Your company needs customers to survive.

And, while leads are essential, too, you need your customers to keep coming back – that’s where your profit is.

You want your customers to become brand ambassadors, shouting your praises from the rooftops, telling their friends, and leaving glowing testimonials across social media.

So how do you keep your customers loyal to your brand?

Be genuine (don’t lie)

I'm starting this list with something that's a principle of mine, as a marketer, but sadly something I come across far too often in others' marketing communications.

Don't lie to your customers.

When I say 'lie', I mean lying in the broadest sense.

If you're building your customers' expectations and not delivering what you promised (or even implied), then, I'm sorry, but you're lying to them. 

If you're using terms like 'unique' to describe what you're selling, but you're actually in a saturated market (or even a market with very few competitors), you're also lying.

If you're using click-baity headings to get people to open your emails or click on your ads when your content or offering isn't related to that click-baity title, then you're lying.

If you're communicating with customers like you're a massive conglomerate when you're a small business, you're also lying.

If you're riding on a popular hashtag or trend just for a hint of getting in on that popularity, especially when it's not relevant, or you're not doing anything to promote it as a brand, you're lying.

To me, it's anything that is even remotely misleading is likely to deter your potential customers.

I can't stand it when a brand - any brand, even one I'm loyal to – jumps on a trending hashtag just to put in their two cents, especially when it's linked to a social event.

Getting topical myself now (for reference, I swear!), the number of companies trying to jump on the current (at the time of writing) coronavirus pandemic – when their product isn't remotely relevant – is sickening.

It’s disingenuous, and will only succeed in driving away customers.

Be honest, be genuine, and be true to your brand values.

That will keep your customers loyal.

Keep reaching (or exceeding) customer expectations

Good marketing is all about managing your customers' expectations.

To do that, you need to know your audience, and know what they want from you.

How do you do that? 

Research and feedback.

Research your audience – look at your social media figures, analytics, and email figures, and look at what works for your audience, and do more of that.

For feedback, it really is as simple as talking to your audience.
If you're not sure where to start with getting feedback from your customers, I've put together some handy hints and tips in my article Customer Feedback: A Marketing Essential.

Listen to feedback

It’s pointless to simply ask your customers or employees for feedback, and then think that the job is done.

Your job has just begun.

You now need to analyse the feedback and turn it into quantitative and qualitative data that you can use to work into your marketing and operational strategies.

It’s also an excellent opportunity to communicate this process to your customers – naturally, they would appreciate knowing that their feedback is being listened to, so incorporate it into your marketing messaging.

So feedback is brilliant, but useless unless you act on it.

Keep your employees happy

As I’ve said in my article on internal marketing, happy employees = happy customers.

If your employees are brand ambassadors, they'll work harder to keep your customers loyal.

Employee incentives are also a great way of keeping customers loyal.

For example, offering a gift card or bottle of booze to whoever gets the most customer testimonials or referrals can really help keep both customers and employees happy and loyal.

Loyal employees will take pride in their jobs, and that pride will spill over to the customer – your employees will give it their all.

But it's up to you to make your brand worth their loyalty.

Loyalty schemes

I love loyalty programmes.

You name it: Nectar card, Tesco Clubcard, Superdrug, Boots, Bodyshop, Waterstones, Pets at Home… I’ve got them all!

And I regularly shop at all of those places!

Simply put, loyalty schemes work.

There are a few different ways you can organise a loyalty programme, but they all have the same idea: keep the customer shopping with you with regular discounts.

Point-based system
My personal favourites are point-based systems like Nectar, where each purchase you make (where you use the card) adds up, and you can save your points for bigger purchases, or spend them regularly.

The point-based cards give customers extra flexibility to spend their points where they want, and, if you have the resources, you can even track exactly what purchases that customer makes, so you can send them targeted offers based on their previous purchases -- everybody wins!

Point-based cards are great for both online and bricks and mortar businesses, but can be difficult to run, particularly for small businesses.

Stamp cards
Alternatively, you can use stamp cards.

These are cheaper to run, and easier to track.

The onus is usually on the customer, so if they forget their card, or forget to use it, then they miss out.

Of course, you can give customers gentle reminders, to go the extra mile and encourage them to keep coming back.

Stamp cards are often used in independent shops, fast-food restaurants and cafés, in printed form.

However, online businesses can use them too, by tracking each customer’s purchases and advising them when they hit a milestone.

VIP programme
This is one for the premium customers.

The ones who are willing to pay extra for that platinum, gold star, VIP treatment.

For example, VIP members of a theatre could get preferential seating, Champagne, and the chance to meet the performers backstage after the show.

An added bonus of VIP programmes is that non-VIP customers will see the VIPs and think to themselves “I gotta get me a piece of that!”.

Keep contact with your customers

Your customers should never feel confused or concerned about your brand or your product.

If they do, you're not doing your job.

I'll draw on my own experience again to explain, with yet another Covid-19 anecdote – again, this serves a purpose, and I'm only mentioning it because it's relevant and proves my point!

I booked a holiday to Venice as a present for Dean (my partner and co-founder NSC) late last year – I know, girlfriend of the year, or what?

A couple of days ago (at the time of writing), Italy imposed a nation-wide lockdown due to the spread of the coronavirus across the country, right as we were scheduled to go.

Naturally, as soon as I found out that our flights were cancelled, I called the travel agent.

I was put straight on hold, listening to god-awful hold musak on a loop – this is fine, I thought, they're really busy, so I'll be on hold for a while. I get it, NBD.

Five minutes passed, and the phone began to ring.

Wow, I'm already being put through to someone, I said to myself.

The phone rang.
And rang.
And rang. 

Then, the ringing stopped, and the phone picked up.

I took a breath, ready to say 'Hello' – I'm rarely irate on the phone, because I've worked in customer service, and I know what it's like.

"The person you are calling isn't available right now. Please leave your message after the tone."

Uh, what?

So this "genuine" company that I paid a good deal of money to doesn't even have a phone system to answer their calls?

Why wasn't I kept on hold until someone was available?
Why was there a generic message that had no mention of the company?
Why was I being asked to leave a message?
Would they call me back?
Will I get the money I spent on holiday that won't happen?

At the time of writing, I still don't know. 

Needless to say, I won’t be a loyal customer of theirs.

User-generated content

UGC (user-generated content) is absolutely fantastic. 

It makes your audience feel engaged and active, and it saves you from creating the content yourself!

User generated content is exactly what it sounds like – content that your audience creates themselves.

People trust user-generated content more than they trust marketing copy. 

They know what ‘standard’ marketing looks like, and it’s just not as effective as it was back in those days of Mad Men.

Here are some of the different ways you can get UGC for you to use on social media:

Contests
How about running a competition where people send in their video testimonials of your product, or photos of them using it?  

The content you’ll have amassed will likely be more valuable to you than whatever you choose as your prize.

Reviews
Not just those that customers send you, but also those on third-party websites, like TrustPilot or TripAdvisor.

Although reviews on some sites like TripAdvisor or Amazon can be fake, customers still use them to determine whether they’ll choose your product, so do everything you can to have far more positive than negative reviews wherever possible.

Case studies
Usually for B2B or higher value services/products, these can take some work to put together, but they can be worth it, and a useful insight into how you work for your customer.

Q&A sessions
Particularly useful when you offer a range of products with different solutions, like a skincare company. 

Use those insights to craft your campaigns and your products, and make commonly-asked questions something that you work into your messaging in general – they can make brilliant campaign starting points.

Plus, this level of transparency further builds trust between your customers and your brand.

Blog posts
Collaborations with bloggers can be an effective marketing strategy, but make sure that you’re working with someone who has the same (or similar) brand values and audience as your brand.

Photos
In this Instagram age, people always take pictures of them posing with products they’ve purchased, or showing how they use them.

There are tonnes of these photos ripe for the taking – all you have to do is ask, and (ideally) tag the original poster in your social media or other marketing messaging.

They’ll appreciate your asking them, and feel that rush of five minutes of fame, and you’ll be showing off how popular your product is, further building trust with your audience to turn them into customers.

Stay true to your brand values

Amidst all of this, and everything you do as a brand, you must always stay true to your brand values.

Being steadfast and dedicated to your brand values shows how reliable and principle-led your brand is, which translates to customers as trustworthiness.

Your brand values are your principles, and if you defy or sell out your principles, then your customers will lose their trust for you – with their trust goes their loyalty.

Your brand values essentially match your customers’ values, and if you go against them, you’re going against your customers.

Not a good idea.

Always keep your brand values at the top of your mind – write them down and post them around your office, set them as your desktop, keep them in your mind, so everything that you do as your brand fits in with your values.

Those are my tips on how to keep your customers coming back to your business, and to stay loyal to your brand.

Loyal customers are what make businesses successful, so if you want success, you’ve got to keep your customers loyal.