How does content marketing build brand loyalty?

“How does content marketing build brand loyalty?” I hear you ask. Well, it is a commonly known fact that content marketing helps you and your business to build a relationship with your business’ customers. Content marketing is a great way to promote your products or your services; but did you know that it is also an excellent way to connect with customers? In this article, as experienced marketing professionals, we share some of our knowledge and explain how you and your organisation can use content marketing to build brand loyalty. 

Your content, your identity

You’ve probably heard the frequently used phrase ‘content is king’, but what does that mean? The answer to this question is quite complex, but to put it simply, it is not about what content you put out there, it is all about how you use it. In the digital environment, if you want to build brand loyalty you need to contour your brand identity by using content marketing.

When people find your product in a shop or when people buy your service, they get to try it, but when customers come across your content – now that is when they get to experience your brand. Your content marketing defines your brand identity, what your product or service is and how it can enhance the ‘life’ of your customers.

You know what they say, first impression matters, but when it comes to brand loyalty, you need to maintain that impression. Long-term relationships with customers will add a lot of benefits to your business because your content marketing can build trust and enhance your brand reputation.

When people see your brand, they can become loyal to your product or service, especially if they resonate with your content marketing. In other words, you can build brand loyalty when customers like your brand identity and if they resonate with your brand’s values.

The connection you have with your customers is a complex one. We live in a digital era where individuals have lots of opportunities to express who they are and what their values are – and that impacts their purchasing decisions.

Studies show that people are going to share on social media an idealised version of themselves, and that version is based on what group they want to be part of or what their own goals are. This behaviour impacts the individual’s purchasing behaviour by choosing to buy from brands that match or are equivalent to their own identity. Exactly – your identity matters when you build customer loyalty, and nothing says more about your brand than your content marketing.

Nowadays, consumers are more likely to see the brands they buy as an extension of their own identity. Therefore, you can create content based on the values of your target market to communicate your brand identity to them. Moreover, with content marketing, you can reach new customers by sharing content that they are likely to search for. Don’t forget, customers are more likely to become loyal to the product/service they resonate with – a match made in heaven!

Demonstrate your quality

The first impression is important, but it is not everything – to build brand loyalty, you need to demonstrate that you can deliver the quality you promised and that you can respond to your customer’s needs.

Use your content marketing to highlight that you can offer the promised quality and don’t be shy when it comes to showing off! Share to the world all the qualities of your product or service. If you want people to keep choosing your product or service over your competitors, you need to offer the right quality and meet your customer’s needs. When people are happy with a product, they are more likely to buy it again and to recommend it to others, because they already know what they get when they choose your brand.

Your content becomes richer when you focus on how useful and of what standard your product/service is. Because your content can reach new customers, you can build brand loyalty by demonstrating that your brand is an excellent choice.

When you focus your content marketing on the standards you can reach, you have so many options to show off your accomplishments. Your content marketing can display the positive feedback you have from customers, the benefits that come with choosing your brand, and how happy people are because they are using your product/service. The key here is that you can use the best marketing tool – social media, blog posts, email newsletters and reviews – in other words, electronic word of mouth. People are more likely to stay loyal to a brand when good words are spoken and there are good reviews.

Customers remember how you make them feel

Building brand loyalty is all about building an emotional connection. People always remember how you make them feel and that plays a huge role in building customer loyalty. By using content marketing, you can offer an experience to your customers. From the moment they consider your brand for purchasing, to the way they feel when they use and buy your product or service, you can always add an emotional touch.

Remember, content marketing isn’t only about selling.  Quite often, it’s all about connecting with your target audience and identifying their problems. You can always readily produce materials that address those issues, meaning that you can use your content marketing in a very creative way to create an experience for your audience.

Be creative! From blog articles to social media posts and email marketing, your content can attract customers. Why not make them want to keep consuming your content? From heart-warming content to inspiring posts, there is so much you can do. You can show off your emotional side and eventually, your audience will associate your brand with a certain feeling.

Your content marketing strategy can impact brand perception, so by generating the right content, you can maintain a good brand attitude. Find what is relevant to your customers and build your brand loyalty.

Make it personal

Let’s be real, you really do not want to spam your customers! Studies show that the content shared by a brand is perceived in the same way as if it was shared by a real person. In other words, the relationship you build with customers is a very real one!

People are more likely to read something if they feel like that text was written specifically for them. After all, if there is a relationship, spam and bulk messages are not necessarily going to make it stronger, so make it personal!

Whilst it is difficult to have a personal connection between a company and a customer, you can use content marketing to personalise communication. When people see content that might not be addressed to them, they are more likely to ignore it. Adapt your content strategy to make sure your customers don’t miss out on valuable information. Here is the best part – you can potentially get feedback from the individuals who consume your content, and that allows you access to useful insights. With content marketing, it’s a win-win situation!

When you create your community, it is important to also maintain brand loyalty and expand it by using the right content. What is valuable about brand loyalty is that your customers are people that can genuinely recommend your brand.

As we established, content marketing can be used to build brand loyalty. To decide what content strategy suits you and your customers best, there are plenty of factors to keep in mind: the user experience, the brand identity, the personalisation, and many other elements that can be useful over time.

With GoGo Marketing & Advertising, our team of experts will help you to create and produce the right content strategy for your brand to build brand loyalty that equals success.