We’ve discussed brand consistency and how maintaining consistent branding across all channels can boost your credibility and establish recognition. But brand consistency is only one piece to the puzzle of growing your business and establishing yourself in the marketplace. Keeping your brand consistent is one thing, but how do you make customers eager to return for more?
Enter brand loyalty, the key to cracking the customer retention code.
What is Brand Loyalty?
There are lots of definitions for what makes a customer loyal to your brand, but this one from Hubspot hits the nail on the head: “Brand loyalty is the dedication a customer feels toward a brand that pushes them to consistently buy their products and/or services, regardless of competitors, price, or convenience.”
That one section – “regardless of competitors, price, or convenience” – is crucial to remember about brand loyalty. Customers who like your brand and what you offer to them will keep coming back to you, even if you don’t offer the best deals or the most convenient solution on the market – although, in some cases, that certainly helps.
Additionally, according to Gartner, brand loyalty can be linked to the culmination of both brand experience (BX) and customer experience (CX). And when those two ideas don’t line up, brand loyalty takes a hit.
“When customer experience is out of sync with brand promise, customer trust and loyalty erodes. To drive retention and growth, CMOs must proactively align CX and brand experience, including brand messaging, by bridging silos and delivering experiences that support a customer-centric brand promise,” according to Gartner’s analysis, “Increase Brand Loyalty by Integrating Customer and Brand Experience.”
So, you know that brand loyalty is essential, but how does it tangibly affect your business?
Here are some other ways that creating loyal brand advocates goes farther than any paid marketing could ever go.
Customer Retention
Retaining customers is how recurring revenue happens. A business cannot successfully operate with one-time payers alone; you need to attract customers willing to pay for your products and services month-over-month and year-over-year.
Brand loyalty leads to customers who are willing to come back to you again and again because they know they can get the exact service and features they need from your business.
As a bonus, retaining a solid customer base reduces instances that can negatively affect your revenue, like high churn rates – customers that ditch you quickly because you aren’t providing a good customer experience.
Reduced Marketing Costs
Everyone wants to make their marketing dollars go further. However, it often seems like there are fewer ways to do that these days, especially with the cost of digital advertising increasing.
Not to mention the impact of inflation, which has crept into every aspect of life, including board rooms and marketing departments.
But here’s a secret to making your money go further, despite outside forces – you spend less money advertising to top and mid-funnel customers when you create loyal brand advocates who keep coming back for more.
And rising costs don’t mean all bad news. Gartner’s “How Inflation Will Impact Brand Loyalty” analysis states, “Despite inflation, about half of consumers may remain loyal to their favorite brands in 2023 and beyond. However, a similar number may opt for more affordable versions. CMOs must gauge how inflation will affect their brand loyalty.”
And have you ever heard of word-of-mouth marketing? It’s free! Word-of-mouth marketing happens when your existing client base is so satisfied with the customer experience they receive from you that they freely share the good news about you with everyone they meet.
Brand loyalists can help you reduce your marketing costs by doing what they do best: sing praises about your brand.
Better Brand Reputation
Your brand reputation is everything, especially for industries where customer experience is king.
When customers are loyal to your brand, you can guarantee that it’s because you have a good market reputation.
People are also far more likely to publicly praise you through positive online reviews or customer testimonials.
And those reviews really add up. As much as 76% of consumers regularly read online reviews when browsing for local businesses.
A positive online review from a happy customer proves to others that your reputation is rock solid. It can even influence people who are on the fence to finally make a buying decision.
Branded Communications and Brand Loyalty
We’ve talked about the WHY of brand loyalty; now let’s talk about the HOW.
How do you turn every-so-often customers into loyal brand advocates? You need to consider every touchpoint between you and the customer, including the voice channel.
Branded calling is all about three big ideas: personalization, consistency, and trust.
With a branded phone call, you can personalize every outbound call you make to customers with your official company name and the reason for your call.
Branded phone calls also ensure your phone calls appear the same every time you make contact. Rather than relying on CNAM, which only a small percentage of customers opt-in to, branded calling gives you complete control over your branding. And it works on every major U.S. carrier and mobile phone device!
And when your calls are personalized and consistent, customers know they can trust that you are who you say you are. No more unknown numbers – branded calling identifies every outbound call.
Ready to Start Branding?
Let’s talk. Get started here and see what a branded call can do to boost your brand loyalty.
