Build brand loyalty through social media

SEO is a challenging business and one of the biggest frustrations we face is working on sites where we have little or no control over the content that appears on the website, usually caused by an inflexible CMS that is owned and managed by a third party. It’s times like this when we have to be more creative in the way that we optimise, using other factors than on-site to help drive relevant traffic that is more likely to convert.

Faced with such a problem, one thing that we encourage clients to do is look more into their social platforms and how they manage customer relationships across these sites which in turn can lead to brand loyalty, repeat business, recommendations and links back to the website. If a client’s website is inflexible, resort to something you can have more control over and build the community there.

Building brand loyalty

A really great example of a sector that thrives off brand loyalty is the airline industry. Nearly all major carriers offer a rewards card for flying with them which earns you anything from free flights to lounge passes and everything in between. The truth is though that 80% of people that have a frequent fliers card don’t earn enough points in a year to redeem them against a flight and the other 20% spend so much time in the air the last thing they want to do is step on another plane. So how are airline companies tackling this? They are reverting to social media to help build brand loyalty and a community of brand ambassadors that are more likely to recommend them to their family and friends.

How do you build loyalty?

We see many companies trying to buy loyalty. Sign up to this scheme and we’ll give you a free ‘x’ or you’ll be entered into a draw to win a new ‘y’. The truth is, competitions and contests do not build loyalty. They foster short term relationships which can be great for boosting the number of followers you have but where is the engagement? In order to build brand loyalty, you need to earn customer loyalty and this is done through relationship building, engagement, providing things of value to your customers for free, adding value to the relationship. In return, you will get not a lot back in the early days but building loyalty is about patience. When people start to see that you care about your customers, be this through responding to queries/issues or providing a really nice piece of content that helps them out in some way, then you start to form a relationship with them that can then be nurtured.

What’s in it for you as a business?

Building a loyalty programme takes time but in the end, is well worth the effort. If you work in an industry where repeat purchases are likely, then the old adage that it’s much easier to keep an existing customer than get a new one is extremely relevant. Sectors like the airline industry rely on repeat business and therefore they employ a number of tactics alongside their loyalty programme to help them to generate additional business, improve their SEO and drive more traffic to their website. These include:

• Check-in to locations – tag in the airline company when they check in at various locations around the world – that way their friends can see where they are and who they are flying with, a ringing endorsement for the airline
• Provide positive feedback – directly requesting feedback from customers in return for loyalty points is a common tactic – being open and honest and publishing all feedback is crucial – not everything has to be 5/5.
• Tweet about the company – one of the more simple tactics but getting customers to Tweet about the business is a nice way of building up mentions on social media platforms and potentially relevant links back to the site
• Become a brand ambassador for the company on social media – many airlines approach frequent fliers to become brand ambassadors for them – after all, if they spend a lot of time on their planes, they probably know a lot about them and all the hints and tips that can help make other people’s travel experience a more positive one
• Recommend the company to a friend – this is a really simple tactic but one that has remarkable success across many sectors. There is nothing stronger than a recommendation from a friend when it comes to making a purchase decision. When was the last time you bought something if a friend had something negative to say about the company?
• Contribute ideas on the company’s social media page – again, this works well across many sectors but if we look at airlines, getting people to send in images from around the world, blog about their travels, provide hints and tips about certain airports etc is like gold dust. Customer generated content is huge right now and this is a great source of content marketing

How do you find loyal users?

SEMRush recently ran a Twitter chat in which they asked their followers a number of questions around building brand loyalty. Some of the key take home points included:

• Use monitoring tools to find those who regularly engage with you
• This doesn’t just mean social media – monitor all methods of communication from email to face to face to those customers who place repeat orders
• Make your customers feel special – like they are part of an inner circle
• Get them involved in the product/service improvement process
• Give them social mentions and retweets
• Make sure you respond to all mentions on social media and reply to all emails – not responding or deleting negative feedback will turn customers against you very quickly

You can read the full article with plenty more tips and advice on the SEMRush Blog.

Your loyal users are out there – they are the people buying from you and talking about you. You just need to find a way of monitoring this and then tapping into it – once you crack it, you’re really onto something that can help grow your brand and in time your sales.

Onsite optimisation is pretty crucial to building a successful SEO strategy but if there are obstacles in your way, there are alternative ways to drive traffic to your site which will in turn help with your SEO. As long as you have a page on your website that allows users to convert easily (purchase, subscribe, order etc) then you can work around clunky CMS systems and lack of expertise in on-site SEO.