6 Ways Social Media Can Help Build Customer Loyalty [Infographic]
Now that we live in the digital age, it is only important to take advantage of new platforms to expand operations and boost business growth. And while it's true that websites and social media are all effective as a platform for promoting products and services online, it is also important to use these channels to strengthen one of the most important aspects of the business: customer loyalty.
Nowadays, customer relationship with brands they used to follow is slowly fading to white. In fact, the 2016 report from ICLP revealed that a whopping majority of Australian consumers – 97%. would cheat on their favorite retailers, which means that consumers are less committed to brands they have ever been, with only three percent feeling devoted toward their preferred retailers.
That is why you need to use every tool in your marketing arsenal – including social media, to address this lingering issue in today's market.
In this infographic, Business Coacher Sydney will discuss the ways you can use social media networks to build and improve your customer loyalty so that your business can generate higher conversions, and ultimately, higher sales.
1. Listen and Interact with Your Audience
One of the best way to show that you value your audience is to interact with them in social media based on their latest interests. And this is where social listening comes in.
Social listening allows you to find out where your customers spend their time on social media, which of your products and services they talk about, their compliments and complaints that you should encourage and address, and which of your content they relate the most and share on their own network.
Once you have identified those data points, you can use that information to actively participate in the discussion they are in or generate new content ideas where social outreach might play a crucial role post-purchase.
2. Develop Engagement Plan
Knowing what your audience care about is one thing, using this information to deepen your relationship with them is another. Here are some things to keep in mind when creating a set of conversion activities that will keep your customers involved with your brand on social media
- Have a consistent engagement schedule. To do this, you must create a calendar for your content, which will ensure that you will have an ongoing communication with your audience.
- Know what type of content, offers, and rewards that you'll provide. Use the information you have gathered in social listening to encourage positive behavior and address common questions or concerns
- Start conversion activities that are easy to participate in. This can be a simple photo-sharing contest or a simple poll related to the current trends happening in your social environment.
3. Engage with Your Most Actives Advocates
Loyal customers are one of the most valuable assets of the business. While those who have already bought from your store several times may show varying attitudes, their overall positive behavior towards your brand save you significant customer acquisition cost. The same is true in the social media world. You need to constantly engage with your most loyal social advocates so that they will continue supporting your brand.
To identify and engage with your most active social advocates, take the following steps:
- Ask your loyal customers to self-identify in exchange for a reward of commensurate value, such as free inclusion in a social VIP club where members are rewarded on an ongoing basis for their participation.
- Use the feedback from your VIP base to develop those rewards.
- Send an email to a targeted people from your CRM. The email should have an embedded social trigger that will encourage them to participate in your social network.
Rewarding your most active social media followers will not only improve your brand image but also help foster positive attitudes that will make them more loyal to your brand in the long run.
4. Offer Benefits and other Rewards
Once you have identified your social VIPs and outlined your engagement plan, you need to ensure that the value you provided is always on a consistent cadence and is always perceived as a fair trade. To get started, here are some reward program ideas that can work well with different type of audience and can be tailored according to your business and interest of your social VIPs.
- Provide free access to your premium content.
- Invite social VIPs to a preview or other special event that's limited to this group.
- Offer VIPs early access, or upgrade to your newest product.
- Allow them to earn loyalty program points through social interaction.
5. Re-Share Your Best Content
One of the ways to win the attention of the "new-comers" in your social media network is to share your best content. Your best contents are the ones that received the highest interaction and favorable responses from your audience and has the potential to receive the same level of traction with the newer audience.
Identify which of your post were best received by your audience on each of your social accounts and compile them so you can easily re-share them on your social accounts.
6. Provide A "Sneak Peek" Inside Your Company
Marketers know that customers tend to be more positive to doing business with you when you start to connect with them on a more personal level. To do this, you must include some content in your social media network that showcases the "behind the scenes" of your business.
For instance, if your business has hundreds of staff, you can share an image of them having lunch together or having a well-spent holiday trip. Just make sure that these contents are appropriate to share will reflects the values you want to show to your audience.
Sources:
Garret
Business Coaches Sydney
Business Coaches Sydney
