When you’re marketing a small business, it can be easy to focus on attracting new leads and converting those into customers. After all, customer acquisition is important for growing a business.
But what if each of those new customers also returned to make more purchases, leave glowing reviews, and share their great experiences on social media? Your business would grow exponentially faster with much less work acquiring new leads.
How do you reach that dream scenario? By building brand loyalty.
In this guide, we’ll cover 12 ways to build brand loyalty by strengthening your messaging, leveling up your focus on customers, and encouraging repeat business.
Before we get to the strategies, though, let’s clarify what brand loyalty is and why it’s worth focusing on.
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What is brand loyalty?
Brand loyalty describes a consumer’s tendency to purchase from one company repeatedly despite alternate offers and opportunities. This decision to repeat purchases can be motivated by a relationship with the brand, which may include trust in the product, appreciation for the customer service, or shared belief in the company values.
Encouraging a customer to buy again usually costs much less than attracting and converting a new customer. That means brand loyalty can have real monetary results for your business. According to Bain & Company, businesses get an average 25% increase in profit when they boost customer retention by just 5%.
This isn’t just a cumulative, lifetime value. Some studies suggest that repeat, loyal customers spend more per purchase than their first-time counterparts, even up to 67% more when they have a long-standing relationship with your brand.
This relationship between your customers and your brand, however, isn’t likely to just happen; you need to focus on building brand loyalty.
Before a customer can be loyal, they need to be aware of your business. Download The Definitive Guide to Brand Awareness: Top Strategies, Examples & How to Measure Success.
12 ways you can foster brand loyalty
Consistent and coordinated efforts throughout your product, marketing, and customer service cultivate brand loyalty. Here are some surefire strategies for building brand loyalty with your customers.
1. Ace your brand story
Building trust and loyalty requires a connection. A compelling brand that inspires emotional resonance with your audience is an excellent way to foster that connection.
Your brand story captures your company’s origin and its why. It explains the motivation behind certain products or offerings, the gaps they fill in the market, and the vision that led to the brand’s launch.
Take this example from Pure Solutions, a family-owned organic lawn care and pest control company based in New England.
This brief paragraph on the business’ About Us page outlines the initial gap in the market, the value proposition, the brand’s values, and the commitment to organic-based solutions that are effective and safe for kids, pets, and the environment. Plus, it encourages an emotional reaction by including words like “safer” and “protect.”
2. Offer consistent products and services
This is going to seem like an obvious one, but it’s worth stating. In order to foster brand loyalty, you need to consistently offer quality products and services.
Consistency is important when you have repeat customers. Last year, I re-ordered the same Warby Parker glasses that I have loved for years (through multiple prescription changes). Except this time, the frames were flimsier, lighter, and smaller, even though they cost more than my previous pair. It was upsetting to lose my glasses and my go-to supplier at once. I’ve been ordering glasses and sunglasses from a different place since.
I’m not alone in craving consistency as a consumer. In a Vox article on Millennial money habits, Mae Rice writes, “Starbucks’s brand isn’t good coffee so much as predictability: experiences you’ve already had, drinks you’ve already drunk. It promises to sustain your routines.” It’s the familiar consistency maintained in different locations and at different times that keeps bringing many loyal customers back.
But consistency shouldn’t be at the expense of quality. (Chances are, your business doesn’t have the ubiquity and customer base that Starbucks does.) In fact, your brand values might be worth a premium to your ideal customer base. For example, PwC found that 80% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainably produced or sourced products.
3. Prioritize experience over transaction
Customer service plays a huge role in building and maintaining brand loyalty. You want your customers to become dependable repeat buyers, five-star reviewers, and even your evangelizers on Reddit. The way to get there is to prioritize creating a relationship with exceptional customer experience rather than simply facilitating a seamless transaction.
Take Chewy, for instance. The pet food and goods marketplace sends beautiful condolence notes to customers whose pets have passed away.
They often offer reimbursement for unused food, an assurance to not worry about returns and donate instead, and a cancellation of any automated orders. The posts are heartbreaking, but the company’s actions seem genuine and caring during a hard time for any pet owner.
This is a prime example of fostering an emotional connection that guarantees a loyal customer. It also encourages any pet lover who hears about the caring act to start using Chewy.
4. Personalize your outreach
When it comes to customer acquisition, 59% of customers say tailored engagement based on past interactions is very important to win their business. That demand for personalized interaction is even greater with your existing customers.
It’s annoying when you get an email from a brand that makes it seem like they’re not paying attention to the data they’re collecting. For instance, I hate it when I get an abandoned cart email with a discount when I’ve already made that purchase without the 10% off code. And I’m not alone. So take the time to personalize your interactions, develop a relationship with your customers, and build that brand loyalty.
For more ways to promote brand loyalty, check out our free guide on The 30 Best Ways to Promote Your Business (With or Without Money).
5. Ask for feedback and use it
If you’re trying to build a relationship with your customers, you need to know how they feel. That means you need feedback.
Soliciting feedback can look different, depending on your goal and business structure. It might mean asking for customer reviews about your service on Google or your website, sending an email with a short survey, or offering a gift card for a quick phone call to answer questions about using your app.
No matter where it comes from, when you ask for feedback, you need to take it seriously and use it. Responding thoughtfully, using it to consider changes to your product or marketing, and following up with the next steps or updates are important steps.
Remember, if someone took the time to let you know how their purchase made them feel—whether positive, negative, or disappointingly mid—they cared enough to do it. That’s a great place to start building loyalty.
6. Work with your unhappy customers
Unhappy customers who reach out frustrated with negative feedback about a purchase or leave a negative review about a disappointing product aren’t appealing. But believe it or not, they do present an opportunity to build brand loyalty.
In marketer and entrepreneur Jay Baer’s Hug Your Haters, he explains how customers who reach out with a problem are emotionally invested in the interaction and the outcome. That gives you the opportunity to provide excellent customer service and solve the problem. And if you’re able to do that, you might find yourself with another loyal customer. As Baer explains, when you’re able to solve a customer’s problem, they are more likely to remain loyal and spend more.
If you find yourself in the unfortunate-but-common position of dealing with a frustrated customer, lean into it.
7. Develop your online presence
A well-established online presence ensures that customers can easily find and interact with your brand wherever they’re online. That includes your website, social media, review forums, or elsewhere. Being readily accessible encourages your customers to engage more frequently, which also encourages them to keep coming back to your business.
Plus, this consistent, cohesive branding across your online presence helps ensure your customers recognize your brand easily. If you’re trying to foster brand loyalty, try increasing your online presence first.
A partial logo that’s immediately recognizable? That level of brand awareness is the goal.
8. Engage on social media
Your presence on social media is particularly important. According to Sprout Social’s research, 65% of consumers feel more connected to brands that have a robust presence on social media. And social media offers more opportunities for direct engagement.
When customers talk about your product on TikTok, comment on your brand’s Instagram grid posts, or even tag you in their LinkedIn updates, you should respond. Take the time to write comments, send DMs thanking them for their business and praise, and even re-share their content with your audience. This goodwill can go a long way.
9. Get involved with your community
Getting involved with your community is an excellent way to deepen your brand identity and strengthen your relationship with your existing customers. Look into organizations in your area. Start with your local chamber of commerce, then look for community business organizations, whether they’re targeted toward small business owners, young professionals, or something else.
For instance, Concord, NH, has a non-profit organization called In Town Concord that organizes events with local businesses.
That’s a lot of local businesses for one small town.
If these organizations don’t exist, or your following is less IRL and more online, consider partnering with other businesses to co-host events or launch specific product collaborations. This is another great way to tap into the community to build brand loyalty.
10. Launch a loyalty program
To encourage new customers to keep coming back to make more purchases, incentivize them with a loyalty program. This could take a few different shapes, depending on your business. Your loyalty program could be a discounted bundle for recurring services, a tiered system of offerings based on cumulative purchases, or a points-based system accrued on transactions.
Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program is tiered with points that unlock discounts, sale access, free samples, and more.
And if these don’t seem to work for your setup, that’s fine. Your loyalty program could even be a physical punch card to keep your customers coming back in until they fill it out.
11. Try a referral program
A referral program not only turns good customers into your best salespeople; it also endears them to your brand.
Here’s a personal example. Two friends and I talked about my recent switch to Blueland laundry tablets. They were both considering a similar swap. I shared a lot of information about my laundry habits, like my preference for cold water, my stacked washing machine, and my preference for only washing full loads.
Here’s the interesting part. While I enthusiastically explained how well the product worked for my use case, I was strengthening my own affinity for the Blueland laundry tablets.
Sometimes, the best way to be sold is also to sell. A referral program emboldens your biggest advocates—your repeat customers—to encourage their friends or business contacts to do business with you. That’s next-level loyalty to your brand.
12. Stick to your brand values
Associating your brand with a specific set of values is a great way to develop strong relationships with like-minded buyers. But it’s important to show commitment to all those values so you don’t chase off your most loyal customers.
Say you promote your products as sustainable and beneficial for the environment. Then, you choose to replace your fully recyclable packaging with a plastic that has to end up in landfills. You’ll break a brand promise and sour your best customer relationships.
Build brand loyalty to grow your business
Brand loyalty may not feel as important to growth as generating the next new lead. But when you compare the impact of one customer purchasing ten times versus a one-and-done new customer, the value of a brand-loyalty focus becomes clear.
Use the tips we’ve curated here as a starting point. Test a few to see which ones fit your business and which generate the best response from your customers.