Thanks to the diverse offerings of products and services and growing consumer demands, brand loyalty for today’s consumers is slipping. In the past, people were faithful to brands because they had an extensive history of using their products and services. For example, they only purchased one brand of cars or shopped at one particular grocery store. A big part of this undivided loyalty was because consumers had fewer choices years ago. However, the internet is vastly transforming the way that consumers make purchase decisions, thus causing brand loyalty to take a hit.

The Decline in Brand Loyalty
According to the latest research, only 28 percent of today’s consumers are loyal to brands. Thanks to the internet, people today not only expect to receive goods faster, but also demand better quality and cheaper prices. Instead of simply relying on their favorite brand to provide the product they seek, consumers are turning to the internet to compare products and secure the best price.

In order to compete in today’s marketplace, brands must find a way to authentically engage their audience and create a meaningful experience. Building a strong content marketing strategy that shows how your products and services can improve the lives of your target audience and enhance their quality of life will allow you to establish stronger relationships and ultimately cultivate brand loyalty.

The Core of Your Content Marketing Strategy Needs to Trigger Brand Loyalty
Most brands today have some form of a content marketing strategy, whether it be through maintaining an active business blog or publishing ebooks to offer an in-depth analysis of a particular subject. However, not all content is high-quality or enhances the buyer’s journey. Businesses that don’t realize the powerful connection that value-added content has to building brand loyalty will be passed up by consumers in today’s competitive marketplace.

When you make brand loyalty the focus of your content marketing strategy, you’ll be successful in building a community of evangelists that are loyal to the core. To keep your fans coming back to your business time and time again, you must be intentional with creating and delivering relevant and meaningful content to a clearly-defined audience on a consistent basis.

Which Types of Content Foster Brand Loyalty?
While business blogging needs to be a part of your content marketing strategy, you need to extend beyond blogging if the core of your strategy is delivering loyalty-driven content. Outlined below are several types of content that you should be publishing on a consistent basis to demonstrate that you have a deeper understanding of your audience’s motivations and what matters to them:

Culture Blog
A culture blog is different than a traditional business blog in that it puts your company’s beliefs and thought processes on full display to the public. In order to earn consumer loyalty, you must first establish trust. Being open about what your company stands for (and not being afraid to admit mistakes when they’re made) increases transparency and goes a long way in helping you to earn your audience’s trust.

Keep in mind that don’t necessarily need to create a separate culture blog. Occasionally featuring a behind-the-scenes post on your business blog will help to keep your audience in the loop of internal conversations within your company and allow you to diversify the types of content that you share.

Newsletter
Newsletters have long been the pillar of a content marketing strategy, and thanks to email, it’s never been easier to consistently get your newsletter in front of your audience. Never overlook the power of email as it offers one of the highest conversion rates when compared to other content formats.

When taking a strategic approach, you can use a newsletter to nurture every aspect of the buyer’s journey. The more value that you can deliver in your newsletter, the more effective this vehicle will be in helping you to earn loyal fans of your brand.

Tip Sheets
A great way to foster brand loyalty is to create tip sheets that improve the consumer experience when using your products. A brand that does this exceptionally well is Big Green Egg. For example, this manufacturer and distributor of ceramic charcoal grills frequently shares cheat sheets for how to cook certain types of food on the Big Green Egg, such as a Thanksgiving turkey. While this type of content is good for customers that have already purchased a Big Green Egg, it also adds value to consumers that are currently in the “see” stage of the buying cycle to get a better understanding of how the product will enhance their lives.

All in all, brand loyalty has little to do with rewards programs and everything to do with relationship building and strategic engagement. By serving your audience the types of content outlined above, you can leverage content marketing as a way to foster brand loyalty.

Contact us at New York Ave to learn more about using content marketing to cultivate brand loyalty.