5 ways to build customers’ loyalty and create long-lasting relationships thanks to social media

You’ve always wanted to catch butterflies. If only you weren’t that loud and clumsy, you could have come nearer to them. But look at your approach. 

Whenever a butterfly is about to land on your hand, you suddenly jump on it. Isn’t it the worst option to make them feel secure? To make them want to stay on your hand for as long as possible?

If you can relate to this situation, it’s because sometimes brands act the same way to retain customers but just as for the butterflies’ chase, aggressivity and clumsiness won’t help you much. Let’s discover today 5 practical actions you can easily use on social media to activate and reinforce your customer retention strategy. Don’t forget, the objective is to win their loyalty after their first purchase.

Ready to improve your customers' retention strategy thanks to social media? Keep reading!

Why social media is a great channel to build customers’ loyalty?

These last years, social media has completely changed the interactions between brands and customers. With streams, and lives, emerging media have also brought about major change, and people love it. In 2021, there were more than 30 million average daily visitors on Twitch! 
But if social media is a great springboard for your business visibility and acquisition strategy, you can also use them to build long-lasting customer relationships to win their loyalty (and who knows? Make them your brand ambassadors).

How to build customers’ loyalty and create long-lasting relationships thanks to social media? 

1. Find relatable brand storytelling and stick to it 

How to first start a conversation with your customers? How to get them to recognize your brand? 

You need to exploit your brand values to create relatable storytelling that delivers added value to your customers. It’s not talking about yourself but about how your brand can contribute to your customers’ wellbeing, buyer journey satisfaction…

If you’re used to sharing humorous content, memes, emojis, your audience will get accustomed to it. If you jump overnight to a new communication strategy, they’re likely not to recognize your brand. 

Don’t forget that you need to adapt your communication to each social platform (GIFs are good on Twitter but don’t suit Instagram posts, lives are good on Twitch but not that efficient yet on Twitter…)

2. Provide value thanks to pillar content

What about your inbound strategy? Pillar content helps you start higher in your funnel of conversion. It helps you have a positive impact both on your acquisition and lead nurturing. What does it mean for social media?
Well, think about social media pillar content. To start a good relationship with your customers on social media, you can share valuable information that will make you an expert in your domain. Then, you can open the discussion in the comments section.

It’s not only about telling a story. It’s about providing high added value content that customers can benefit from in everyday life.

Tips: make do/ don’t, tips, tutorials… that provide real value to your audience. Customers have to feel involved in your company’s cause.

3. Share user-generated content 

How could social media play a role in your product/service campaigns? 

79% of people say that User-Generated Content has a huge impact on their purchasing decisions. By showcasing short videos, live and streams, reviews of your actual customers (or influencers) you can convince the more sceptical ones.

For instance, Starbucks share a lot of User Generated Content on their Instagram page. It:

• Helps their audience identify themselves as potential customers
• Rewards for loyal customers for their content are showcased on a brand’s Instagram page 
• Gives Starbucks a good image: they’re interested in what their customers think about their brand. 

source: Starbucks Instagram account

4. PERSONALIZE THE USER EXPERIENCE TO SUIT HIS BUYER JOURNEY

How to help customers evolve in their buyer journey? How to take them from the prospect stage to the loyal customer one? 

We think that the answer lies in the personalization of their buyer’s journey. UX personalization requires a good understanding of your customers. You can segment your audience on their LTV to have a deep understanding of how your customers could benefit your business.  

Tips: use social listening tools like Sprout or Iconosquare to collect and centralize your posts' impressions, engagement rate, positive/ negative comments… to get to know your audience as well as you could.

Personalization of customer experiences doesn’t stop there. It’s also about answering your customer comments/feedback in an authentic way. The conversation won’t start a relationship if your answers look like a robot just type them.

source

By answering both your good and bad customer comments quickly, you give them a good image of your capacity to manage after-sales service, which is a great way to win their loyalty.
Don’t hesitate to DM them too! It can be a great way to create a longer or deeper conversation.

Note that even an unsatisfied customer can change his mind after a good after-sales service! A good sale doesn’t stop when the purchase it’s done. It goes way further away (delivery, after-sales, relationship…).

5. Offer rewards to your loyal customers

If there are no rewards to being a loyal customer, then, why become one? 

You can share them exclusive content, digital products, fun functionalities to try, unique experiences, discount codes, free trials…  directly on social media. 

Exclusive promotion campaigns or live shopping are a great way to win your customers’ loyalty. Don’t hesitate to ask them to share offers, discounts, giveaways with their own audience to get additional rewards.

Always provide value on social media to win your customer's loyalty

Nowadays many brands are on social media but do they really share something with high added value to their audience, that will nurture their experience apart from good-looking pictures of their products (which is good for a start)? 

If you want to create long-lasting relationships with your customers on social media, you should always try to share things that will benefit their customer's journey: it can be tips, tutorials, rewards, UGC… 

To make it short: a good content strategy will create conversation and engage your audience. From the conversation, relationships will build-up, and you’ll be able to learn from these exchanges to develop your brand.

There are at least one hundred ways you can build your customers’ loyalty but we chose to share 5 of them. If you want more tips from our Storytelling team, don’t hesitate to call on them! They have an infinite source of impactful tips waiting for you!