Brand loyalty is the tendency for customers to keep patronizing a specific company’s product and choose it over others because of their perceived value of the brand. Brand loyalty is essential for brick-and-mortar businesses because it offers them free advertising.
Satisfied customers who become loyal to a brand end up promoting the company’s product by recommending it to others. This gives the brand an advantage over competitors.
Here are 5 unique ways for brick and mortar businesses to build brand loyalty.
Be Consistent
Consistency is critical for brand loyalty. Ensure that customers who walk into your store have the same experience every time. When they trust you’ll consistently deliver the same quality of service, they’ll easily recommend you to people they know. A loyal customer incorporates a brand into their lifestyle. If they had a memorable experience during a previous visit and want to feel that way again, they’ll revisit your store.
If you have more than one store, maintain the same brand voice in all your branches. Let your logo design, marketing tactic, store organization, and customer relationship be the same.
To ensure consistency across all your units and branches, make sure all your employees understand the company’s core values and mission. Regularly assess the communication style and presentation of your business to identify any inconsistencies and make adjustments.
Give Away Free Promotional Products
Giving out free promotional products to customers is an excellent way for a brick-and-mortar business to build brand loyalty. For example, you might give first-time customers free custom pens and pencils, branded stickers, or face masks at checkout. Alternatively, create a loyalty program where a customer receives an incentive like a discount or free product for making a specific number of purchases.
You could also use free promotional products as a win-back strategy by offering rewards to former customers who haven’t visited the store for long. This can remind them of the exciting experiences they had with your brand in the past and win them back.
When offering appreciation gifts, be genuine and avoid being too aggressive or appearing desperate so it doesn’t negatively affect the brand.
Promote your Brand Through Influencers
Brick and mortar businesses can benefit significantly from brand influencers. When influencers show they visited a store and purchased items, their followers will likely do the same. This will strengthen confidence in your brand, boost sales, and build loyalty.
Most influencers require financial compensation to promote a brand. Before choosing an influencer to work with, first consider your target market and their interests. Make sure the influencer you chose is popular among your target audience and has a good reputation among them. Otherwise, you’d be wasting your investment in the influencer.
Create a Brand Community
Brand communities are groups of satisfied customers who are emotionally invested in specific brands beyond the company’s products. Brick and mortar businesses can leverage brand communities to build loyalty by bringing together all their loyal customers. This will create a fun environment for customers to connect with like-minded people and share their experiences with the brand.
To build a brand community, you must choose a platform that your target audience can access. Most brands prefer social media groups because they are popular among people of different age groups and easy to use. Alternatively, you can build your brand community using a hashtag. You can use a unique hashtag when sharing pictures or videos on your social media pages and tell your customers to do the same when posting pictures of items they purchased from you. This will make people associate the tag with your brand and help loyal customers find each other easily using the tags.
Regularly interact with your brand community, respond to questions, and engage them with new conversations.
Focus on What Makes you Unique
When customers can easily relate to a business’s core values and identify a specific product or service they offer better than other brands, they become loyal to the brand. Your brick-and-mortar business could offer a wide range of products or services, but you should emphasize your strengths.
To create awareness about your niche, showcase your passion and knowledge in that area. Ensure that your brand focuses on providing value to your customers, not just on profit.
People generally trust those who help solve their problems. Therefore, generously offer advice in your area of expertise when customers need them. Also, let the various components of your brand, like your logo, color, and brand mission, communicate your uniqueness.