Linking social mediaand customer loyalty

M arketing Guid

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Data-Driven

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ContentsIn context

Connecting social media toloyalty programmes

Listen, interpret and act

How to get buy-in from the board:the ROI of social loyalty

Top 5 tips for building social loyalty

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So, what do we mean by social loyalty?For loyalty to be successful, brands must listen to and engage with their customers - never more so than on social media. This guide explores how ‘social loyalty’ affects brands, and how to best utilise your social media channels to increase customer engagement, nurture relationships and ultimately boost your ROI.

Loyalty

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• Participation within retail loyalty programs when social media is included has been proven to help brands acquire more customers. (Source: Chirpyfy)

• of all organisations do not analyse the demographics or profiles of the customers that are active or influential on social media. (Source: Aberdeen Group)

• of consumers receiving a quick brand response on social media would be likely to recommend that brand to others, compared to of customers who received no response. (Source: NM Incite)

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In contextOften brands use social media to force out content without understanding that they should be engaging in two-way conversations. Just like in the ‘real’ world, building a relationship is about listening to and understanding the other party to create a dialogue and rapport. Both parties should feel that they benefit from the relationship; and this is what builds loyalty.

We can’t stress enough that listening to your customers on social media is absolutely vital. From building communities of brand advocates, identifying wants and needs, as well as monitoring brand sentiment; listening lets you take immediate action based on real-life insight.

The data leveraged from those who opt-in to share their social media activity with you creates a more sophisticated picture of your customers, as well as a depth of understanding which can be used to segment and target specific groups. But, for a customer to grant you access to their digital lives, you must give them something in return.

Knowing that they have been listenedto will only serve to build customersgood feeling towards your brand.

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Connecting social mediato loyalty programmesBuilding social loyaltyWhether fans or followers, give them a reason to connect and engage:

• Offer rewards for specific interactions (shares, check-ins, uploading photos etc.). You could even offer customers a bonus for connecting their social data to your CRM (but be very clear on how you’ll use their data). Set some rules for what you will/won’t reward.

• Provide variety in rewards – offer different levels for different actions.

• Keep track of your Superfans – use your CRM and social data to identify your top brand advocates. You could offer them a higher status, or even invite them to collaborate with you in some way; from a simple blog post right through to designing a product.

• Don’t keep quiet about it – let your existing customer base know about your programme. Consider using other channels including email, in-store POS, etc.

Tech know-howThere are lots of tools out there to link CRM system and social media channels. We help our partners by joining them both up to track any social interactions through their CRM. The beauty of this is explained in the diagram:

1. By engaging with your brand on social media, the customer feels like they’re not

really doing anything to receive a reward

(they’re not spending money)

3. Feel-good factor from the customer (their reward may

take them closer to making a purchase)

2. You get an amplified message (they’re sharing with

their network)

4. You recieve data on engagement

levels, which in turn lets you segment,

target , personalise and refine future

campaigns.

Powering loyalty through

CRM and social media

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What you should be listening for:

• Conversations regarding your products and services - both positive and negative. Many brands who listen are able to quickly resolve customer service issues and complaints. Ignoring them and leaving them to fester could result in them going viral, which will be far harder to combat! This hugely contributes to customer loyalty – who doesn’t like to be listened to and feel that their voice has been heard?

• Discussions around your competitors – understanding what customers like and dislike about your competitors gives you a chance to develop and tailor your offering to gain the competitive edge.

• Customer interests outside of your brand – knowing which publications or websites they are fans of is valuable insight, and can inform future promotion and targeting methods.

Listen Interpret ActListening to your customers on social media provides a rich insight into your target audiences – who they are; what they’re talking about; their interests and aversions.

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How to use your data:

• Recognise customer needs and opportunities for product and service development.

• Understand brand sentiment – what are your strengths and weaknesses in your customers eyes?

• Identify key influencers – who are your most influential fans or brand advocates? Can you connect or collaborate with them?

• Segment your data to build different customer groups and understand the types of social media communications that work best for them.

1 Listen Interpret ActNow you need to understand the datayou’ve gathered to inform your future engagement strategies.

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• Involve the whole business. Use the knowledge gained to inform and improve your processes, product development and services from the customers perspective.

• If you’ve highlighted customer knowledge gaps, think about how to provide the information they need.

• Offer a personalised experience based on interaction history and preferences.

• Test and learn – customer engagement vs. value.

• Join in the conversation – talk to your customers, respond to them. Share things that they’re interested in outside of your brand. SHARE

1 Listen Interpret ActYou now have all of this wonderful insight togrow your brand. So how do you implement it?

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Back in 2013, whiskey brand Maker’s Mark announced that it was lowering its alcohol content from 90% proof to 84% proof, due to increased product demand and low bourbon supplies. Outrage ensued and consumers took to social media to voice their disgust, even encouraging a boycott of the brand. But, because it was listening, Maker’s Mark was able to react immediately and made the speedy decision to return to 90 proof. They responded on social media with, ‘You spoke. We listened. And we’re sincerely sorry we let you down.’

What this shows is just how powerful social media can be in building loyalty and trust. Despite the initial negative reaction, Maker’s Mark turned this around simply by listening to what their devoted customers wanted, which of course created positive feelings and confidence in the brand.

(Source: BusinessInsider)

Remember: listening to, understanding, and acting on social insight lets you build a more informed engagement strategy; and engaged customers are loyal customers. It’s far harder to win new customers than satisfy existing ones.

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Key questions to ask when listening:

• Who and what are you going to listen to?

• What do you want to achieve? For example, understand brand sentiment, increase engagement.

• Which platforms and tools best help you to achieve your goals?

• How will you respond to/act upon the insight?

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Here are a few reasons why linking social media to loyalty delivers worthwhile ROI:

Measurable analytics: • Content performance and engagement levels• Web traffic and conversions• Cost per action vs. average transaction value

Qualitative insight:• Customer preferences, motivations and behaviours

Segmentation based on demographicsand interaction levels

From this, you can then identify the valueof a social media fan to your brand:• Who your true Superfans and advocates are, and the impact they have on your bottom line by spreading your brand’s message.

• The spending value of a social media fan vs. a non-fan.

• The return on investment of your social media spend.

How to get buy-in from the board: the ROI of social loyaltyCreating a social loyalty strategy takes time and effort. What’s crucial from the start is to understand your objectives, metrics, success measures and the tools you will use, as well as how you will link your social media to your CRM. There are a number of online dashboards and tools you can use to support, as well as specialists such as the lovely Ikano Insight team!

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In the USA, Starbucks conducted research to compare the purchase behaviour between those exposed to the brand’s social media updates (organic exposure as opposed to paid placements) and those who were not. What they found was that within 4 weeks of exposure, there was a 38% lift in purchasing among those exposed to social media updates.

(Source: ComScore)

We can help you to get the most out of yourcustomer data to grow your social loyalty andultimately increase your ROI.

Top 5 tips for building social loyaltyLink your CRM and social media channels.

Listen to your customers to gain insight which can thenbe used for segmentation and targeting.

Interpret your social listening data to give customers whatthey need and build relationships.

Give customers a reason to connect and engage(offer rewards).

Measure the ROI and impact of highly engaged social mediacontacts versus those who are not.

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No matter what stage you are at with your customer engagement we have the intelligent, intuitive insight to help you achieve ROI and drive incremental revenue:

For more information please contact:Barry Smith - Senior Consultantbarry.smith@ikano.net07551 671 8250115 850 3644

www.ikanoinsight.com @ikanoinsight

Ikano Insight is awesome with data,but even better at relationships.And that, ultimately, is what turns customer loyaltyinto a business’s success.

Do you want to build a new loyalty or customer engagement programme?

Do you want to improve an existing one?

Or, do you simply want to turn customer data into actionable insight?

Wherever you are with customer engagement, we have the

intelligent, intuitive insight to help you achieve greater ROI

and drive incremental revenue.