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An Edelman study found that for 8 out of 10 consumers, trusting a brand is what drives them to buy the brand’s products.
This brand trust impacts buying decisions and drives customer loyalty. It is a cornerstone of any business’s long-term reputation and positive recognition.
This article looks into several future-proof practices for engaging with your target audience with the aim of increasing brand loyalty and trust.
1. Leverage Social Proof
One of the most effective ways to build brand authority that consumers will trust is to use social proof on business’s website and other relevant channels.
Types of social proof that educate the audience on the effectiveness of your offering include:
- Customer reviews
- Client testimonials
- User generated content
- Influencer endorsements
- Case studies
- Media coverage
- This type of content informs prospective buyers on the features, benefits and general qualities of your products/services from a standpoint of existing customers and clients who are satisfied with them.
Being third-party in nature, social proof comes across differently than in-house sales pitch and copy. Coming from neutral sources, client reviews, case studies and the rest provide an independent insight into your business.
This boosts the audience’s trust in you and, consequently, increases brand loyalty.
2. Personalize Your Customer Service
Meeting your customers at one of the crucial stages of the user journey can solve certain issues or doubts they are having about your solutions.
Providing a personalized and top-notch customer experience via live chat, phone, email or any other means of communication will make them feel appreciated and taken care of.
In order to personalize your customer support experience, use the information you have collected from your customers at various stages of their journey. For instance, you can send personalized email campaigns with special discounts for their birthday.
Questionnaires and quizzes are another way to add a dash of personalization to your customer experience because they pave the way to customized product recommendations.
3. Engage On Social Media
A good amount of customer engagement happens where users are active the most – social media. Social media marketing is critical for building brand buzz and awareness that leads to greater brand loyalty.
Social customer engagement gets the communication with prospects and leads on the right foot and bolsters the experience for existing customers.
When engaging with your audience on social media in order to improve your customer engagement
- Ask questions about their experience with your brand in the form of polls, posts or answers to their comments
- Interact with their comments and respond to their messages
- Share discount codes exclusive to your followers
- Entice them to react with you by creating contests with gift cards or discounts
4. Target Audience Through Influencer Marketing
One of the most effective ways for finding untapped and highly-qualified audiences for your business is leveraging influencers – individuals with a huge following on their social media channels.
Influencers command attention of your business’s ideal customers and this in itself is an opportunity to boost audience engagement significantly.
Having a person that is influential in your niche act as your brand ambassador or product reviewer is also a great way of building trust with your audience. According to the same Edelman study cited above, six out of 10 consumers have purchased a product because of an influencer’s positive review.
Reach out to influencers in your niche and establish a relationship in which you will provide them with a counter service for their review of your products.
5. Create A Reward Program
Reward or loyalty programs are one of the surest ways to make sure your customers keep returning to do business with you.
Reward programs are usually organized into multiple tiers. Each tier incentivizes buyers with a new set of perks and benefits such as coupon codes, discounts, invitations to exclusive events, gifts and so on.
This encourages shoppers to return, knowing they are sure to benefit from the loyalty scheme as long as they keep buying from you. If you are unsure how you should proceed with this, any top-tier web design company provides consultation services on how to implement a rewards program into your wider website strategy.
6. Form A 24/7 Omni-Channel Strategy
Your customers are scattered across multiple digital channels and platforms. You need to reach out to them all and establish relevant channels of communication in order to engage with them and achieve brand synergy.
Communicating in real-time with your customers is essential, as they expect to have their queries answered and pain points solved around the clock.
Every specific channel requires a unique messaging strategy in order to engage the audience in a way they expect. Your audience on Facebook will differ from the one on Instagram in interest, age and other demographic structure.
Email, live chat, guest posts and video calls should also be available to your customers at all times so they can have their questions answered and orders processed.
7. Listen To Your Audience
Finally, engage in social listening in order to establish what kind of content your audience requires and how you can help them. Sturdy social media campaigns and helpful content that you create based on this show your audience that you care about their opinion and needs.
Take into account your followers’ remarks on social media, the comments they post in response to your blog articles, their questionnaire answers. Address their concerns directly or create video and written content around it to establish yourself as an authority in your field.
Providing educational and informational value is a way to nurture a relationship of trust and loyalty between you and your consumers.
Conclusion
For a growing and sustainable business, customer engagement is one of the most important metrics and should be one of your top priorities.
Loyal and trusting customers are willing to commit themselves to a brand long-term and may even become brand ambassadors. By engaging with your target audience and understanding what resonates with them, you will form a sense of familiarity between them and your business and ensure they keep coming back, time and time again..