The key to success in any business is loyalty. Studies have shown that repeat customers bring in a significant portion of revenue — more than 40%, in fact! (1) 

As a business owner, you know it’s important to drive repeat business. However, it can become frustrating to figure out how to get there. You know it’s vital to continue to inspire your customers to keep coming back, despite the endless options they have at their fingertips. But how?

You do it by increasing customer reliance on your brand. Building brand loyalty will not only help encourage repeat shopping ; it will also increase revenue and generate positive word of mouth. In this article, we’ll break down four strategies for how to establish and maintain a loyal customer base. 

1. Be Engaged 

Creating strong relationships with your customers is an important part of building a solid foundation of brand loyalty. Sharing your brand’s new developments and recent updates will help your customers feel like a vital part of your business’s larger community. One of the best ways to stay connected and engaged with your customers is through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. By communicating through these social media channels, you can monitor and analyze the experience of your customers. This can help you better understand and listen to customer needs — and adjust your business’s course to meet demand.

Furthermore, keep these in mind as you're working on building a loyal customer base.

• Always answer comments 

• Engage with online “fans” of your business 

• Share posts that mention your business 

• Listen to criticisms and suggestions. 

2. Be Consistent 

Consistency is key! When your customers are confident that you’re going to deliver on your promises, they’ll keep coming back. It’s all about building a sense of loyalty, and customers won’t be loyal if they don’t think they can trust you to stand by your word.

In addition, it’s important to be consistent in your visual aesthetic. This includes logos, colors, website, social media, signage and other design elements. Maintaining cohesion and consistency across devices, platforms and experiences is a subtle but powerful way of telling customers, “You can trust us to follow through.” Staying consistent with design and messaging is a great way to uphold your brand’s larger positioning and value propositions. 

3. Be Focused 

Your customers won’t be able to understand your brand or show their loyalty if they can’t easily identify your brand the moment they see it. For this reason, it’s important to keep your brand identity focused on what you do best. This will help your brand to become more recognizable for its excellence.

To implement this strategy, start by honing in on your brand's best feature or main point of differentiation. What aspect of your business do people talk about with the most enthusiasm? When you’ve figured this out, you can use this knowledge to capture your customers’ attention — and keep it. In addition, it might be a good idea to perform a customer experience analysis, perhaps even hiring a professional to conduct a survey. This kind of analysis can help provide quality data on what aspect(s) of your brand your customers love most. 

4. Stay Relevant 

Don’t let your mission grow stale! In order to keep your customers interested and engaged, you’ll need to stay abreast of major trends within your industry. Adjusting your business trajectory to keep up with culture and market trends will make your brand feel up to date and relevant. Subscribe to magazines, read blogs and listen to podcasts about your industry. Staying tuned in to industry trends is also a great way to educate yourself on the current state of your customers’ needs.

Finally, a product or service trend analysis can tell you which of your products and services are working for you — and which aren’t — within the larger context of your industry’s financial ecosystem. 

Putting It All Together 

Sometimes it’s difficult to see the stepping stones that will lead you to the promised land of repeat customers ; we hope this article helped you to see the way forward. Fostering brand loyalty relies on connecting with your customers, being consistent and focused, and staying current. In order to develop repeat shoppers, deepen engagement and increase revenue for your business, it's important to understand your customers’ needs and wants. And that starts with making your customers a part of a community based around a consistent and trustworthy brand. 

If you’re looking for even more help maintaining your repeat-customer base, consider Acima Leasing! Becoming an Acima Leasing merchant can make a massive difference for your business, instantly expanding your customer base by opening the door to customers who aren’t able to pay using or prefer not to use credit*. Give us a call today or simply fill out a merchant application and join the Acima family. Want more information? Find out how our lease-to-own solutions* can unlock your customers’ shopping power.