Building User Loyalty
By Alex Hunter
10 September 2010 | Category: Web Industry
Loyalty. Super hard to get, super easy to lose. Especially today when the consumer has so much choice and so much power. Never before have they been able to compare, research, and discuss their purchasing choices like they can today. So what can you do, particularly as a web brand, to create and grow loyalty?
Qype's (a pure web company) summer party where they invited all their users to come hang out and party.See #5 for why this is important. (Photo Credit: QypeUK)
1: Define what a Loyal User Means to You
It's easy to say "We have very loyal users" but what does that mean? You need to define what "loyalty" means to you. Is it repeat purchases, is it repeat visits, is it the occasional retweet, is it interaction with you on a third-party site?
It could be one or all of those metrics but you need to define what's important to your business. Remember, a casual event (visiting your site) could turn into a conversion event (e.g. a purchase) very quickly if you recognise the casual user and motivate/encourage them appropriately.
2: Know How to Identify Loyal Users
Once you’ve determined what a loyal user means to your business, you need to have the tools in place to identify those users, and their actions, when they take place. Having the proper analytics tools in place is key.
I won’t prescribe what software package is best for your business, only you can determine that, but suffice it to say that there are lots of good tools out there that will help you determine repeat (i.e. loyal) visitors, purchasers, advocates quickly, easily and quantifiably. You’ll be lost without this type of data.
3: Recognise and Reward Loyal Users
Almost all of us are fanboys (or fangirls) of at least one company. How awesome is it when they return your admiration? It doesn’t really matter what the platform is but when you, as a customer, go out of your way to praise a brand, it’s such a great feeling when they acknowledge that praise. Even if it’s a simple “Thanks!” on Twitter, or a simple reply to your email thanking them for a good experience.
It doesn’t take long to do but it can be a powerful way to increase loyalty. So understand who your fans are and be sure to thank them for their loyalty. You can take this a step further and, with the help of the analytics/CRM tools we talked about in point 2, you can reward quantifiably loyal users with automated messages, emails, promo codes, gifts, etc as a way of saying thanks. Again, simple but very, very compelling.
4: Improve your Product
You can’t build loyalty on a mediocre product (unless you’re an airline but that too shall pass, mark my words). If you have a poor product or experience and you’re trying to market or increase your customer base, stop.
Right now. Focus your time, energy, resources on fixing your product first. You’ll find building loyalty MUCH easier afterwards because your customers will be happier, less inclined to churn, and more motivated to sing your praises.
5: Real World, Real Love
Pure digital brands are often said to be at a disadvantage against bricks-and-mortar brands because they lack physical touchpoints, human interaction, etc. I disagree. Sure, your main line of business may be purely web based but that doesn’t mean you can’t exist in meatspace as well.
Find out where your users are in the world and meet them! Hold a meetup, do a hack fest, or just tweet out that you’re going down to the local pub and people should come hang out. Even if you only have 2 users, they’re your users for a reason – engage with them, buy them a beer, find out how they use your product, what they think you should change or improve. I guarantee they’re doing things that you couldn’t possibly conceive of.
Follow @thinkvitamin on Twitter Please check out Treehouse
