Loyalty comes a long way, whether in romantic relationships, friendships or business partnerships. Being loyal strengthens the connection of individuals, and for businesses and customers, this case has never been more true.

Customer loyalty is the trust that a business has earned and established from its target audience. When someone becomes loyal to you, expect to gain a lot from them. Besides purchasing your products or services from time to time, they would also recommend you to others. 

However, before you reach that stage, there are other stages you have to go through in the customer purchase journey. Watch this clip to discover what those stages are:

Understanding every stage of the customer purchase journey allows you to engage with your potential customers more effectively and eventually win their loyalty.

The following is an ecommerce SEO guide that can teach you how to earn and establish customer loyalty.

7 Ways to Earn & Establish Customer Loyalty

1. Offer Discounts

Ecommerce shops can grant their customers a discount or promotion on complementary products or services. That way, you can entice them to shop for more. 

You should know that discounts are like rewards that kids look forwards to or a pleasant surprise they enjoy getting. Just imagine, who would not love to see “Buy One, Get One Free”? Being able to get a discount would make the customer come back and purchase again.

When should you offer discounts? The best time would be when your sales are slow to come by. For example, if you own a furniture store and your dining chairs are not making any sale, consider creating a promotion like they could get one dining chair free if they purchase five at once. 

Regardless of the discounts that you have in mind, make sure they are easy to redeem. Also, add the start and end date so they would know when your offer lasts. If you can, use SEO keywords relevant to your company so they can find it right away once they search for it online. 

2. Partner With Credible Brands

For ecommerce shops, maximise your results by utilising SEO and partnering with credible brands. Doing so should help you earn and establish credibility with your customers. 

Not to mention, your partnership with them would also help you to expand your reach and improve your online presence. For example, if you own an IT company that develops SEO tools, you can partner with Shopify and promote your product as Shopify SEO plugins. 

3. Provide Excellent Customer Service

That is important to earn the trust and loyalty of your customers. Make sure when they reach out to your ecommerce store’s customer service, you are calmly addressing their concerns and giving them options on how to resolve the problem.

You should know that if you have poor customer service, it would affect customer loyalty and cause a domino effect. According to a study, more than one bad customer experience can snowball up to 80%. 

Prevent that from happening by understanding your customers and resolving their queries as soon as possible. Doing so would result in them feeling heard and that you value their feedback, which can help earn their trust. 

4. Ask for Feedback & Respond to Reviews

Asking for their reviews might seem like an ordinary ecommerce SEO strategy, but it is one of the most effective ways to earn and establish loyalty. Knowing their opinions about your business allows you to discover what you can improve on and how.

However, when your customers already gave you their feedback, make sure to respond accordingly. Your quick response would mean a lot to them since it would show you are reading their review and finding ways to address their concern.

To enhance the quality of your customer service, try using different digital channels such as Facebook and Google My Business so your customers can write their feedback on whichever platform they like or are convenient for them.  

5. Encourage Referrals

Another way to earn and establish the loyalty of your customers is to encourage them to refer your business to others. Doing so should help attract new potential customers and expand your customer base. 

Just make sure once your customers successfully make recommendations, you should reward their efforts. You could do that by giving them exclusive promotions on products or services that they often get on your ecommerce shop. 

For example, if A succeeds in referring B to purchase any of your products, you can reward both of them with a certain percentage of their next purchase. The reward you gave them would further encourage them to refer your business to others more so they could get more discounts on the things they want to get.

You can do this by sharing links. Encourage your customers to share your post on their social media accounts for brand exposure. If they do so, their friends or followers would get convinced and consider trying out your products or services. 

6. Create a Point System

Besides encouraging customers to refer your brand to others, you could also create a point system. This loyalty strategy would drive customers to reach certain levels to get their reward. 

Starbucks would be a great example for a point system. Every year they create a point system that allows their customers to earn a point until they have enough to get exclusive Starbucks products as their rewards. 

Make sure when you create a point system, use the right SEO keywords for your awareness campaigns. The SEO keywords you would use helps your target audience find out about it when they search for it online.

For instance, if you own a pizza joint and want to offer Hawaiian pizza as the bronze reward of your point system, you should mention those keywords. That way, when people who love Hawaiian pizza search for it online, your point system would pop up in their search results, and that would encourage them to join so they could take a bite of their favourite flavour pizza.

Just be specific about the details and rewards of your point system so people would understand how they can join and win the respective prize you promised to give them once they have reached a certain number of points.

7. Pay Attention to Social Engagement

Instead of writing reviews on the testimonial page, some people often leave comments on social media posts. For your ecommerce shop, you should not overlook that since your responsiveness can influence their trust and loyalty towards you. 

That is why if you notice someone tagging you and leaving a comment about your products or services, consider replying as a form of acknowledgement. If their comments are about a problem, try to resolve the issue. As such, others who will see your response know that you care about them.

Conclusion 

These are some of the tried-and-tested methods that can help you earn and establish customer loyalty. If they are too much to remember, keep this phrase in mind: putting your customers first always pays off. 

Just make sure to make the right impression when you connect, interact, and communicate with them. That is how you can gain the trust and win the loyalty of your target audience.

For more tips on customer loyalty, get in touch with an SEO agency in Singapore. Contact OOm at 6391-0930 and let us help you start your loyalty marketing campaigns and programmes.