Every company wants to retain loyal customers who are engaged with the brand. Loyal customers always create a strong basis for a profitable business. Moreover, the ability to develop long-term relationships with customers is one of the indicators of success. Most experts agree that retaining customers is less expensive than looking for new ones. Loyal customers not only ensure sales but also give your company an opportunity to sell premium supplemental services and products.
Companies get loyal customers not because the latter don’t have other options. You may not provide the best product or service. Your customers may even have some problems with your product, and yet they may stick with your brand if you convince them that you provide more benefits and more value than your competitors. Loyal customers buy more expensive products, and they buy more, in general. They are also more likely to tell their friends about your brand. However, if you want to have fanatic customers who perceive your brand as an integral part of their lives, you should prove that they are your main priority.
Some loyal customers just like to make predictable choices, regardless of the specifics of your brand. They don’t like to experiment and prefer long-term relationships. However, it would be a big mistake to rely on such customers solely, as well as to think of loyalty as of a sort of attitude. It’s also important to separate customer satisfaction and loyalty because sometimes, customers may be absolutely satisfied and yet not loyal. The loyalty of your customers directly depends on the effectiveness of your retention program and marketing.
Top Brands Ranked by Customer Loyalty
According to research, brands with the highest level of customer loyalty also turn out to be the most successful brands, in general. For example, the top 10 brands in this list include Amazon, Google, Apple, Netflix, and Samsung. These brands indeed provide high-quality services and products, however, there is also another factor that makes them look so attractive to customers. They put a lot of effort into marketing and deliver meaningful brand messages.
Although customer loyalty and customer experience are different things, the latter directly affects the former. When brands make customer experience emotional and add more value elements, they create a better environment for the development of loyalty. A great way to make your relationships with customers more emotional is to create a customized experience and to maintain an engaging conversation. That’s where personalized email campaigns come in handy.
Personalized Email Marketing and Customer Loyalty
Today, email marketing is one of the most effective marketing tools. It’s powerful, actionable, and affordable. Email marketing allows businesses to save money, time, and resources, compared to many other traditional marketing tools (e.g. printed advertising or direct mail). According to statistics, 91% of consumers check their emails every day. 66% of consumers buy items and services online because of email marketing messages. Email marketing also demonstrates a good return on investment — companies earn in average $44.25 for every dollar spent.
Of course, email marketing can help you build customer loyalty only if you have an effective marketing campaign. First, you should deliver the right messages. You should also clearly understand your audience, and know what types of emails show the best results in each particular situation. For example, there are customers who had been interested in your brand before but then disappeared. You can bring them back by selling brief reminders about your new offers. You can also send monthly newsletters to loyal customers, encouraging them to generate a word-of-mouth stream of information.
Your emails should also be relevant. Personalization is of crucial importance for email marketing. When you deliver highly relevant email messages, you show your customers that you care about them and understand their needs. Perfectly tailored campaigns lead to increased loyalty and repeat purchases. Keep in mind that 8% of repeat customers generate as much as 40% of e-commerce profit.
8 Tricks to Increase Customer Loyalty Through Email Marketing Campaigns
- Send Important Reminders and Updates
The main purpose of your email strategy is to inform your customers, providing them with relevant information on your updates. If you plan to have a major sale next month, remind about it, and share the news with your email subscribers first. When they learn about your offers first, you provide a sense of exclusivity, therefore rewarding them for loyalty. Not only are such reminders beneficial for your business, but they are also useful for your subscribers, as they can prepare for your sale or a launch of a new product. Such an approach provides value for subscribers and reminds them of your brand. The main thing is not to become annoying. - Create a Profile of Your Loyal Customers
If you want to deliver information effectively, creating an engaging experience for your customers and prospects, you should clearly understand your audience. A good practice is to build your buyer personas, taking into account such important details as their age, profession, other demographic details, and purchasing patterns. The more you know about your customers, the better you understand them, and the more personalized experience you can provide. - Create Special Moments
Just like any relationships, your relationships with customers will get better and stronger if you create moments of delight. Sarah Braunstein, an email marketer at College Writer, explains: “For example, you can send birthday emails with some special offers. It’s especially good if your customers receive something they don’t expect. Perhaps, the only necessary requirement for such offers is to provide the basic information about the service or product, so that you can keep your customers surprised yet informed.” - Create Email-Exclusive Content
You can make your emails more meaningful and memorable if you create email-exclusive content. This content can be available only for your subscribers, or it can be sent to them first, before anyone else access it. For example, you may offer your subscribers to download your eBook, or you can share useful guides and tutorials aimed to improve their customer experience. The main point of this method is to persuade your loyal customers that they get something valuable that no one else can get.
- Research Before Creating Content
Creating an effective email campaign takes a lot of time and effort. Effective campaigns should be properly planned and executed. In addition, if your company is well-established, it means that you have a big database of contacts. As the number of your contacts grows, you have to deal with higher requirements regarding the content of your messages, making sure that you reach the right audience at the right time. That’s why you have to perform careful research, segmenting the audience of your subscribers, determining the needs of every segment, and understanding what its preferences are. - Integrate Social Media
If you integrate your social media into your email marketing strategy, this simple trick will allow you to quickly increase brand loyalty. This way, you will encourage people who already follow you on social media to subscribe to your emails, while your subscribers will be motivated to engage with your brand on social media. The more exposure your brand gets, the stronger the overall loyalty. - Optimize for Mobile Platforms
The popularity of smartphones and mobile browsers is a great opportunity to improve loyalty using targeted relevant email campaigns. Mobile commerce demonstrates a steady growth, and mobile devices become the main channel for interaction between brands and their customers. However, there is a difference between making your emails compatible with mobile platforms and making them optimized for mobile. Your customers shouldn’t be overwhelmed with too much information when checking their mobile devices. Instead, make your messages concise and get straight to the point, providing value as quickly as possible. - Don’t Underestimate Product Recommendations
Product recommendations are one of the most underrated methods of personalization. Only 40% of online retailers incorporate personalized product recommendations into their email campaigns. However, when you recommend products taking into account the purchasing habits of your customers, it creates opportunities for cross-selling and dramatically increases the relevancy of your emails.
Conclusion
Customer retention makes a significant contribution to any company’s success. Retaining the existing customers requires you to spend less money than searching for new ones and creates a strong basis for your business. Customer loyalty to a large extent depends on the overall customer experience and the emotional factor. If you want to have fanatic customers who cannot imagine purchasing products or services from your competitors, you should keep them engaged and build strong relationships.
A great way to show your customers that you care about them is to use personalized email campaigns, creating a sense of exclusivity, and providing your subscribers with something valuable. Marketing campaigns are not only cost-effective but also engaging and informative. You can stay in touch with your customers, taking into account their needs and providing them with helpful content. You can inform them about your special offers and send birthday messages so that they won’t forget about your brand.
Successful email campaigns require perfect planning and should be based on research, but the results may exceed your expectations and are certainly worth your effort.
About the Author
Ester Brierley is a QA Engineer in software outsourcing company and a competent virtual assistant for College Writer. Adores researching cutting-edge digital trends and sharing them in her writing pieces as a seasoned content creator for many websites. Follow her on Twitter.
