PR is great for many things one of which is building your brand. No matter the size of your business building brand loyalty is essential in ensuring that clients and customers tell their friends about you and keep coming back to you time and time again as opposed to going to your competitors.
Customer loyalty research shows that:
Evidence that loyal clients and customers are worth their weight in gold.
So, how can PR help you to build the type of customer loyalty that keeps them coming back time and time again?
It’s not just about reputation
PR isn’t just about managing you or your brands reputation, or doing PR stunts or even hosting headline worthy stunts. Whilst all of those things have their place and are extremely useful, one of the key functions of PR is to help you build strong, lasting connections, this can be with those that come into contact with your business whether it be customers, stakeholders or the general public.
PR can help create a sense of attachment and loyalty to your business in turn this loyalty can be converted into sales, referrals and best of all positive comments when people talk about you.
So, how do you make PR work for you?
Telling stories
Firstly use PR to tell your stories. I say it all the time but stories matter. One of the most impactful ways of creating brand loyalty is by telling your brand story. Your brand story not only lets people know what you do it also tells them why you do it, who you are and how you make a difference. Your story doesn’t need to be some epic take fit for Hollywood but it should be compelling, consistent and most of all authentic. It should speak to your target audience and resonate with their needs, values and emotions.
By sharing your story you paint a positive picture and also tell your target audience something that make your different to your competitors.
Engagement
Make sure you are using PR to engage with the people you want to see walk though your physical or metaphorical shop doors. This means creating a two way communication. Engagement isn’t about just selling or talking about yourself and what you do all over social media it’s about talking to people in person or online and listening to their opinions, getting their feedback and trying to understand what they want and need. There are lots of ways to engage including; newsletters, social media, surveys, events and traditional publicity. Engagement builds connection and connection leads to loyalty.
When you need help
Hopefully you’re never in a situation where you have a business crisis and your reputation is on the line, but if you do this is another time that PR can help build loyalty. The way your respond to scandals, trolls on social media, product recalls and so on all impact how people see you. Everybody can be nice when things are going well but often true colours show when things start going wrong. When things go wrong make sure your PR is tip top by responding to to any issues honestly, promptly and transparently and do what you can to resolve them. The way your react can protect your image and restore trust.
Measure your results
You’re doing the work with your PR but if you’re not tracking it how will you know what’s working and more importantly what isn’t? By measuring your results you can be more aware of what your audience wants so that you can give them more of it. In turn the fact that you keep giving them what they want leads to brand loyalty. The outcomes and impacts that you should consider looking at are things such as media coverage (are you getting any? Have key messages been included? Did your call to action hit the spot?), website traffic, social media engagement, customer satisfaction and sales.
Make sure you;re using reliable methods to track and measure and make the most of your findings by using them to find your strengths, weaknesses and to improve your approach and strategies.
How are you going to use PR to increase your brand loyalty going forward?
To find out more about me and how I can support you visit www.beckandcallpr.co.uk or drop me an email at sayhello@beckandcallpr.co.uk
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