Three key methods to drive brand love

This post is sponsored by Talkwalker.

Consumers today have an endless amount of options when it comes to where they spend their money. This makes the landscape more competitive for businesses, and it becomes more important than ever for them to go above and beyond to drive growth. This is why businesses need to rethink their marketing strategies and ensure that they can engage consumers emotionally.

Especially in times of a crisis, brands that are able to connect with consumers’ emotions tend to be the ones that succeed. This is no surprise, since emotions are the main driving force behind purchase decisions.

Furthermore, if your customers have positive feelings towards your brand, they are more likely to remain loyal and share their love for your brand with others around them.

Some brands in the region that have successfully connected with their audience include Singapore Airlines, Changi Airport and Lazada. So, how are these brands driving brand love? We will look at three main methods businesses can use to become a well-loved brand.

An engaging social media strategy

A strong social media strategy is an excellent way to build brand friendship with a community of well-engaged consumers. This is because social media allows for two-way communication between your brand and consumers, hence allowing them to see you as friends, more than just a business. Social media is also a great way to display your brand personality through regular and engaging content.

The quality of the relationship between your brand and consumers can be enhanced through social media campaigns involving user-generated content and brand-specific hashtags. It is also important to ensure that you stay away from automated messages, and always attempt to personalise your content.

“As a practitioner and digital marketer who leverages social media for campaigns, I think the role that social media channels play when it comes to building and driving brand love is incredibly important. Our customers are increasingly discerning, and more than not, would jump head on to a business’s social media accounts before going to a brand’s website for social proof,” says Bella Khaja, account director and consultant for Nimble Marketing Consultancy.

“Social media is undeniably a powerful marketing tool to leverage. And when done right by maximising content marketing and social advertisements, what you get is an engaging and magical experience online.”

Once your social media strategy is up and running, the next step is to regularly measure your performance. Remember to track your engagement, reach, impressions, click-through rates as well as engagement rates.

By creating a robust social media strategy, you can rest assure that consumers are bound to be more emotionally invested in your brand.

Ensure a good customer experience

It’s been said that people don’t buy for logical reasons, but for emotional ones. So, if a customer feels happy and content engaging your services, you have already won half the battle.

This is why the customer experience tends to be a differentiating factor between businesses. A good customer experience is also a key driver of consumer loyalty as it leaves a lasting impression. A happy customer will also speak well of your brand both online and offline, thus serving as a brand ambassador for your business.

Some simple steps in creating a beautiful customer experience include understanding who your customers are, regularly seeking feedback from customers and employees, and acting on the feedback received.

Another important step is to regularly monitor and measure the effectiveness of your efforts to boost the customer experience. This can be done using metrics such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS), to gauge the quality of your customer relationships. Integrating these steps in your overall business strategy will help you build a meaningful relationship with your customers, hence, driving brand love.

Adopt influencer marketing

Influencers are key to your overall strategy of becoming a well-loved brand due to their strong community relations. They act as a bridge between your brand and consumers, as consumers are more likely to trust what they say, rather than what businesses claim. Also, by working with the right influencers, you can better reach the types of consumers you wish to engage.

When engaging influencers, ensure that you are clear of your campaign goals and objectives. Are you launching a new product? Improving brand awareness? You also need to understand your target audience before deciding which influencers to work with. What is their age range? What are their interests?

Example of an audience demographic analysis

Be sure to allow creative freedom so that your influencers have the flexibility to produce content that can best engage their followers. When executed well, influencer marketing campaigns have the potential to create viral conversations around your brand, due to the wide network they have.

Virality map that visualises the virality of conversations by sentiment

The three methods shared above are some of the things you can adopt to engage with consumers that are genuinely invested in your brand and what it stands for. By earning a place in the hearts of your consumers, you will be able to maintain their support and loyalty even when times are tough.

Download the Brand Love Story 2020 report to get a better idea of other brands around the world that are doing a great job at driving brand love.