Top Social Media Strategies for Building Customer Loyalty
In the intro to this series on social media for small business marketing, we talked about how social media can be great for business. You can be strategic with your social media and leverage your content to build brand loyalty, converting those posts into client longevity and, ultimately, revenue for your business. In other words, you can use smart social media strategies to encourage client loyalty and to ensure that customers fall in love with your business!
When beginning your social media strategy, it’s important to realize that there are many brands competing for your customers’ attention. Every day, your potential customers are confronted with thousands of businesses asking for their eyes, attention, and dollars through mass emails, social media ads, flyers, commercials, radio spots, banner ads, and other forms of advertising. As competition grows, people are understandably becoming more selective about the brands they choose to engage with.
A good social media strategy puts customers first. You should craft your social media plan—however large or small—with your clients as the priority. Proceed with a mindset of serving the customer’s needs and providing a real service and benefit to their life.
The best approach for a business owner is to put yourself in your client’s shoes by asking yourself questions such as:
Why would YOU want to follow your account?
What would you be interested in seeing from an account like yours?
How often should you post so that you hit the right balance between a neglected account and an annoying overload of information?
What information will prove useful or beneficial to your followers?
What is the right amount of personal touch for your social media accounts?
What specials and deals can you offer your online followers to incentivize them to keep following you?
If appropriate for your business, how can you help build a community around your business?
The answers to these questions will absolutely be different for every business. Let’s look at two examples, both businesses our team at Go West Marketing has worked with.
We worked with the owners of a high-end performance gym in Southern California as they built their web and social media presence. The trainers decided to maintained an active Instagram and Facebook account, hitting visual mediums heavily to keep gym members excited, engaged, and motivated. We also encouraged them to promote their custom hashtag across all their platforms and among their members in order to foster a sense of community, generating pride and loyalty in their participation in the gym. We featured this hashtag and all social media accounts on the gym’s website as well.
We worked with a licensed home inspector in Oregon. This isn’t a business that can benefit from extensive social media activity. They chose to maintain a Facebook page and to share useful articles about home inspection and building codes pertinent to their area, which helped build their SEO and keep them in front of customer’s eyes without requiring a great deal of unnecessary time and effort.
If you can provide helpful, informative content in the right amount—not too often or too little—you’ll be providing a service that your clients will appreciate. There’s nothing gimmicky or fake about a good social media approach. Use the same principles you apply to the rest of your business endeavors: Integrity, service, and a personal touch!
Would you like to talk about your social media strategy with an expert? Schedule a free consultation with our team at Go West Marketing. No question is too big or small—we’re here to help.