Content Recap

In a world where your opponents are just a click away, user loyalty is the state-of-the-art marketing gimmick. Today, users have instant access to a bountiful of information regarding your business. From what it appears, they are done trying to settle for mediocre. Users only want to stick with companies who leave no stones unturned to build commendable customer experience.

We have created this know-it-all article to save you from bidding your sales a final goodbye to the grave. Our blog will provide you with all the classified information you need to know about owning a company that users love!

You will scroll through the intricacies of how the most esteemed brands are able to retain the legendary loyalty that sets them apart from the pack. If you are all set for a quantum leap revelation, keep scrolling!

What is user loyalty, and how does it serve you?

User loyalty is a strategic practice adopted by entrepreneurs to attract and sustain users through excellent service and marketing antics. It is based on the framework of cultivating a bond between your business and the users by providing them with impressive service and value.

Loyalty lets you construct a fence around your beloved users, and keep them reappearing with incentives. A loyal user will become your business’s most powerful brand ambassador. They spread the word of mouth marketing that benefits your brand to expand its reach. Typically, it is almost similar to hiring a crew of marketers, but for free! Another primary method of measuring user loyalty is to monitor the number of purchases over their lifetime in your database. Repeat buyers are invaluable to your business.

Did you know that as mere as a 5% improvement in user retention rates churns between 25% to 95% hike in profits? Furthermore, there are plenty of other benefits of building user loyalty, such as positive online reviews, free advertising, and more. Thus, when you talk about user loyalty, you seek a reciprocal of the same – a premium relationship that benefits both your brand and the user.

The bottom line is, if you continue to adhere to subpar means of service, you might begin losing valuable customers to other competitors. In fact, according to Vivendi, 77% of brands can disappear, and no one would care. So, how do you rescue yourself from being one of them? Let us find out.

Tips to earn user loyalty

As most entrepreneurs must have already experienced, it is one thing to hook your users, and altogether another beast to retain them. Your loyal users are your company’s most prized possession. Needless to say, they will not just shoot from the ground, building loyal users require care and attention.

Tip 1 – Lure them by discounts and rewards

Deals are cherished by every user. Establishing a profitable customer loyalty by running discounts and rewards makes things interesting for them. Users absolutely love to know that you care about their pocket size.

Thus, rewarding them with discounts for their regular purchase is something they enormously appreciate. To ensure a broader reach, you can run these promotions over your websites, Facebook page, or even through giveaways on Instagram.

Studies show that around 62% of online women shoppers pay heed to discounts. Moreover, users often spend time looking for good deals while purchasing something. In fact, a price discount offers monetary benefit, and an incentive to persuade users to buy the product. Additionally, customer rewards have been relevant in the industry for more than a decade, and with their lucrative prevalence, more and more companies are jumping on this bandwagon.

These rewards help retain users by accelerating the loyalty life cycle, motivating first or second-year users to act like your company’s tenth-year users. However, this requires methodical planning and implementation. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a structure through which users are persistently educated about incessant rewards of loyalty.

Tip 2 – Gift cards go a long way

If you are brainstorming metaphors to build user loyalty, mull over the potential benefits of adopting gift cards. These cards serve as a welcome addition to any loyalty program and provide you the flexibility to put your creative shoes on. In essence, gift cards are one of the most beneficial ways to please your audience and keep them yearning for more.

While using gift cards as a means to build user loyalty, you inherently provide them with purchasing versatility. Users enjoy the option to choose the product they desire, instead of receiving an item chosen by your brand. Moreover, they have the authority to decide if they wish to use their gift cards in a go, or save them for the future. In fact, as per the National Retail Federation Gift Card Spending Survey, around 93% of US citizens purchased or received a gift card in 2015.

Additionally, gift cards are a popular choice of presents for friends and family, especially because it is a tough grind to decide what they would love as a present. These cards are a marvelous way to broadcast your brand. Apart from your original customer, their family and friends are likely to become loyal customers, too, thus contributing to more users into your fold.

Tip 3 – Bring forth the referral system

Finding the right ways to build customer loyalty involves a lot of hard work. However, it is not a pipe dream! The referral system has helped leading companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Slack to grow by leveraging their most valuable assets – their target users. What began as a casket of great concepts for business growth, blossomed into well-executed systems that catapulted their user loyalty.

Essentially, the referral system accelerates user engagement from a simple word – “go.” When your customers are excited about your company, they would want to share the experience with friends. For instance, nearly 84% of users recommend products to be acquainted “at least” once every month.

A well-planned referral system taps into your users’ instincts. They can achieve rewards as soon as their family and friends become your customers instead of continually toiling to accumulate points. Subsequently, this paves the way for a positive feedback cycle and pushes them to keep referring. Moreover, by strategizing your referral system and identifying the most prolific promoters, you can add loyalty points into this dynamic, and amplify their desire to refer time and again.

Tip 4 – Exceed their expectations

Every business owner has probably heard the cliché advice that companies should “under-promise and over-deliver.” You can achieve this by simply exceeding your users’ expectations. For instance, if you surprise an already loyal customer with a coupon, every time they shop from your brand, you are exceeding their expectations. Simply put, do the most unanticipated and lure them on their way back to you.

This gives them a reason to offer their loyalty to your brand while neglecting other competitors who may offer better services than you. It comes off as a sweet gesture for you to remember your customers’ birthdays. This is a crucial aspect when it comes to building user loyalty. Admittedly, it is easier said than done. Remembering the birth dates of thousands of customers is an uphill battle. However, there is nothing that your IT team cannot achieve!

Users are more likely to stay loyal if they feel valued. Many companies implement triggered email programs that send birthday wishes to users during their birthday month. Additionally, a free discount coupon is another cherry on the cake! After all, everyone loves a birthday treat! This will give them all the more reasons to visit your store or website to redeem their coupon. Also, who knows, they might end up purchasing a bunch of other products!

Tip 5 – Try punch cards

We know that credit cards go way overboard as a commitment! Therefore, an easier (and economical) way to build user loyalty is through punch cards. You can create eye-catching cards for loyal customers who shop from your brand regularly. For instance, after every purchase, they get a number of points in their cards.

After collecting a decent amount of points, they can use them to purchase an array of items for free! This is a wise method of keeping users hooked onto your business, as opposed to making them burn a hole in their pocket to purchase from your store.

Tip 6 – Develop subscription models

Subscription models are one of the most robust ways of building user loyalty and taking it to sky-scraping heights. Basically, it allows you to reap the advantages of repeating customers without investing added efforts.

These models are well-suited for products that users repeatedly purchase from your brand. The idea behind this concept is to provide pre-existing customers with more of what they want on a regular basis. This frees them from the worry of re-stocking the necessitous products since you will supply it to them on an agreed-upon interval.

You can electrify this model by offering regular discounts on the products they choose to add in their personalized subscription box. Therefore, users subscribed to this model will get to reap these benefits by paying half the price of a product, that a normal user would otherwise pay for full.

Bonus tip 7 – Use user ego to your benefit

No, this is not an evil method to sweep your users off their feet. One of the many unstated facts floating in the air is that in many instances, the value of coupons, gift cards, and discounts could be next to nothing, and still create the same effect.

Many times, users get excited when they amass extra points, even if they hold no currency value. This is similar to a child longing for an A+ on his report card when an A works just fine! In simple words, it is the feeling of superiority that boosts the success of the above-mentioned loyalty strategies. The bottom line is, play it smart!

In the end

The most powerful strategy in today’s market is caring. This is a generation of highly-informed users who are not “boxed in” to stick to a single business any longer. And, when the competition is literally an inch away, what are your strategies to gain user loyalty?

This is why marketing should not be the only basket to store your eggs! It may get your name out there, but what guarantees that people will stick by? Will they turn into loyal customers? Well, with our million-dollar advice, they certainly will! Remember, when you treat users as your family, only then they will let your venture thrive!