How to Gain Customer Loyalty During a Recession

With thoughts about a more sustainable future, businesses should prepare for all scenarios that may play out in the post-Coronavirus world. Companies are capable of predicting the market conditions and overcoming a recession if they accept the real state of things. “Now” requires us to transit most of the business operations in the online world, rethink customer experience, and invest in establishing trust-based relationships with customers. From my experience, building customer loyalty is an essential part of digital marketing for new normal that can do wonders with your conversions. 

Why invest in building customer loyalty?

Customer loyalty has become the most significant value for businesses in a crisis. Loyal customers are more likely to stay with your brand regardless of changing market rules and operational conditions during the lockdown. 

The loyal audience is a self-fueling organism that generates increasingly more returning customers. They leave positive feedback on the web, share information about a favorite brand with their micro-circles of influence, or in other words, they share it by word-of-the-mouth. Don’t underestimate the power of this traditional method since most of our words are “digital” today and spread at the wind speed on the web. 

Customers can expand the company’s impact in the digital world by sharing comments and reviews about a brand and its products on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YourTube. It helps increase brand awareness, acquire new customers, build trust with them, and grow conversions. Without further ado, let’s consider several practices that can help you increase customer loyalty during an economic downturn.

Let them know your brand cares

Let people know that your company co-experiences post-pandemic challenges together with customers. Sharing unobtrusive, unsalesy, cheerful, and useful content on social media and a corporate blog, your company can be helpful and build trust with customers. Empathize your messaging, remind customers to keep safe, update them about global news on how the world is adopting the post-COVID reality. 

You can also share real-life stories on how your team and customers are adapting to the new normal collaboratively. Interviews with customers, social re-posts, and incorporating user-generated content may be helpful. The content is a powerful medium for communicating and empathizing with your audience. And yes, it brings long-term results in terms of conversions and brand popularity.

Emphasize social equality and integration

We all are small if taken separately. And we are big if gather all together. Don’t forget to remind your customers about it when nailing content for social networks, internal blogs, and online media. Evocate for oneness and social equality to inspire people to care about each other and stay “human” even during this period evoking slight associations with the pre-apocalyptic times in zombie movies.

Inside, we want to stay “human,” but often forget about it in the rush of everyday life. Show that your brand isn’t indifferent to what happens to everyone on a global scale and reflect it in your content. You would be surprised to see how many likes and shares a social media post with such messaging usually collects. That’s a great way to build trust and a positive brand reputation in online space.

Involve brand executives in building trust with an audience

Like the human body has the heart, every brand has its heart too. These are brand founders and CEOs. They dictate the rhythm of the whole brand and always evoke a huge audience’s resonance. Staying often in the shadow, they can step into light on social media and address customers personally today. Today, many companies send exclusive newsletters and publish video-speeches of brand leaders expressing their opinions on the current situation and sharing about what measures are taken to keep customers safe and help them adapt to the new normal.

Make customer learning entertaining

You can increase custom loyalty and gain trust by offering helpful and entertaining video-content to your audience. Try to educate your customers on how to use your products and services in engaging explainer videos. Animated videos also work great for user onboarding on a website or mobile application. Instead of writing long and boring tutorials, you can convert them in a creative and easy-to-understand format that allows people to learn and have fun at the same time. 

Just imagine that your product is introduced by an animated mascot in a funny and exciting video-story that features your brand values and mission. You can also discover how illustrations can add value to your website and make educational content on your blog more “entertaining.”

Address local communities

By addressing online marketing to local communities and adjusting messaging to their cultures, your brand demonstrates that it appreciates the uniqueness of every target group. You can adjust your social media content and visuals to audiences of different demographics, religions, and nationalities. KFC Arabia’sArabia’s recent tweet is a great instance of how a business can address a local culture.

Invest in a powerful customer support

It’s not surprising that brands can retain customers and grow their trust by providing outstanding customer support. Particularly now, when everything goes beyond its schedule, and there is a growing feeling of anxiety, customers need fast and round-the-clock customer care. Give them confidence that a support team is easily accessible by incorporating AI-powered chatbots on a website, creating a separate business page for customer support queries on social media like @Apple Support, and timely answering tickets via email.

Closing thoughts

While concerns toward the post-Coronavirus future are now embracing the world, your brand and its culture may become the island of calmness and confidence for your customers. Let them feel you not only sells but also try to help and care about them. In the current business landscape, marketing’s primary goal is simple — to establish a more personal connection with customers, cheer them up, and build trust with them in times of uncertainty.