Tobuild customer loyalty in digital marketing is to establish marketing strategies and techniques with the aim of making consumers become regular customers. This loyalty is not achieved with a specific action, but must be integrated into the marketing campaign as a fundamental key. The user is the cornerstone of the actions to be carried out, as in in inbound marketing, satisfying their needs is the priority. When customer loyalty is achieved, a series of communication programmes must be launched to ensure the relationship with the user in the long term.
It is important to be clear that in order to build customer loyalty, users need to trust the product for the first time in order to get to know its benefits and establish a relationship with the company. Otherwise, there will be no opportunity to nurture this relationship until the user becomes a regular customer. Therefore, a good marketing strategy is essential. An example of poor customer loyalty is sometimes telephone companies: they focus on attracting new customers by offering discounts to new subscribers and forget the members who have been contracted for years. Times have changed and now they try to reward the loyal customer, but it still happens. From digital marketing, these problems can be alleviated because it has a wide communication channel.
Advantages of customer loyalty in digital marketing
- Goodbye competition: A loyal customer will not be interested in competing brands because they have already found what they were looking for in your company. This reinforces the positioning within the business market.
- Stable income: Having regular customers will ensure an income that in turn can be used to expand the business.
- Lower marketing expenditure: When a customer is a regular customer, the marketing strategy will be less than that required to attract customers from scratch. In addition, if that user recommends the company, new conversions will be captured without investing more money.
- Customer lifetime value: If the customer is generating more profit per purchase, the marketing cost can increase to continue doing its job. Loyalty increases the value of each purchase and its frequency.
- Personalisation: The longer a customer has been with the company, the more you will know about their tastes and interests, allowing you to launch personalised marketing campaigns and position yourself ahead of the competition.
what customer loyalty programmes are there?
A loyalty programme is a strategy that focuses on rewarding customer buying behaviour. Its aim is to encourage repeat purchases and achieve customer loyalty. There are three main programmes based on their mode of action:
- Tiered loyalty programme: This is characterised by creating a tiered structure that varies according to the user's interaction with the company. Each tier has a type of reward that accumulates for the customer's enjoyment.
- Loyalty points programme: This is probably the best known in the ecommerce world. It is based on reward points. For each purchase, the customer receives points that can be exchanged for other rewards.
- Cross-loyalty programme: They offer rewards in the form of collaborations with different brands.
8 strategies for customer loyalty in digital marketing
1. Betting on technology
Every digital marketing company must have a good CRM where to store customer data. For a successful loyalty campaign, the information must be organised. This way, a better service can be offered.
2. Optimisation
User satisfaction is fundamental to achieve customer loyalty. Easy communication with the company and a personalised service must be offered. This can be achieved through channels that provide convenience and immediacy.
3. Transparency
To build customer loyalty in digital marketing it is necessary that they trust you. In recent years, distrust towards online scams has grown. For this reason, it is important to provide adequate information about our services and the respect we have for the user's privacy.
4. Taking care of the customer
If the aim is for the customer to be loyal to the brand, they should feel listened to and valued. The marketing strategy should focus on knowing the user's needs and interests. After the first purchase, we will obtain enough data to know what products to offer in the next campaign.
5. Doing mailing
Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing trends to communicate with the customer. It is a direct channel and, through automation mechanisms, allows user personalisation. One of its benefits is the possibility of regular communications.
6. Remarketing
Remarketing campaigns are used to create personalised advertisements, encouraging the user to make a repeat purchase. This strategy is also used to impact customers who have left a shopping cart half-finished. Remarketing can be carried out through platforms such as Facebook Ads or Google Ads.
7. Resolving doubts
The purchase of a product can be frustrated by the lack of information that the customer has about the company. It is interesting to enable a section of questions on the web or communication channels through which to respond quickly to their concerns.
8. Pay attention to complaints
A company achieves customer loyalty if it is able to deal with complaints and negative comments. They are an opportunity to improve the user experience.
4 best practices in customer loyalty
- Quality before quantity: The aim of customer loyalty is to ensure that customers decide to stay. Therefore, the service offered must be of the highest quality. It has been shown that focusing on reaching multiple customers by providing services more quickly deteriorates their quality. It is more important to offer a good service than a large number of services.
- Value loyal customers: Rewarding loyal customers is essential to ensure they stay with you. When a user recommends you, makes a repeat purchase or renews their subscription; reward them. Show them that you care and their loyalty is important to you.
- Choose your pitch wisely: There are a number of key words to build trust with customers. Words like new, free or guarantee are common in the world of digital marketing. Knowing your customers well will ensure you get the words you choose for your campaign right.
- Have a presence on social networks: In a world led by social networks, it is advisable to have a profile for the brand and take care of it trying to represent its values. Through this channel you can get closer to the customer and show your services.
3 examples of success in building customer loyalty
- Apple: Apple represents a symbolic value for the consumer. Its design is unique and its shops are exclusive. It includes the customer in a community where they feel valued and listened to. In addition, they have their own credit card (Apple Card) where the company rewards the customer for their purchases and launches promotions.
- Starbucks: Starbucks studies the buyer persona to create its loyalty programme. It focuses on selling experiences, not products. In addition, they seek to personalise the product by putting their name on each container of coffee or enabling communication channels with the company to resolve doubts or make suggestions.
- Google Play Points: This is Google's rewards programme. Its operation is based on reward points. When the customer makes a purchase in the Play Store, he/she is awarded a series of points that can later be redeemed.
