in-depth article covers many aspects of indirect procurement that their audience will want to know about, like the difference between direct and indirect procurement, skills procurement professionals need, and the challenges of indirect procurement. This information shows potential customers that Tipalti Approve understands what their audience needs to be informed about, and what kinds of challenges they’re up against.
You can use the same approach to build strong connections with your customers by making an effort to understand their needs and build comprehensive content that addresses them. Make sure that your content dives into valuable topics to show that you are an expert in your field of work and that you understand the needs of your customers. This will make it easier for them to trust you when you say that your products or services can solve their problems.
Another excellent example comes from the live answering service and call center CMS. Their content aims to help readers distinguish between different types of leaves of absence, which is a common issue human resource professionals face every day.
This blog post provides examples of paid and unpaid leave time, which will help human resource professionals navigate time-off requests from their employees so they can then spend more time focusing on other aspects of their jobs. The detailed information shows that CMS is an expert in the field and that potential customers can trust the company’s products and services, since they have proven that they completely understand the needs of their audience.
You can use the same approach by explaining complex topics in an easy-to-understand manner for your target audience. CMS does a great job of providing definitions and examples, along with in-depth explanations, to show that they understand the struggles of the people they’re aiming to serve. This is sure to build stronger relationships with their audience and lead to more sales for the business, so it’s a tactic worth using on your website, too.
3. Engage directly with your audience through social media
You can use social media to build strong connections with your customers because it allows you to engage with your audience in real-time and in a manner that is fun for your followers.
There are many social networks that your business can use to engage with customers, but you should choose the ones that will best help you reach your target audience. Not every social platform is the right choice for all businesses, so think about your customers before choosing the network to focus on.
For instance, TikTok users are typically younger, so you might not want to choose this platform if your company sells professional accounting services — this is because your products don’t align with the traditional user of TikTok. However, you might want to choose LinkedIn, since this platform is frequented by professionals who would be more open to engaging with your brand and services.
You can build strong connections with your customers by choosing a social media network that your target audience spends lots of time on so you can share updates and industry news that matters to them. You could even look through Facebook groups to find people who are interested in your products and engage with them on a personal level. Over time, this can help you build a relationship with your audience and drive more sales.
4. Ensure prospective clients see the faces behind your business
To build stronger relationships with potential customers, you must humanize your company through your marketing efforts. This is because people generally prefer to feel like they’re doing business with a friendly team of experts they can trust instead of a large corporation.
Humanizing your business simply means allowing your customers to see the real people behind your company. There are several ways you can do this, including by:
- Creating an “About Us” page that features different team members customers will interact with. This can help people put names to your workers’ faces and personalize customers’ overall experience.
- Producing behind-the-scenes videos that show your employees interacting with customers and having fun throughout the day while at work. This can make your customers see that your employees care about their work, and clients will have a great experience of doing business with you.
- Showcasing content that highlights employee successes and milestones they’ve reached. This can help to show customers your workers are always aiming to learn more about how to better serve them.
Let’s look at a company that does a great job of creating a strong connection with their customers by highlighting their team members on their site.
Bizango, a Seattle-based digital marketing company, introduces its team members on its website’s “About Us” page. This features real photos and relatable bios for each team member customers might work with at the agency. This information helps customers put a face to the names and ensures customers know they are working with real and personable people.
You can use the same strategy to build strong connections with customers by adding engaging imagery and fun tidbits about your team members to your company’s “About Us” page. This will go a long way towards humanizing your business and building solid customer relationships.
5. Recognize and reward loyal customers
You can build strong connections with your clients by showing how much you appreciate them. For instance, you could reward their loyalty by sending birthday discounts to frequent customers or providing free samples of new products to loyalty program members. You can also set up a points-based reward system where customers receive a discount on your products or services with each purchase they make.
These programs can help you build a strong connection with customers as they will see that you value their business. If you would like to take it one step further, you could even give customers a reason to become your brand ambassadors by providing them with links or codes they can give to friends and family when recommending your services. Then, you could reward them with the likes of discounts or free products whenever this leads to a sale for your business.
Summary
You can build strong connections with your customers through personalized marketing campaigns, creating content that shows your audience you understand their needs, and engaging with your followers on social media.
Over time, your customers will see that your business is run by people they can relate to, which can lead to more sales and improve your customers’ loyalty.
