A brand is the customer’s overall perception of a business and is more than just a logo or name. Building a great brand helps businesses in creating brand awareness and improving loyalty. Best digital marketing certificate programs are great ways to understand how you can build brands effectively in the digital age.

Businesses generally build brands through advertising on TV, radio, hoardings, billboards, digital spaces and so on. These impressions give brands visibility and may generate leads but do not guarantee conversion. These generic ads also become dated. In today’s digital world, it could lead to a negative brand image with spoofing on social media networks. Experts say brand engagement is a better strategy for great brand building.

Brand engagement is simply users engaging with the brand, their experiences and touchpoints with the business. Even the biggest digital brands in the world rely on brand engagement because user engagement with the brand creates better awareness, trust and comfort in the minds of the consumers, bringing them closer to the brand and be better informed about the product. This, in turn, will improve sales and revenue. You must try to create coherent customer experiences and a deeper connection with the emotional/ human side of customers.

Strategies for Driving Brand Engagement in Brand Building

Low barrier to experiencing product:

Done through free trial or free products/ service, this will allow people to know first-hand what it is to use your product or service and see how amazing it is before putting in their hard-earned money to it, to trust your brand and product. This is being widely followed by big brands in the digital space including Google, Netflix, MailChimp, LinkedIn, Amazon, etc. wherein they leverage the trust and attention from customers to sell premium products. This way customers get to build a deeper connection with the brand, much more than any ad can offer.

Customer Centricity:

Brands that keep customers at the center of their activities are much more successful.

• Advertising and marketing should inspire customers and provide better brand awareness. Showcasing customer reviews and stories on how valuable it is, instead of the product itself, will bring more customers on board.
• If brands are quick and responsive in answering queries and redressing grievances, they will be able to create a lasting impression on customers’ minds.
• Rewarding brand loyalty through coupons, freebies, etc.

Brand Mascots:

Brands are no longer faceless entities or organizations, they are and have to engage with and get closer to customers. Creating and using a believable, original, relatable and representative character that embodies your brand is a good way to extend engagement beyond the original ad campaign. The mascot can serve as the voice of the brand, and all content and communication can be through this voice.

Acquiring a customer is good. But retaining a customer is better. Consider these:

• Your probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while a new customer is just 5-20%.
• Expect 80% of your future profits from 20% of your current customers.
• Existing customers bring 65% of a company’s business.
• Around 32% of executives said retaining existing customers is a priority.
• Also, 27% of small business owners say that 11-20% of first time customers don’t return to their business.

(Source: SmallBizTrends)

Not to mention, retaining customers is more important than finding a new customer, isn’t it? As wisely said, ‘Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold.’

So, how good is your customer retention strategy? Are you keeping your customers engaged and happy? To enlighten you, we’ve listed seven best customer retention strategies taken from real brands. Enjoy reading!

• The magic of blogs

Blogs can be of true help when you need to retain your customers. It has the ability to educate and engage customers. But only thing is, me-too blogs does not benefit much. Instead, you should be able to come up with engaging and attractive blogs that your customers get zealous to read.

Let’s consider a few brands that have used these tactics vigorously. Unbounce, Kissmetrics etc. stay top in the list. They continue to educate customers with engaging articles in their area of expertise. And they exhibit their expertise in the domain and retain customer’s loyalty and trust.

• Use of subscriptions

Subscription is another tried and tested strategy to improve customer retention. It helps you in achieving your business objective greatly. It need not be paid subscription model.

An example to put is Amazon Prime. They were able to allure their customers by giving away added benefits of video subscription. The best part you don’t have to spend a fortune is starting with a subscription model, but it largely helps in gaining customer loyalty.

• Listening to your customer

Oh! yes, customer is always the king. You need to listen to your customer to take informed decisions. Listening to your customer is the only way to move your brand to their expectation and gain the benefit out of it.

Let’s consider this example of this IT major from Australia, R & G Technologies. It’s completely a B2B model. But they listen to their clients and their customer satisfaction surveys include profound lessons actually. The rapid response times and strict service level agreements has helped them in establishing a strong relationship with their clients.

• Improve your brand loyalty

Coco Cola brand does not need any introduction. One of the reasons behind the success of the brand is that they were able to evoke positive feelings through their brand campaigns.

As observed in article by Hubspot, ‘even though Coca-Cola produces beverages, they figured out a way to tap into the positive hype around an event by providing delightful customer experiences that reached beyond the point-of-sale.’

So, improving the brand loyalty by giving them more wow moments is definitely going to support your brand.

• Talk to the customers

When you buy a Dell system, you can expect a call from their customer representative in three weeks’ time. It’s just a part of their customer service to call you and confirm if the product reached you and to check if you are happy with the product.

It’s nothing but proactive customer service. That’s a sure-shot way to enhance brand loyalty. In fact, the chances that customer getting disappointed with the product is completely negated with a call from the company itself.

• Enhancing customer experience

To retain your customer, you should make them delighted and satisfied. And to serve the purpose, you need to improve customer experience.

Take the example of Starbucks, the coffee giant. They keep on inventing newer methods to improve customer experience. Recently, you can order and pay for your coffee prior to reaching their shop.

• Add a personal touch

Last, but certainly not the least, it benefits when you establish a personal connection with your customers.

A popular example for this strategy would be Tesco, the grocery giant from UK. They have proven how personal touch can bring in change in retaining customers. Their human-touch is visible in Twitter and social media platforms. And the tactics helps them in establishing a stronger bonding with the customers.

The takeaway!

A study from Harvard Business School points out that an increase in customer retention by just 5 %, can lead to an increase in profits by 25% to 95%. So, make sure you focus more on customer retention now onwards.

Well, it’s not that easy. And nobody wants to lose customers at the same time. So keep exploring newer ways!

More Information:

The Beginner’s Guide to Brand Management

Why Brand Managers are Important for Start-ups?

What are the Tasks Performed by Brand Managers?

What are the Skills that Upcoming Brand Managers Need to Develop?