Like most online stores, acquisition campaigns are essential to help you win new customers, but your work should not stop there. Building customer loyalty addresses many issues and the benefits of a loyal customer base are undeniable. However, establishing a strong connection between your brand and consumers requires implementing best practices to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
But how do you build this bond of trust with your customers? Some e-retailers (including our customers) compete in ingenuity to constantly improve their customers' experience. This great mix is developed through various loyalty techniques and strategies that we will detail throughout this article accompanied by examples from our customers!
What are the challenges of loyalty?
Building customer loyalty when running an e-commerce store is like building valuable relationships over time. It’s more than just persuading customers to make a purchase. It’s a long-term investment, aimed at creating a relationship that goes beyond clicks and transactions, with the goal of converting customers into true ambassadors for your brand.
Long-term profitability
You know this well, acquisition costs are one of the most expensive expenses when managing an online store. Between campaigns on Google Ads, social networks, digital marketing, etc., the bill can quickly climb.
One of the strengths of retention is its long-term profitability. Cultivating loyalty among your audience allows you to maximize customer lifetime value . That’s because loyal customers tend to make repeat purchases over time. Unlike finding new customers, retention offers ongoing returns.
“Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing customer.” https://www.invespcro.com/
In addition, a loyal customer will be less sensitive to price variations, as their attachment to the brand goes beyond simple financial considerations. This gives your e-commerce the opportunity to maintain stable profit margins.
It is also important to note that retaining your customers helps improve your retention rate . In fact, they will be less likely to go to your competitors, thus reducing the risk of customer loss.
Not to mention that loyalty helps to make the customer acquisition cost profitable. If the cost of a customer is around €50, it is more interesting if this one brings you 2, 4 or 10 orders rather than just one!
A stronger attachment to your brand
Establishing a loyalty strategy helps website development service create an ongoing relationship between you and your customer, fostering a sense of trust and familiarity. When a customer has repeated positive experiences with a brand, they naturally develop an emotional attachment.
Remember, your customer needs to be valued. They need to feel recognized and truly part of your community. Make sure to provide positive, consistent experiences with every interaction that will build your customers’ trust in the brand. Consistency in product quality, customer service, and other aspects helps build that strong connection.
Recommendation from loyal customers
Over the years, word-of-mouth has become an undeniable force in the world of marketing. You will agree with me that we place particular trust in recommendations from our friends and family , much more than in reviews left by strangers on the web or in communications from the store itself. Your loyal customers hold the power to become your most fervent ambassadors, transforming themselves into true spokespersons for your brand.
Your brand ambassadors have the power to extend the reach of your e-commerce by sharing their experiences on social networks, blogs, forums, and much more. Beyond selling your product, you will create an emotional connection that will allow you to reach a new target and explore unexplored market segments.
Now that we have seen the challenges of customer loyalty, I would like to discuss with you the different strategies to implement to achieve this objective.
Customer knowledge at the heart of your loyalty strategy
True customer loyalty requires a deep understanding of your customers’ needs. Gathering and centralizing relevant information allows you to precisely target the actions needed to strengthen customer loyalty and increase customer satisfaction. This is the foundation of any successful marketing strategy, and therefore, it is the key to consistent revenue growth. However, to fully meet the expectations of your target audience, it is imperative to collect and analyze their data first.
One statistic that I find interesting comes from a study done by Hubspot, which highlights the fact that companies that prioritized customer data to guide their marketing strategies saw an increase in their ROI of about 20%.
By carefully qualifying your customer database, you have in your possession all the essential information to offer the right offer to the right customer, at the right time and relevant support that responds in a targeted manner to their real concerns. In this way, you maintain a relationship of trust with your customer.
This is a factor that our client Blédina has understood well! This brand of baby food is aware that its community is looking for the best for its children. The store has therefore set up an inspiring action in SPREAD thanks to marketing automation .
Depending on the age of the baby, the brand has created scenarios filled with advice on feeding, easy recipes to make for babies, in short, high value-added content that parents love, we approve!