Creating brand ambassadors, or fans of your organization is arguably the most key component of running a successful online business. Depending on the level of execution in this specific area, your customers become more than a transaction; they are your advocates by becoming repeat customers, offering referrals and leaving you positive feedback on review sites and social media.
An easy way to do this is to ensure you’re in constant communication with your customer base via email marketing campaigns. Staying in touch and nurturing your customer base with special promotions and announcements about your brand will keep your fans in the loop, creating higher chances for completed conversions.
The following strategic methods to create brand ambassadors offer an exceptional experience for your customers and create strong relationships through your email delivery and impressive service.
Make it Personal
Once it has become apparent that you’ve accumulated some life-long customers, you need to ensure you’ve systematized your method to deliver personal messages that consistently offer everything customers were promised.
When it comes to devoted consumers, sometimes it’s not always about the sale, but the interaction and the trust that is built between them and the brand. It’s also not just about the products, it’s about the education behind the products and services.
Leveraging emails with robust video content that deliver information on how your business can change and improve your customers’ lives can be just, if not more, valuable than the product or service itself.
Some examples include, but are not limited to:
- A personal greeting for a customer’s birthday or anniversary of becoming a subscriber, commemorating the event with a discount or complimentary item
- Product demos for an item recently purchased
- A Q&A session
- A free webinar
- A personal message from the company CEO
The above message was delivered by Keap’s CEO at the end of 2019, getting its customers excited about what they can expect from Keap in the New Year in terms of helping their businesses grow.
The intent of creating a video email is to help the customer associate your brand as their advocate; be the company they can turn to when they’re looking for reliable customer service and quality products. Be the organization they turn to when they have a huge problem that needs to be solved.
Strive to Impress
This is your chance to go above and beyond for your customers. Not only will running your business through a CRM like Keap’s help you maintain organization and efficiency with email automation features, but it will make it easier for clients to work with you, keeping you reliable and approachable.
Some ways to improve the customer experience and really impress your clientele include:
1. Answering emails as fast as possible–if someone reaches out for a quote or writes in an inquiry, automate a response with a video tailored to their request.
2. Keeping customers updated on delays–if an item a customer ordered online is going to be delayed, send a courtesy message to the customer letting them know and offer to waive the shipping fee.
3. Letting your personality shine through–hold your entire team to a certain standard of customer service. Make it so no one ever has to ask to “speak to the manager” because something went wrong.
To give your online business a competitive edge, you should always aim to do something unexpected beyond good customer service.
If you’re a realtor, surprise your clients on their one-year anniversary of living in their home with a video message commemorating their anniversary along with a link to a gift card of their favorite restaurant.
Or keep a record of all your customers’ birthdays in your CRM and automate birthday video emails to be sent out where you sing them “Happy Birthday” and offer them one month free of their subscription or a free item with a promo code.
You can also implement loyalty programs for your most devoted customers to keep them coming back.
Your brand ambassadors are spending money with your business regardless, so why not have a loyalty program in place? It can also impact the way they consume and how frequently.
It’s also important to add incentives and upgrades throughout the duration of a customer’s loyalty program to increase the likelihood that they will remain devoted to your brand. For example, if they’ve spent a certain amount or accumulated a specific level of points, upgrade them to gold status.
Multiply by Referrals
Create incentives for your brand ambassadors who bring you repeat business, positive reviews and customer referrals in an effort to grow your client base.
Set up a customer referral program in the following ways:
1. There are different levels of referral systems, gauge which one is most appropriate for your business:
- Asking a customer for contact information of someone who might be interested in doing business with you
- Asking a customer who discusses your business with the potential referral and can attest if they’re interested in learning more
- Asking a customer to introduce you to the referral or arrange a meeting
2. Timing is everything–figure out when it’s the most appropriate to ask for a referral; you want to ensure that the customer had a good experience before asking for something in return.
3. Choose a reward for loyal customers that is tailored to them–understand what motivates your customers to give you a referral, and then design your program to provide rewards addressing their motivation. Don’t just send a generic gift card, make it personal. Leverage upsell or cross sell items as rewards and incentives for referring a friend.
4. Make it simple for your customers to find where they can leave reviews, testimonials and referrals by creating a landing page. Include a link to the page on the purchase confirmation, a confirmation email or send it along with a customer survey a few days after the product was delivered.
5. Your loyal customers may not even be aware this type of referral program exists, so bring the program to their attention. Direct them to the link with a call-to-action in your next email campaign or add it to the main navigation bar on the homepage of your website.
6. Follow up in a timely fashion–build a timeline or set up alerts in your CRM so you know exactly when to follow up on a referral so a hot lead doesn’t go cold.
The Takeaway
Above all, you want your customers to be satisfied and enthusiastic about doing business with you every time they open one of your emails or click on your website. They are your biggest cheerleaders; they are the ones who will ensure your business stays successful for years to come.
With Keap’s CRM, you can customize processes for delivering great video emails and services that will amaze your brand ambassadors. Leverage automation for upsells, repurchase reminders, and requests for reviews and referrals.
Keap also enables you to automate the process of sending surveys to customers after their purchase as well as a request for a review or referral to highly-satisfied customers.
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About the author:
Laura Dolan is the Senior Copywriter for SEO at Keap. She has been a writer and editor for over 14 years publishing pieces in B2B and B2C industries including food and drink, energy, construction, supply chain, education, technology, retail, pet products, mental health, real estate, and engineering. She has also written and edited for international publications in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and India. When she’s not writing, she loves to spend time with her husband, Jeff, four stepchildren, dog, Sparky and cat, Piper.
