Consumer trust is one of the most important aspects for the success of your business. Your brand voice is one way to secure this. Of course, UGC being the first. Wink, Wink. People respond to real people. Authentic people. This also adds to the personalization that everyone now expects in their customer experiences. So, having a unique voice that resonates with your audience is a way to create transparency but how do you do that? Think of your brand as an entity. A person. Who is this person who represents your business? What is their personality? What do they care about? Make sure that their tone is approachable and engaging that speaks your customer’s language. Here are some more tips on ways to humanize your brand’s voice.
Is Brand Loyalty Immune From Economic Downturns?
The economic climate in the U.S. is changing. We all know it. Even though it hasn’t been dubbed an official recession yet, consumers already have. Let’s be honest, that’s all that matters because their perceptions determine how they purchase. 70% of the American population think that the recession is already here, according to an article in Media Post. However, according to a study done by Brand Keys, 38% of industry categories have reported decreases in loyalty whereas, 44% have seen it grow. Why is this? Does this indicate that brand loyalty may be “recession proof” depending on the field? While we don’t have the answer, it does indicate that consumers will have to adjust their spending, but it may not affect their loyalty to brands that they love. Industries that are tied to economics seem to take more of a hit than others when it comes to loyalty. This depends almost entirely on how the brand’s marketing deals with economic issues during downturns in economy. Loyalty can actually be strengthened during economic downturns since customers will concentrate spending with companies that they trust. Brands who focus on protecting and growing loyalties during these times of unrest can sustain loyalties and revenues. It can be difficult but it’s not impossible. You need to know your core audience and how they’re being affected. What changes will they have to make and how can you appeal to their needs during these tough times? Although, we cannot give you the answers to these questions because they will be very different for each industry and audience group, we can give you a couple of tips that may help your brand keep its loyal customers. That being said, according to Bain & Co., there are three distinct characteristics that can make a brand stand out as a loyalty leader during economic crisis. One, they don’t try to discount too aggressively. It can be hard to keep customers once the downturn is over when prices increase again. Two, they apply practical means to keep their most important audience before others. Keep that core group at the front of your mind when making marketing decisions. Lastly, they identify critical moments that positively impact their customers most. This can be done through a simple “rate your purchase or experience” questionnaire. In the end, we all know it’s easier and cheaper to keep customers than to gain new ones. Customer satisfaction will keep loyalties high while spending is low.
Increasing External Brand Engagement with Sourced Content
Let’s talk about why brand engagement even matters but first, it’s important to know that there are two types of brand engagement: internal and external. Internal is that within the company through engaging with employees. External is engagement with the brand audience and what we will focus on in this article. External customer engagement is all about the emotional connection to the brand itself.
