Remember when email was used to catch up with friends and family? Now my inbox is full of brands trying to take my money and the occasional Amazon or Apple scam email. Why do marketers have to ruin everything?
Even through all the spam, 96% of consumers still check their emails every day (DMA Consumer Tracker 2021). While the first thought for most marketers is, “How do I monetize my database?”, using email marketing to create brand loyalty is a much more powerful way to leverage your database.
By turning customers into evangelists, you can increase their lifetime value (LTV) and bring down the cost of customer acquisition (CoCA). However, if you spam your customers with promotions and discounts every week, you’re more likely to end up in the spam folder (every email marketer's worst nightmare).
How to Build Brand Loyalty Using Email
So how do you start building brand loyalty using email marketing? The first step is to stop sending only discounts and promotions! Don’t get me wrong, the occasional or even monthly promotion is still necessary to earn revenue, but your database needs more than a promotion to checkout. In fact, 57% of consumers will increase their spending with a brand they connect with and 76% will buy from them over a competitor.
Check out these six ways to shake up your email campaign calendar and start building brand loyalty.
1. Tailor Email Campaigns to Segmented Audiences
If you’re sending every email to every contact in your database. Please stop. Not everything you have to say is going to be relevant to everyone (and that’s fine)!
By segmenting your audience, you can personalize the content of your emails and message-match to their interests. Not only does this help build a better relationship with your customers, but it can also improve email open rates and click-through rates and decrease unsubscribes.
A few different ways you can segment your email database are by
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Products purchased
- Last purchase date
- Last email campaign interaction
Here’s an example of two emails that were created for the same campaign but for different segments. When the pandemic was at its height, our client Thompson Tee started manufacturing masks. We knew their new contacts did not care about their “core” products, sweat proof undershirts, so we created a segment of customers who have only purchased masks and made sure they only received emails that were relevant to them.
2. Develop a Loyalty Program
It might seem obvious, but creating a loyalty program is the perfect first step for cultivating brand loyalty, it’s right there in the name! By rewarding your customers, you make them feel like they are part of a community. They’ll continue to build a relationship with you because you’re sweetening the deal. A few ways to reward your customers is by giving them:
- Points for every dollar spent to be redeemed for discounts
- Birthday discounts
- Referral incentives
- First looks at new products
- Special offers
- Early access to discounts
This also makes your customers more “sticky” to your brand. They’ll think twice before purchasing with your competitors because they already have a lot of stock built up with your brand via your loyalty program.
Here are some examples from our clients who leverage a loyalty program to increase brand loyalty.
3. Build on the Emotional Connection to Your Brand
Customers want to engage with brands they relate to and feel connected to. In fact, a major bank designed a campaign to inspire an emotional connection in Millennials and saw that segment increase by 70% and new account growth rose by 40%.
So how do you build an emotional connection with customers to build brand loyalty? Try being authentic in your emails, so your customers can actually feel connected to your brand! It all starts with having a strong brand that inspires consumers. If you need help building your brand, Human has branding and creative services that can help bring your brand to life.
Check out how we helped our clients bring out the authenticity of their brands to the forefront in these email examples.
Other ways to build an emotional connection with your customers are:
- Tell your brand story
- Identify the emotional motivators for your brand
- Keep it authentic in your messaging
- Connect with your customers’ pain points
4. Keep Your Content Fresh
One of the simplest ways to engage your database and keep your brand top of mind is to send relevant news, trends and shifts in your business or industry via newsletters. A few ideas you can include in your newsletters are:
- In-person events
- Company updates
- Industry news
- Blog articles
- TV appearances
- Awards
- Seasonal updates
Below are some examples of client emails that inform contacts about exciting things happening with their businesses.
5. Add Shareable Content
While you can only email contacts in your database, you can grow your audience by getting your happy customers to spread the word on your behalf. With 90% of people more likely to trust a recommended brand, getting your customers to talk about your business with their friends and family can increase your reach and earn new customers.
Some ways you can encourage your customers to spread your business through word-of-mouth include:
- Incentivize them with discounts
- Showcase testimonials and encourage customers to share reviews
- Provide excellent customer service
- Hold social media contests to get user-generated content (UGC)
- Have a referral program
6. Reward Engagement
Everyone likes rewards! In fact, 75% of consumers favor companies that offer rewards. Build brand loyalty and keep your customers coming back to you by rewarding their engagement. A few examples of how you can reward your customers are:
- Contests
- Free items for high LTV customers
- Incentives to share UGC
- Discounts for reviews
Below is an example of how we earn reviews for our client, Thompson Tee. By incentivizing engagement, not only do we get a review, but we make the customer feel like their voice is being heard and encourage a second purchase!
The Bottom Line
While cranking out promotion email after promotional email can pad your bottom line, sending emails that connect with your customers in other ways can build up a database that feels more like a fanbase.
If you need help creating and executing an email marketing strategy that builds brand loyalty, let’s talk! We’ve helped businesses across many industries turn customers into evangelists through email marketing.
