Brand affinity refers to the solid emotional connection that customers have with your brand. This often depends on factors like your brand message, quality of service or products, and the intentionality you show towards making sure your customers are satisfied.
Customers with a strong affinity for your brand are more likely to buy your products and services. They also tend to become advocates of your brand and are more willing to recommend your business to their friends and family. For these reasons, it’s essential to integrate building brand affinity into your marketing strategy.
Having said that, here are five surefire ways to improve your company’s brand affinity:
1. Establish your own brand voice
Simply put, your brand voice is the uniqueness of how you communicate with your target audience. As a company, your brand voice isn’t merely your agency’s logo or offerings. It is the entirety of all the distinct values and characters used to represent your brand in every content sent to potential audiences.
Not only does the brand voice help you maintain consistency, but it also determines how easy or difficult it will be for your target audience to connect with your brand. According to Sprout Social’s 2020 Index Report, 40 percent of consumers see memorable content as essential to making a brand stand out. 33% opt for a distinct personality, while 32% choose a compelling story.
Of course, these three features make up a successful brand voice—a distinct personality, memorable content, and compelling storytelling.
But how can your company establish an effective brand voice?
First, you need to develop a mission statement that communicates your brand’s core values. Look at NewmanPR’s mission statement below. The PR agency uses phrases like “creative, customized, and cost-effective” to highlight its brand’s purpose and values.
You also need to understand your audience. This will help you determine if your current brand voice fits clients. You can conduct surveys or use questionnaires to find out how existing customers relate to your content.
Additionally, ensure that your content is consistent across various communication channels (e.g., websites, blog posts, or social media). Focus closely on your best-performing content as well. You can use media management and analysis software like Agility to know which stories or themes attract customers the most.
Finally, craft a brand voice chart that describes the personalities your brand voice should have. Indicate what your brand should or shouldn’t do to maintain a consistent voice across content or messages given to clients. You should also have brand voice guidelines that employees can follow to maintain consistency in how you communicate with your target market.
2. Build a successful customer community
Regardless of your niche, you must build long-term relationships with clients. These relationships help to foster customer affection and increase brand loyalty among clients.
There are various ways to build a positive relationship with clients. You may give clients a shout-out on social platforms after a project with them. Or, you can send them a personalized card to showcase your praise to them. But are these tactics effective enough to convert your clients into fans? The answer is no.
To boost client affinity toward your brand, building a robust and thriving community is better.
A customer community helps to form a solid connection with those who share interests in your brand. A strong community is also the perfect platform for word-of-mouth marketing of your service to more potential customers.
To build and foster an engaging community, you can share valuable content about emerging trends or educate community members about the niche within which you operate. You can also initiate conversations that let customers discuss their challenges and seek out solutions.
A well-nurtured community can also help you understand how your clients think and behave as a group. With this, you can develop a better approach to engaging with them and find ways to boost their affinity toward your brand.
3. Deliver first-class customer service
Your company needs to leverage high-quality customer service to develop strong brand affinity.
To deliver clients first-class service, you need to find out their expectations beforehand. Ask yourself some questions:
- What are the expectations customers have about your service?
- What level of customer service do competitors provide?
- How will you provide a comparable or improved level of service?
By diving into your clients, you can develop a strategy that fit their demands. Then, provide a positive customer experience, improve customer engagement, and encourage their affinity.
For example, we provide products like custom New Era hats. A key element of our service offering is the level of support and insights we provide customers through the purchasing process. Those expert insights are a valuable differentiator between the service we provide and that of the competition. I believe it’s part of the reason we have such a low rate of customer churn.
Offering excellent customer service helps your brand stand out in the market. Further, increase customer retention rates and build a strong relationship with customers. Also, encourage clients to tell you about your brand on different channels (e.g., forums or social networks).
In closing
Brand affinity is an integral part of the way any company operates.
To improve how customers feel about your brand, start by setting up your brand voice. Then consider building a strong customer community and offering good-quality customer service. Use media-analyzing software to get deeper insights into user experience and behaviors. These insights will help you develop a better affinity marketing strategy.
Now that you know these tips, you can go ahead to foster your company’s brand affinity. Good luck.