Ollie, our Content Executive, makes sure your brand gets noticed.
With experience writing content for businesses of all sizes and industries, he knows how to grab readers’ attention and keep them hooked. In his spare time, you can usually find him watching sports, running around Manchester, or cooking up a new recipe in the kitchen.
Winning a new customer always feels like progress.
Keeping them coming back for more is where customer relationships grow, and your business does too.
The businesses we work with are rarely short of ideas. They’re doing plenty of marketing already.
One person is sending emails while someone else is looking after social media. Everyone’s busy, but it’s hard to say what’s helping customers stay with you.
That’s where loyalty starts to suffer.
So, how do you turn one-off customers into long-term advocates?
Here we cover eight ways to strengthen customer loyalty and build lasting relationships.
Everyone likes feeling appreciated.
Your customers love it even more.
It’s easy to assume making customers feel valued means offering another discount.
Sometimes they’ll like that, but it isn’t usually what keeps people coming back for more.
Whether you’re a global tech giant named after some sort of fruit (it’s Pear, right?) or a small, independent business, make sure your customers know you truly appreciate them.
It could be inviting your customers to an exclusive event or sending a small thank-you after they’ve supported you. Whatever you choose, the key is ensuring your customers feel like more than just another sale that goes towards profits.
People remember businesses that make them feel valued.
Your customers don’t want to feel like they’re receiving the same message as everyone else. Different customers care about different things.
It’s surprisingly common for businesses to send every email to every customer because it’s easier. It saves time, but relevance disappears quickly when everyone receives the same message.
Let’s say you’re an online store selling high-end fragrances.
25% of your customers purchase from you and select “add gift wrap” when they’re checking out.
So, build a list of those customers and send them personalised emails all about gifting
If you deal with eCommerce, you’ll likely understand the trend around marketing for national holidays. Halloween, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday – the list is endless.
Plenty of customers will take advantage of flash sales around these holidays, but plenty will appreciate a bit of thought beforehand.
If you’re planning a “Mother’s Day Sale”, then ask your customers first, “Would you like to receive marketing from us around Mother’s Day?” – there may be customers who have recently lost a loved one, so be cautious before you jump into “QUICK, 50% OFF ALL WEEKEND FOR MOTHERS”.
Every email doesn’t need to go to everyone. The more relevant your marketing feels, the easier it becomes for customers to see that you’re paying attention.
This ties in with making your customers feel valued. If you go above and beyond for them, they’re more likely to tell their friends you’re a business they can trust.
There’s no point in guessing what your customers want.
We’re not in the age of waiting days for a carrier pigeon to come back to you with an answer.
So, just ask your customers.
Feedback gives you a chance to understand what’s working and what could improve their experience.
It also shows your customers that their opinion matters.
Collecting feedback is the easy part. What’s important is then doing something with that information.
A lot of businesses get stuck here. Feedback is collected, and the customer is told that someone will review it. Then people get busy, and it’s forgotten about.
Customers don’t expect you to act on every suggestion, but they do notice if nothing ever changes. Even small improvements show you’ve been listening. If you do make changes because customers suggested them, tell people. A simple “You asked, we listened” update shows feedback isn’t disappearing into the void. It also makes people more likely to share their thoughts again next time if they know someone’s paying attention.
Loyalty comes from trust, and trust takes time.
Customers are more likely to stick around when they feel like they know your business and believe you’ll be there when they need you.
We often see businesses put huge amounts of effort into winning customers, then go quiet once the work begins. Staying in touch is all about continuing to be useful, not constantly selling. Every useful interaction builds the relationship a little further, making it easier for customers to come back to you when they need you again.
Are you checking in with customers? Are you making it easy for them to get support when they need it?
Over time, regular interactions become the reason someone chooses you over a competitor.
If someone’s already chosen you, don’t make them feel forgotten.
The strongest, most direct marketing in the world won’t make up for a poor customer experience.
Your service is a huge part of your marketing.
Every interaction shapes how people see your business, from the first conversation through to ongoing support.
If customers hear one message in your marketing and experience something different once they become a customer, they’ll notice and remember.
Take time to review the full customer journey. Are there points where people get frustrated? Are there questions you’re answering repeatedly? If you use platforms like Trustpilot, spend time reading them too. Customers will often highlight recurring frustrations there that they’ve never mentioned directly, giving you a chance to fix problems before they become bigger ones.
Customers don’t want to jump through hoops to understand what you do.
If your messaging changes from one channel to another, or different teams explain your offer in different ways, it’s confusing.
The easier you make it for someone to understand what you do, the easier it is for them to decide whether you’re right for them.
Take a look at your website, emails, sales brochures and social channels. Are they all telling the same story?
We regularly find businesses explaining themselves differently depending on who’s speaking. It’s not necessarily wrong, because no two people are the same, but when everyone describes your business differently, customers are left trying to work out what you do.
A clearer message makes it easier for customers to recognise your value and remember why they chose you in the first place.
Customer loyalty is built through the reasons you give people to stay connected, not just once someone buys from you.
That could be:
Businesses that keep customers coming back don’t disappear once they’ve made the sale. They continue sharing and answering questions, so when the customer needs them again, they’re already there.
If you notice customers don’t stick around for too long, ask yourself: “Are we giving people a reason to come back?”
Every business has customers who come back again and customers who disappear.
Spend time looking at the patterns. Did they come through different channels? Did they receive different communication?
This is often the bit that’s missing for most businesses. They have plenty of reports and marketing activity, but lack a clear picture of what’s genuinely influencing customer loyalty.
Once you know what’s working, it’s much easier to decide what deserves more of your time.
Customer loyalty isn’t built by adding another marketing activity into the plan.
It comes from understanding what’s helping customers stay with you and spotting where relationships are starting to disappear.
If you’re doing plenty of marketing but aren’t sure what’s driving results, it might be time to step back and look at what’s working, what isn’t and where to focus next.
Our Focus in 30 method helps businesses bring clarity back to their marketing, so you can spend less time chasing activity and more time building relationships that matter.
Get in touch to find out more.
