Let’s say you’ve developed your product, and established your brand foundation and strategy. You’ve set up your online store and everything is in place for your business to take off.
There’s one missing piece—a customer base. You must not only attract, but also retain customers to build a thriving business. This will hold true, whether you’re brand new to the game, a newly expanding business, or a legacy brand. However, new businesses are at a crucial inflection point—70% of startups fail within the first 2-5 years, with 14% of those failures citing a failure to meet customer needs.
But we’re not here to provide problems. We’re here to give solutions. Read on for our 5 tips on creating a vibrant, loyal community of customers who will both support and champion your brand.
1. EMBRACE CONSISTENCY.
Resilient brands are built on credibility. Across messaging, support, and even quality, consistency is one of the key elements for retaining customers. Prioritize uniformity, making sure you have a consistent visual and verbal identity throughout audience touchpoints such as Instagram, paid ads, or LinkedIn. This lends a sense of professionalism, which engenders trust.
2. SPARK JOY AND DELIGHT TO SET YOUR BRAND APART.
We’re in a time of saturation. Customers have a massive spectrum of choice among highly competitive landscapes in nearly every industry. Creating moments of human connection goes so far in making your brand memorable, and one that customers will return to time and again.
Whether that’s humor in your content strategy, thoughtful touches like adding free goodies to their order, or personalization through a handwritten note, these small moments of joy distinguish your brand from the masses. It brings each purchase past the surface level, to build a genuine relationship and familiarity between the customer and your brand.
3. PRIORITIZE CUSTOMER SUPPORT.
A sure way to lose customers is poor customer support. When customers feel frustrated or left in the dark with poor communication, they’ll respond by leaving your business far behind, with only a negative review to mark their presence. So, it’s absolutely essential to create a robust customer support team who can respond and resolve customer issues in a timely manner.
Having a real human on the other end of customer inquiries goes a long way towards building trust. When customers feel that you truly care about their experience, they respond with loyalty.
4. FLEX ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
These days, a brand is so much more than the product it sells. Brands represent a community, a culture, a statement. The world you create on social media is an extension of your brand that encourages customer interaction and engagement.
Through social media platforms, you become part of your customer’s daily life, continuing to bring them those moments of delight beyond their use of your product. If you can capture a customer’s imagination with the brand world you build, they’ll not only remember your brand, but also choose it over the competition.
5. LEVERAGE CUSTOMER REVIEWS.
Customers want to feel heard. When people are prospecting for a purchase, positive reviews are often the deciding factor. Reviews also create a sense of community—they’re a place for die-hard fans to shout their support from the virtual rooftops.
People love to see that others have shared in their experience. Encourage people to leave positive thoughts by offering incentives, such as a free shipping code or discount code on their next purchase.
To conclude...
We hope these tips have been helpful for you, no matter where you are on your entrepreneurial journey. When it comes to brand longevity, activating a sense of community, building relationships, and earning trust are just as important as creating an innovative product.