Brands sometimes overlook the fact that they need to show their consumers that they are grateful for them. Marketing strategies should focus on making the consumer feel valued, because it isn’t all that easy to replace them with new consumers.
Showing your audience that you care about them will help to build stronger relationships and forge a sense of brand loyalty with them.
Here are five ways that you can show your consumers that you care about them in your marketing:
1. Create a loyalty programme
Having a loyalty programme in place will not only make the consumer excited to shop with your brand, but it will
also allow you to gain information about your regular consumers. Receiving information about your clients gives your brand the opportunity to focus on specific elements that clients have in common.
And when a brand gets to know and understand their customers better, they are able to deliver better services to their regulars — and even attract whole new audiences. It is also important to note that when your brand looks at starting a loyalty programme, the reward doesn’t need to be big or expensive. Simply acknowledging your audience with that little ‘something extra’ can be really endearing.
For example,
Starbucks has a great loyalty programme in place that allows consumers to get free coffee, food and other deals when they fill their cup with ‘stars’.
2. Go old school — send hand-written letters
Whenever a brand identifies a first-time buyer or a consumer who has been with them for a long time, writing them a hand-written letter to welcome them to the family or to thank them for being part of the family for so long is a
great way to show your appreciation.
A hand-written ‘thank you’ note is such a personal touch. And the best part is, a brand doesn’t have to take long to generate these notes! If you have a short and sweet thank you message, it will be easy to create and send out to those loyal consumers.
Writing hand-written letters to clients will show a brand’s human side, making it clear that there are real people behind the screens and products of a brand. Consumers will feel that your brand is easy to talk and far more relatable.
Here’s an example of how much a hand-written letter can mean to a consumer:
Matt Ackerson received a thank you note from Grasshopper.
“I licked my finger and then smudged a little bit of the ink. Indeed, it was handwritten. Impressive.” says Matt.
He then went on to write a blog about the letter he received tilted: “The best example of customer appreciation I’ve ever seen”, proving that letters work.
3. Follow up with your consumers
A lot of the time, brands will only focus on responding to
negative comments on social media, and following up with clients who have had a bad experience with their brand. But, it is critical to follow up with the consumers who have complimented your products or services! A happy customer is just as important as an unhappy customer.
If your brand only focuses on the unhappy clients, you might miss out on keeping your current happy clients coming back to your brand. Therefore, you need to follow up with consumers on how their experience with your brand was or if they are enjoying the product that they purchased.
You can do this by sending clients an email asking how they would rate the service or product. A brand that is really great at this is Takealot; the brand sends its consumers emails asking about their experience with every purchase.
Asking a consumer about their feelings and opinions shows you value what they bring to the table.
4. Personalise products
Creating personalised products doesn’t necessarily mean that each client needs a different product or service; it simply means loyal consumers might receive a limited edition of your product or brand that celebrates their loyalty to your brand.
Or, you can look at providing them with a gift card offering a saving on their next purchase of their favourite product. Creating such a unique and personalised experience for them will make them
want to tell other people about it.
Coca-Cola did a great job with personalising products for its consumers with the #ShareACokeWithMe campaign. People could find their names on a Coca-Cola can and they made sure that names from different cultures were also available. Doing this showed people how to pronounce it.
5. Show you care about the small things
In a survey done by OnePulse in 2018, 88% of consumers said that they want brands to help them become more environmentally friendly and ethical. With those stats in mind, your brand can think of small things they can do to help consumers achieve these big goals that they set up for themselves.
Your brand can do a survey where you can ask clients what they want to achieve and ask them how your brand can help them make this a reality.
A brand that does this really well is media monitoring company Newsclip. In 2011, Newsclip decided to invest in a 220 panel solar farm, which generates 40% of the energy that their Constantia Kloof office requires.
The brand is able to tell its clients that when they make use of its services, they are indirectly helping to reduce their carbon footprint. Consumers will feel great knowing that they make use of a company that looks at green energy as a priority.
What other ways do you think brands can show consumers that they care about and value them? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Now that you know how to show consumers you value them, be sure to give them something exciting by learning about the Five ways to nail unconventional marketing.
*Image courtesy of Vecteezy