How to Build Brand Loyalty: Strategies for Building and Maintaining Trust.
Summary/Overview
With over five million businesses in the UK, competition is rife within all industries – from food to retail. One of the best ways to stand out from the crowd and maintain a thriving customer base is to build brand loyalty.
According to a 2023 survey, 64% of consumers in the UK consider themselves loyal to certain retailers, brands and stores. So, if you’re looking for ways to keep your customers long term, you’ve come to the right place.
In this guide, we’ll take you through the importance of brand loyalty for your business, and how you can build it through things like loyalty cards and excellent customer service.
What is brand loyalty?
Brand loyalty is the behaviour shown by customers who repetitively choose your brand over your competitors, usually because of the value and experience that’s being offered. This loyalty is maintained even if alternative providers offer cheaper or more convenient options.
Brand loyalty can be leveraged in marketing to build trust and inspire repeat purchases. Loyal customers may also advocate for your brand, encouraging other consumers to take the plunge.
Customers who are truly loyal to your business will develop an emotional connection with your company, and this brand-consumer bond tends to hold more weight than price, value or convenience.
3 characteristics of brand loyalty.
To build brand loyalty, it’s vital you instil three key characteristics or qualities in your customer. These include:
- Trust – Customers have faith that your brand will deliver the products, services or experiences it says it will. Continually doing so will help to build their trust and provide them with the peace of mind they need to come back for more. This can also help them build an emotional connection with your company.
- Quality – Once customers have confidence in the quality of your products or services, and feel that it’s up to their standards, they’ll be more willing to be loyal to your brand and become a repeat customer.
- Value – Customers should feel they’re getting value for money, even if that value is more premium. If they believe your business is competitive with others in the market, they could be more likely to stick with your brand.
What is the importance of brand loyalty in British marketing?
Building brand loyalty can be extremely beneficial for all businesses – large and small. Here are some of the main benefits of brand loyalty in marketing:
- Increase customer retention – If customers are loyal to your brand, they’re more likely to perform repeat transactions and avoid switching to your competitors. Keeping your customers means increasing your retention rate.
- Boost sales – According to Bain & Company research, businesses can boost their profits by 25-95%, if they can increase customer retention by just 5%.
- Positive word of mouth – An estimated 93% of consumers trust recommendations from family and friends. Customers who are loyal to a brand are often more inclined to speak positively about its services. This can be particularly effective if consumers talk about your brand positively on review sites like Trustpilot.
- Improved reputation – Loyal customers can also help boost your brand’s reputation, which in turn could lead to increased visibility and potential new customers.
- Reduce acquisition costs – Acquiring new customers is always great, but it can require more time, money and effort. In fact, it’s estimated that customer acquisition can be anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than customer retention. Building brand loyalty and keeping your existing customers happy can help cut costs and allow you to invest elsewhere in your business.
How to build brand loyalty.
Now we’ve gone through all the benefits that brand loyalty can bring, let’s look at how you can build it. Below are some effective ways to build brand loyalty with your customers to keep them coming back for more.
Prioritise your customer service.
Good customer service is fundamental to the success of a business. The way you make your customers feel will directly impact the way they respond to your products and services. To increase brand loyalty, always try to prioritise customer service and ensure people get the best experience possible.
Research has shown that businesses who focus on and prioritise customer experience can increase their revenue by 80%. Better yet two-thirds of consumers are likely to become repeat customers if they think a business cares about their emotional state. So, simply improving your online customer service or hiring friendly and welcoming staff in your shop may help you retain repeat customers.
Make your brand unique.
A unique brand experience or offering can go a long way in helping your customers recognise and remember your brand when they need to repurchase. Think of brands that offer products with unique formulas, like makeup brands or fragrances. Customers will return to their favourite scent or formula time and time again.
But it’s not just about your offering. A unique image, brand voice or innovative ad campaign can also help make your brand more recognisable. Think of Jet2’s use of their iconic red branding and a catchy pop song. Both appear in everything from their adverts to their in-flight experience. Not only does this help create consistency for the brand, but it also builds a cohesive customer experience that makes holidaymakers fly with them again and again.
Use social media.
You could use social media platforms to cultivate a brand community. Whether you post TikTok videos, upload Instagram Reels or make business posts on Facebook, you can build an online brand presence that resonates with your audience.
This provides a place for all your loyal customers to come together to find out the latest information on your brand, comment their opinions and share your posts. Loyal customers and brand advocates might even make their own user-generated content of them using your products, documenting their experience or reviewing your brand. This can be a key contributor to not only building brand loyalty and trust, but acquiring new customers too.
Reward loyal customers.
Rewarding your customers is another great way of showing them that you appreciate their loyalty. Many businesses offer one-off rewards and loyalty cards to encourage customers to make repeat purchases and spread the word. This includes things like stamp cards from your favourite coffee shop or a discount when you refer a friend to your local nail salon.
Other businesses focus on creating a unique experience for loyal customers, often positioning their offer as a membership rather than a brand loyalty programme. An example of this is the Hilton Honors rewards scheme, which allows customers to earn points towards future stays and also access exclusive benefits.
Listen to your audience.
If you want to build brand loyalty, it’s important that you listen to your customers. Encourage them to write reviews and rate your products and services to find out what’s working and what’s not. You can add a banner to your website where they can provide feedback or direct them to review sites like Trustpilot.
You could even search for your brand through hashtags on social media platforms to find out what people are saying about you. Try to alleviate any customer pain points and improve your offering based on their reviews.
6 editable brand loyalty card templates.
3 brand loyalty examples in the UK.
When it comes to building brand loyalty programmes, there’s no need to start from scratch. There’s plenty of brands out there that you can take inspiration from. Here are a few examples:
Tesco.
Tesco is a multinational supermarket brand that has thousands of stores throughout the UK. It currently has one of the most effective brand loyalty programmes around, with over 16 million Tesco Clubcard members. With a Clubcard, shoppers can access exclusive deals and savings when shopping for everything from groceries to entertainment.
Boots.
Boots keep their customers happy with the Boots Advantage Card. This health, beauty and pharmaceutical supplier grants loyal customers a set amount of points for every £1 spent. Since launching their brand loyalty programme, they have acquired over 17.1 million active regular and loyal shoppers.
Nando’s.
Nando’s is a South African multinational fast-food restaurant that’s well-known for its Portuguese peri-peri style chicken. Using the Nando’s loyalty card, customers receive ‘chillies’ every time they visit a restaurant and spend £7 or more. These chillies ultimately add up to free food.
Brand loyalty vs brand awareness.
Both brand loyalty and brand awareness are essential parts of marketing. While brand loyalty signifies the trust and commitment consumers have with a particular brand, brand awareness is related to how familiar people are with a company.
Brand awareness can help you attain new customers, while brand loyalty provides you with the means to keep them.
How to raise brand awareness.
If you want to boost your brand awareness, there are a few steps you can take:
- Be transparent – let your audience get to know the story behind your business. This includes why and how it was founded, as well as your main goals and objectives.
- Diversify your social media presence - 52% of online brand discovery comes from social media channels. Using platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X (Twitter) can help to significantly increase brand awareness, especially if you combine organic posting with social media ads.
- Rave about your USPs – Find out what makes you unique from other competitors and highlight this in your marketing.
- Partner with relevant influencers – Teaming up with an influencer that already has access to your target audience can help get your brand in front of the right people.
Useful things to know.
What is the difference between brand loyalty and customer loyalty?
Brand loyalty occurs when consumers have a personal connection with your brand, which leads them to make repeat purchases. Customer loyalty, however, is more associated with past experiences people have had with your business and the discounts and deals they received.
How do you lose brand loyalty?
While building brand loyalty might be a long-term strategy, losing it can happen in a matter of days. Some of the main causes for losing brand loyalty with customers include:
- Bad service
- Poor or reduced quality of products
- Delayed deliveries
- Scandals or unethical behaviour associated with your company.
What is the strongest form of brand loyalty?
The strongest form of brand loyalty is emotional loyalty. This is an emotional connection that your customers feel towards your brand. This may take more time and effort to build, but it’s worth it in the long run. Emotional loyalty is what drives consumers to pay extra for your products or drive a little further to get to your store.