What Brand Loyalty Can Do for Marketers

marketing team making a plan

Brand loyalty may well be undergoing a transition. According to PwC, 15% of customers are less loyal to businesses they regularly shopped at before the pandemic — a phenomenon Forbes has termed the “death of brand loyalty.” 

But are the rumors of the demise of brand loyalty greatly exaggerated? Perhaps. Still, there’s no denying the importance of brand loyalty on customer lifetime value (CLV). And despite shifting consumer preferences, repeat customers are a great thing to cultivate. 

In this article, we’ll explain what brand loyalty can do for marketers and the brands they represent. Let’s dive in. 

What Is Brand Loyalty?

Brand loyalty can be thought of in many different ways. Maybe you drive a Volvo or Ford because your father drove one. Or maybe you always fly a particular airline because you’ve never had a bad experience with them. Your whole family may use the same mobile carrier because one of you signed up with them and was blown away by their customer service and pricing. So, everyone jumped on board. 

The common denominator in all these cases is brand loyalty. It refers to a customer’s commitment to, affinity for, and emotional attachment to a particular brand that keeps them coming back. 

One of the hallmarks of brand loyalty are repeat purchases. For example, there might be other competitors in a brand’s space. In some cases, they might offer a lower price or have a better product. And still, loyal customers will stick to the brand they trust. 

Brand loyalty also has to do with positive feelings. If they’re loyal to you, it’s because a  customer feels positively about your business. It may be because you stand for a specific cause. Or it could be that one time, your customer support team went out of their way to help the said customer. There are numerous variables impacting brand loyalty, but the net result is that customers come back for more. 

The Importance of Brand Loyalty

It costs SaaS brands an average of $702 to acquire a new customer. In HR and staffing, that average cost is $410. For telecommunications, it’s $694, and for design, it’s $658. The upshot? Customer acquisition is expensive. It’s much cheaper to retain your existing customers than it is to spend a significant chunk of your budget on acquiring new ones.

Brand loyalty helps you do just that. The more loyal your customers are, the less you need to spend on acquisition costs, such as marketing, sales, and advertising. 

Another benefit of brand loyalty is greater CLV. CLV isn’t just about a one-time purchase or subscription renewal; it’s about measuring the value of keeping the customer coming back for more. 

Brand loyalty also increases customer trust in your business. With trust comes word-of-mouth marketing, which is the preferred method of 28% of consumers when learning about a new service, product or brand. 

Doing The Legwork: The Basics of Branding

To connect with consumers today, you must go beyond sharing your name, logo, tagline and pretty imagery. That will only take you so far. Go deeper and share what’s behind your brand to truly resonate with customers.

Why? Because today’s customers want brands to stand for something more than pure profits. They want to connect with authentic brands that share their values and make a positive impact. In a recent study, researchers found that customers want to feel “special.” In fact, 79% said they want businesses to show they understand and care about them. Also, customers are no longer comparing your brand with your competitors only. Instead, 87% say they have a select group of brands they compare all brands with. 

Defining Your Purpose

Who are you? What do you do? Why do you do it? What do you believe in? What do you stand for?

Before you can be meaningful to your customers, you must first know who you are and what your brand stands for. It will provide the foundation for your efforts to connect with customers and build brand loyalty. 

Collaborating with your leadership team, employees and stakeholders to get answers to these questions and then deciding how best to share your distinct brand story isn’t always a straightforward task. But when you pull it off, it has lasting benefits for brand building. You can learn what differentiates you from the competition and communicate well to break through the noise and attract and retain more customers.

Knowing Your Audience

You just need to ensure your purpose is one your customers and prospects can get behind. Keep a pulse on what your target audience expects and what their likes, dislikes, pain points and desires are, so you can continually anticipate and meet their every need and act on those valuable insights.

According to Antavo’s Global Customer Loyalty Report 2023, brands will have to focus more and more on customer loyalty. The report found that: 

  • 79% of companies that already have a loyalty program have plans to revamp it in the future. 
  • 94% of companies believe they should focus on customer loyalty in the wake of the inflation crisis. 
  • 68% of respondents will increase their investments for customer retention. 

You can only get the most out of your investments if you know what your audience wants. Only then can you deliver them their desired outcomes. 

Creating Emotional Impact 

When your purpose, mission, vision and values align with those of your customers and prospects, as the stats above show, not only can you more authentically connect with your target audience, but you can also become more memorable in their minds and encourage greater brand authority, customer engagement and loyalty.

“Brands are emotional,” says Goodway Group president, Jay Friedman. “Advertising matters economically and emotionally. While consumers may not consciously turn to brands to feel better, brands help us connect and express who we are. When we see advertising, we subconsciously consider how a product purchase will help us express ourselves and connect with others.”

Advertising builds connections and communities of like-minded people, and it’s truly amazing what one brand and its loyal customers can do. Warby Parker’s customers rallied around the company’s mission to provide vision for all. As a result, in early 2022, the company hit this milestone: Through its Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program, Warby Parker has been able to distribute more than 10 million glasses to people in need around the world.

Another example in this regard is Indeed’s ‘’A New Beginning’’ advertisement. In their Pride Month commercial, the recruitment advertising network highlighted the need to share preferred pronouns during the hiring process. It focused on inclusivity and creating a safe and comfortable space for transgender and nonbinary jobseekers. The message resonated with the target audience, getting positive responses from them on social media. 

Building Personalized Experiences

Twilio Segment’s State of Personalization Report 2023 showed that: 

  • 69% of businesses are investing more in personalization irrespective of economic hurdles. 
  • 62% of businesses report improved customer retention to be a benefit of marketing personalization. 
  • 56% of customers say they will purchase again from a brand after a personalized experience. 

These statistics show that personalization is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s becoming a consumer expectation. So, how can you increase your own brand’s personalization efforts?

It’s about meeting your customers and prospects where they are, knowing their tastes, offering something just for them and, of course, checking in regularly at every touch point throughout the purchase cycle, which happens to be getting longer all the time.

Making your customers and prospects feel welcome, sending suggestions or communications based on their interests or recent behavior, and marking personal milestones can keep your brand fresh in consumers’ minds. 

Now, brands are using Artificial Intelligence to personalize all aspects of the customer journey. In fact, the aforementioned report found 92% of businesses use AI-driven personalization.  

One company that’s increasing its digital personalization efforts post COVID-19 is Nespresso. The brand plans to unify the customer experience across digital channels, call centers and retail to capture enhanced data, facilitate seamless transactions, and provide a more personalized shopping experience to “bridge the gap between offline and online retail.”

How To Build a Brand Loyalty Strategy

Creating a brand loyalty strategy might look different for different companies. There’s no one-fits-all approach. But there are a few pointers all brands can benefit from. Let’s look at them. 

Build Audience Personas

Male. Millennial. Employed. Cares about his appearance and has a taste for fashion trends. 

That’s an audience personal, most likely for a male clothing or skincare brand. Think of audience personas as semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers.

Who are they? What are their interests? What do they need? Where are they likely to be found online or offline? Audience personas will give you a starting point to understand your audience’s needs and likes. 

Create Content for Various Channels

We mentioned earlier how important it is to know where you can ”find” your customers. Once you know that, it’s time to create content for those channels. Is it Instagram? TikTok? YouTube? Email? 

Don’t merely copy and paste the same content everywhere. Each channel has its nuances. A TikTok user will like quick and snappy content with trending songs, while a LinkedIn-using customer will prefer more professional and informative content. Cater to each channel’s audience while maintaining your brand tone and message. 

Curate a Unique Brand Voice 

People are drawn to voices they can resonate with. It’s always better if yours is unique and memorable. There’s nothing worse than sounding like a generic brand, doing the same thing everyone else seems to be doing. 

Take Duolingo’s example. The brand’s voice is quirky, humorous and witty. Their social media management team is active on TikTok, keeping up with all trends, viral dances, sounds and challenges. They also respond to comments, maintaining Duolingo’s threatening green owl ‘meme.’ 

Gymshark also does something similar on social media. The company tweets like a fitness influencer rather than a ”business”. They create relatable content that gets a ton of shares and likes from their followers. 

Offer a Rewards Program 

One way to make customers come back for more is to give them incentives. What better way to celebrate a customer’s loyalty than offering them rewards? 

IKEA Family is an excellent example of a customer rewards program. Members get discounts, free coffee or tea at the IKEA restaurant and gift cards — and feel like part of a family doing so.

Equally impressive is the Starbucks Rewards program, which according to the company has 75 million members and counting. Perks include free drinks, birthday rewards, etc. It also works — Starbucks Rewards members drive 57% of the company’s sales. 

The next stage of brand loyalty is already playing out on the newest platforms. 

Gen Z loves video advertising, for example, and 91% of businesses used video content as a modern marketing tool in 2023. Moving forward, 96% of marketers believe it to be an essential part of their strategy. 

Want to learn more about the constantly evolving preferences and platforms impacting brand loyalty? Check out Goodway Group’s resource for expert insights:

Spencer Cappelli is a senior content and SEO strategist at Tuff, a Goodway Group company. He has 5+ years of experience in content, editorial and SEO for B2B and B2C audiences spanning SaaS, edtech, digital marketing and more. He lives in New Jersey.