One look at the title and you might think that this article might be off-the-wall, but if you stick around I’ll show you that brand loyalty is not the most important thing to think about when creating your brand’s identity.
Brand loyalty is the desire to continue to use a product beyond a logical framework. Think about the car industry. There are reports every year, that show one brand over the other. By that logic, you should be using the best car every year or let’s say the average of the last five years.
When you think about it this way, why do some people continue to use car brands that are supposedly “inferior” to other brands? Brand loyalty is why.
The car industry is filled with customers, just by Ford or Toyota, because “my family drives Ford.” These kinds of statements are common in many industries. That kind of brand loyalty is backed by emotion and logical sense.
This article will show you how to harness the power of brand loyalty and exactly why you should make brand loyalty a massive priority online and offline right now. Without it a bad product won’t survive long enough to be a good product, and a good product will never become great.
The Millenial Effect on Business
What have you done for me lately is the question on everyone’s mind these days? Customers know there are a ton of options to choose from, and weighing all the customer reviews, savvy sales pitches, and the free trials become an arduous task. Many buyers simply narrow things down to a few choices and then pick the one they have the best gut feeling about.
People don’t really know which product or service to pick most of the time. There is a lot of duplication. Take the supplement industry. Every company says their’s is the best, and when I buy supplements, I listen to the influencers that use the products themselves. Many choices are made by figuring out who is the most transparent and believable influencer. We’ll talk more about this later on in the article.
There are so many products and services cropping up in the online world, that your product must
Why You Need Transparency Before You Create Brand Loyalty
It’s the chicken before the egg argument when it comes to brand loyalty. First of all, transparency plus a great product and customer service create brand loyalty.
For millennials, distrusting companies is the knee-jerk reaction. What you need to do as a business is start off being attractive to your audience. That means:
- Give before receiving.
- Provide value that is fresh.
- Create content that speaks to the needs of your target audience.
- Never use tricks to get the information of your clients.
- If you’re asking for personal information (e.g. emails, mobile numbers, addresses, etc.), make sure the content you give in exchange is truly valuable.
These 5 things may sound obvious, but if you look around the internet, you’ll find that most of these guidelines are broken more often than not. It’s not uncommon to get emails that waste the time of the reader. They have a clickbait headline or subject that promise huge gains and fall short with obvious statements that everybody knows.
To truly create brand loyalty, you need to make sure every piece of content you disseminate has a quality message and actionable strategies that will create improvements.
B2B Brand Loyalty Strategy
You might have read the last paragraph and thought, my company isn’t selling something that is popular. We sell a service that’s “boring.” If you’re in this category, don’t worry the plan is the same.
Start by giving away tips on how to do what you do on their own. If you’re a plumber and you know how to fix a shower that has a plugged drain, show people how to do it in a YouTube video or a blog. Provide exactly the steps, tools, and visually show people step-by-step how to fix something.
Don’t worry, most people won’t actually do what you’re telling them to do. The demonstration serves as a way to showcase your ability to do the job they need done. Most of the information is out there right now to DIY most plumbing jobs, but do most people have the tools or skills to do the job within an hour. No way, for most husbands it will take an entire weekend. Who has time for that?
Giving is the way to establish brand loyalty. It’s not what you’re willing to charge for the service. It’s the value you provide. Of course, you need to fix their problem, but do you provide customer service that is hassle-free.
Customer Service is The Most Important Metric
Most businesses, I’m sorry to say, give really poor customer service. Join a country club and you’ll a much higher level of customer service. The employee’s only job is to make sure the customers or members have the best time possible.
This is the same thing your business needs to realize. It’s not just about doing the job right. It’s about the customer service before, during, and after the job is done.
If your customer is struggling to get a hold of someone to schedule a visit to their house (using the plumber business again), then they won’t be able to make the sale from the start. Next, if you’re plumber comes to the house late or has a bad appearance, the customer might not want him or her around her children.
Lastly, brand loyalty is solidified after the job is done. Not every job is done perfectly, and things happen. How does your company handle mistakes in the field? Do you argue with the client or do you do whatever you can to make sure the client is completely satisfied?
Money-Back Guarantee
A money-back guarantee is a great way to increase sales and brand loyalty. They show your confidence in your product. Many companies struggle to make products that are reliable enough for a money-back guarantee. If this is your product, then you should ask yourself if your product is worth selling.
Remember, customers have more power than ever these days and all it takes a few back reviews to keep people away from your brand. This is why brand loyalty is so important. It doesn’t require perfection. It requires common sense and a mind for customer service. If you employ a money-back guarantee as part of your brand loyalty strategy, make sure it’s economical first.
Influencer Marketing Creates Brand Loyalty
Did people buy Michael Jordan’s shoes back in the 90s, because they were made by Nike? Of course not. They bought them because of the influencer, Michael Jordan. If Michael Jordan wore Reebok or his own brand, they would have been the most famous shoe.
People identify with the person and not the shoe. They identify with the idea and values of the person who wears the shoe.
Sometimes the influencer is more important than the product itself. This changes the way companies should think about their products. They should create products that are not just cost-effective, but also amazing, so a savvy influencer will love it and tell all his friends about it.
What Problem Does Your Product or Service Solve?
Google went on a mission about a decade ago to solve problems that affect one billion people or more. They wanted to think bigger, because of a phrase like this quote by Menachem Brodie…
“Your success is determined by how many people you are able to help solve a problem, or helping others to improve the level/quality of something in their life.”
Your product probably doesn’t solve a problem for a billion people, but it should help people when they are in need.
Here are some things to think about when creating a new product…
- Does your target market know they have a problem?
- Are you reaching people when they have a problem?
- To what extent does your product solve the problem they are facing?
- Is it cost-effective to produce the product that solves that particular problem?
Many problems, at this time, cost too much to solve? Part of having a great product means that the margins are right to create the product. Brand loyalty is affected when the answers to the questions above are out of balance.
When you’re considering to create a product make sure that there is a good reason financially to move forward. Sometimes what you want to create is just not feasible at this time.
Sum Up All The Pieces
Here are the three parts to brand loyalty. Each of these is something you need to inject into your business right now. If you’re not thinking long-term don’t worry about it, but if you are figure out how to maximize each of these three: Solving a Problem, Customer Service, and Transparency
For more information on building your business in the online world check out these two articles: Crush Your Sales Quota with Social Selling and Easy 4 Step Approach to Build an Online Business in 2018.
