What is the Voice of the Customer?

Defining VOC

The Voice of the Customer (VOC) is the structured process of capturing your customers’ needs, expectations, and experiences. It involves gathering data and insights directly from your customers to better understand their perspectives and preferences. This feedback loop is essential for identifying gaps in your products or services and aligning them with customer expectations.

The Role of VOC

VOC is pivotal in the customer experience journey—from initial awareness to post-purchase support. Listening to your customers allows you to tailor marketing strategies, improve product features, and enhance customer service. A strong VOC strategy ensures that every interaction with your brand is informed by customer insights, leading to more satisfying experiences.

Key Components of VOC

Capturing the Voice of the Customer involves several elements, including needs, wants, feedback on quality, service, delivery, and even brand perceptions. Understanding these components helps businesses refine their offerings and exceed customer expectations consistently.

The Four Key “Voices” in an Organization

Voice of the Customer (VOC)

The Voice of the Customer (VOC) should be the primary driver of decisions, particularly for customer-facing processes. By focusing on VOC, businesses can ensure that their strategies align with customer needs and desires, ultimately leading to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. Listening to customer feedback through surveys, interviews, and social media interactions provides invaluable insights into what customers truly want, allowing companies to tailor their products and services accordingly.

Voice of the Business (VOB)

The Voice of the Business (VOB) represents internal priorities such as revenue goals, profit margins, and growth objectives. Balancing VOB with VOC is essential to meet business goals while maintaining customer satisfaction. Businesses must consider their financial and operational goals, ensuring they do not overshadow or conflict with the needs of their customers. A well-balanced approach helps companies to thrive in competitive markets while fostering long-term customer relationships.

Voice of the Employee (VOE)

Employee insights can significantly enhance customer experience by improving satisfaction and productivity. Engaged employees who feel valued and heard are more likely to deliver exceptional service, directly impacting customer loyalty. It is important for businesses to create an environment where employees can share their experiences and suggestions. This can lead to innovative solutions and improvements in service delivery, ultimately benefiting the end customer.

EGC is an integral part of VOE. Find a refresher in our Guide to Employee-Generated Content. 

Voice of the Process (VOP)

The Voice of the Process (VOP) encompasses operational and procedural perspectives that help align resources, streamline workflows, and deliver on VOC promises. Ensuring that processes support customer-focused initiatives is critical to organizational success. By continuously evaluating and refining processes, businesses can reduce inefficiencies, enhance quality, and provide better customer service. This alignment is crucial for meeting customer expectations and maintaining a competitive edge.

Balancing the Voices

Balancing all voices, with VOC at the center, is crucial to achieving success. While conflicts may arise between different voices, prioritizing VOC ensures that strategic decisions are customer-centric and aligned with market demands. Businesses must create a harmonious balance where VOC guides the decision-making process while considering the company’s and employees’ needs and processes’ needs and perspectives. This approach meets internal and external expectations and fosters a culture of continuous improvement and customer excellence.

Who Is the Customer? Internal vs. External Customers

External Customers

External customers are the direct recipients of your product or service and are considered the primary source of revenue for your business. They can include individuals, businesses, or any entity that purchases and uses your offerings. Understanding their needs, preferences, and feedback is crucial for achieving business success, as it helps tailor products and services to meet their expectations and build lasting relationships.

Internal Customers

Internal customers refer to colleagues, teams, or organizational departments that depend on your work to accomplish their tasks. For instance, the marketing team might rely on the design team to create promotional materials, or the sales team may require support from customer service to address client inquiries. Recognizing the importance of internal customers can improve internal workflows and processes, resulting in a more efficient organization and an enhanced experience for external customers.

Stakeholders vs. Customers

Stakeholders are individuals or groups with a vested interest in the company, such as investors, employees, or board members. While they are essential to the business’s success, they are not always the direct recipients of the product or service. Distinguishing between stakeholders and customers allows for a more focused approach to delivering exceptional customer experiences, as it directs efforts toward understanding and fulfilling the needs of those who actually use the products or services.

Why This Distinction Matters

Understanding the distinction between internal and external customers is vital for improving organizational communication and efficiency. It ensures that every team member is aligned with the overall objectives and can contribute effectively to the company’s goals. By recognizing internal and external customers’ unique needs and roles, businesses can enhance satisfaction, foster a positive work environment, and drive overall success.

How to Collect VOC Data Effectively

Direct Methods

Surveys

Designing effective surveys is crucial for capturing comprehensive customer needs. The process involves crafting a set of well-thought-out questions that cover various aspects of the customer experience. These surveys can be distributed through multiple channels, such as email, online forms, or in person. Well-crafted questions ensure that you gather meaningful insights to inform strategic decisions and guide product development.

Product Sampling can distribute items at scale to potential customers and collect data to drive insights. Learn how. 

Interviews

One-on-one interviews provide nuanced insights that might be overlooked in broader, less personal methods. These interviews can either be structured, with a predetermined set of questions, or unstructured, allowing the conversation to flow more naturally. They allow for in-depth exploration of customer experiences, expectations, and specific feedback on your product or service. Interviews can uncover detailed information that surveys might miss.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are valuable for gathering diverse perspectives from a selected group of participants. These sessions encourage open discussions that can reveal hidden insights, trends, and a variety of viewpoints. The moderator plays a crucial role in guiding the conversation to ensure that all participants have the opportunity to share their thoughts. Observations from focus groups can lead to valuable insights into customer perceptions and potential areas for innovation.

TINT helps brands make better decisions by tapping into consumer insights. Learn more.

Indirect Methods

Customer Service Data

Analyzing interactions with your support team can uncover common pain points and areas for improvement within your service or product offerings. This data is invaluable for enhancing customer satisfaction, as it helps identify frequent issues and customer struggles. By addressing these, you can improve the overall customer experience.

Complaint Data

Tracking and analyzing complaints allows you to identify recurring issues and address them proactively, which can prevent potential customer churn. Complaints often provide unfiltered feedback that can highlight gaps in your offerings. Regularly analyzing these complaints can reveal systemic problems that need immediate attention and resolution.

Social Listening

Social media platforms provide unfiltered customer feedback, offering real-time insights into their feelings and perceptions about your brand. You can monitor mentions, hashtags, and direct feedback through social listening to better understand customer sentiment. This method is handy for capturing the immediate reactions of customers and staying ahead of emerging trends in customer opinions.

Monitoring UGC can help brands track consumer sentiment, competitors, and discover valuable keywords. Here’s our guide to UGC for Social Listening.

Internal Methods

Sales Reps and Frontline Employees

Employees who interact directly with customers, such as sales representatives and frontline staff, can offer unique insights into unmet needs and customer preferences. Regularly collecting feedback from your team allows you to understand the challenges they face and the opportunities they see in the market. Their first-hand experience can be invaluable in shaping strategies that align with customer expectations.

Existing Company Data

Leveraging existing data such as sales figures, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), customer demographics, and other internal metrics can highlight customer satisfaction trends and areas that require improvement. Analyzing this data can reveal patterns and correlations that might not be immediately evident, helping to inform data-driven decisions.

Choosing the Right Method

Selecting the appropriate Voice of the Customer (VOC) collection method depends on factors like budget, timing, and the depth of data needed. A well-rounded approach often includes a mix of direct, indirect, and internal methods to understand customer needs and preferences comprehensively. Balancing these methods ensures you capture a wide range of insights, leading to more informed decision-making and effective strategies.

Benefits of Understanding and Acting on VOC

Building Customer Loyalty

Voice of the Customer (VOC) strategies align product offerings with customer needs, creating a solid foundation for fostering loyalty and nurturing long-term relationships. By consistently delivering value, businesses can ensure customers feel heard and appreciated, encouraging repeat business and advocacy.

Competitive Advantage

VOC insights provide a significant edge over competitors by responding quickly to rapidly changing consumer needs. Companies that effectively leverage this information can anticipate market trends and adapt accordingly, positioning themselves as leaders in their industry.

Product/Service Improvements

VOC serves as a guide for product and service enhancements, ensuring they better match customer expectations. Businesses can drive satisfaction and retention by actively incorporating customer feedback, increasing profitability and brand loyalty.

Enhanced Communication

Understanding VOC helps streamline messaging across all channels, reducing miscommunication and improving overall customer engagement. Effective communication ensures that customers receive clear, consistent, and relevant information, enhancing their overall experience with the brand.

Reduced Churn

Listening attentively to customers and acting on their feedback reduces dissatisfaction, preventing business loss and significantly increasing retention rates. By addressing customer concerns proactively, companies can minimize churn and build a more stable, loyal customer base.

Why VOC Collection Can Be Challenging

Data Overload

Managing and analyzing vast amounts of customer data can be overwhelming for businesses, especially as the volume of information grows exponentially. Implementing effective strategies to organize, categorize, and prioritize data is essential for extracting actionable insights that drive decision-making and improve customer experiences.

Conflicting Voices

The Voice of the Customer (VOC) may sometimes conflict with other essential voices within a business, such as financial considerations or operational constraints, leading to tough decisions. Balancing these diverse interests is crucial for effective decision-making, ensuring that customer needs are addressed without compromising other critical business objectives.

Bias in Data Collection

Potential biases in survey design, such as leading questions or self-selection in feedback processes, can skew results, leading to inaccurate conclusions. Ensuring diverse and representative samples is key to obtaining reliable data. This involves careful planning of data collection methods and continuous evaluation to minimize bias and enhance the validity of findings.

Resource Constraints

Small or mid-sized businesses often face resource constraints and may lack dedicated VOC resources, such as specialized personnel or advanced analytical tools. Leveraging technology, such as automation and AI, and prioritizing key insights can help these businesses overcome challenges and achieve meaningful outcomes from their VOC initiatives.

Best Practices for Implementing VOC Insights

Ask Directly and Regularly

Frequently soliciting customer feedback is crucial for staying aligned with their expectations and ensuring their evolving needs are met promptly. This can be done through surveys, interviews, or direct communication channels.

Set Clear, Measurable VOC Goals

Defining actionable and measurable Voice of the Customer (VOC) metrics is essential for guiding strategic decisions. These metrics help track progress, identify improvement areas, and ensure customer satisfaction remains a top priority.

Use Multiple Channels

Employing a multi-channel approach provides a comprehensive view of customer sentiments and preferences. This can include online surveys, social media platforms, customer service interactions, and feedback forms, ensuring no valuable insights are overlooked.

Train Teams on VOC

Educating employees about the importance of VOC fosters alignment across departments. It enhances collaboration by ensuring all team members understand how customer feedback impacts their roles and the organization’s success.

Monitor VOC Trends

By tracking changes in VOC over time, businesses can better adapt to evolving customer needs and expectations. This ongoing monitoring helps spot trends, identify shifts in customer preferences, and enable proactive adjustments to business strategies.

Aligning VOC with Product Development

Voice of the Customer (VOC) informs research and development cycles. By gathering and analyzing customer feedback, businesses can ensure that new products and features align with their target audience’s evolving expectations and desires. This approach meets customer needs and reduces the risk of product mismatches in the market.

Customer-Centric Marketing

VOC insights play a significant role in enhancing marketing efforts. By understanding customer preferences and pain points, companies can refine their targeting and messaging strategies, crafting marketing campaigns that resonate deeply with their audience. This customer-centric approach helps in building stronger connections and improving brand loyalty.

Improving Customer Support

VOC is a valuable tool for guiding support strategies within an organization. By leveraging customer feedback, businesses can identify areas needing improvement in their support processes, leading to quicker resolutions and enhanced customer experiences. This focus on customer satisfaction can significantly boost retention rates and promote positive word-of-mouth.

Performance Metrics

Integrating VOC insights with key performance metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) offers a comprehensive view of customer satisfaction and loyalty. This alignment allows businesses to track performance over time and continuously make data-driven decisions to enhance customer experience.

Related Concepts and Tools

Critical to Quality (CTQ)

Critical to Quality (CTQ) elements define quality from the customer’s perspective. Understanding CTQ is essential for guiding quality improvement efforts and ensuring that products and services meet or exceed customer expectations.

Survey Design Best Practices

Creating effective surveys is crucial for capturing meaningful VOC insights. Adhering to best practices, such as asking clear and concise questions and ensuring a smooth user experience, helps gather accurate and actionable data to drive organizational improvements.

Tools for VOC

Various tools are available to manage and analyze VOC data effectively. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, survey software, and customer journey analytics platforms provide businesses with the means to collect, organize, and interpret customer feedback, leading to more informed decisions.

Making VOC Your Strategic Advantage

Summary of Key Points

Voice of the Customer (VOC) fosters strong customer relationships and drives overall business success. By embedding VOC insights into all facets of an organization, from product development to marketing and customer support, businesses can ensure a customer-centric approach that meets customer needs and expectations, ultimately leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Final Thought

VOC is not a one-time effort; it’s a continuous journey. Leading companies that listen and adapt to VOC set themselves apart in competitive markets. Start auditing your VOC efforts today to foster stronger customer relationships and achieve lasting success. Top brands use TINT to connect with their customers and create communities of brand advocates. Learn more.

The post Voice of Customer: Your Secret Weapon for Success appeared first on TINT.

Ambassador marketing goes beyond traditional advertising by leveraging the credibility and influence of consumers to reach a broader audience and drive brand awareness, engagement, and ultimately, sales.

In this post, we’ll dive into the world of ambassador marketing. We’ll explore what it is, how it works, and how you can get started with your own brand ambassador program.

What is ambassador marketing?

Ambassador marketing is a strategic approach used by brands to collaborate with individuals, AKA ambassadors, to promote their products or services. Brand ambassadors can be customers, fans, or experts within a particular niche or industry. They might even have a large following on social, but this isn’t a must have for effective ambassador marketing programs. Ambassadors should be true fans to endorse the brand, leveraging their credibility and influence to reach a broader audience and drive brand awareness and engagement.

Brand ambassador marketing works by finding consumers whose personal values align with the values and target audience of the partnering brand. Brands invite ambassadors into their community, providing them with resources, such as products, samples, exclusive offers, or insider access, to enhance their content creation and promote the brand to their followers and friends. These ambassadors spread the word and create content and social media posts that showcase the brand’s products or services, often sharing their personal experiences and stories. 

History of ambassador marketing

Ambassador marketing as we know it has roots dating back to the early 20th century when companies started using celebrities to endorse their products. One of the earliest examples is the use of sports stars like Babe Ruth to promote products like tobacco and sports equipment. However, the modern concept of ambassador marketing began to take shape in the 1980s with the rise of brand ambassadors in the fashion and beauty industries. Companies like Nike and PepsiCo were among the first to leverage athletes and celebrities as brand ambassadors, setting the stage for the evolution of ambassador marketing into what it is today.

Ambassador marketing is also known by other terms, including influencer marketing, brand advocacy, and brand ambassadorship. While these may have a different connotations, the relating factor is the practice of brands partnering with individuals who have influence over a specific audience to promote a brand or product. Micro-influencer marketing has also emerged as a popular variation of ambassador marketing, focusing on individuals with smaller, but highly engaged followings.

Any  fan or customer that talks about your brand through UGC or reviews can be an effective brand ambassador. In fact, Ninety-one percent of consumers agree that when brands they like and use re-share content by customers, they are more likely to share content about the brand or its products.

Who uses brand ambassadors?

Ambassador marketing is especially effective for companies in industries where personal recommendations and endorsements play a significant role in purchasing decisions. Examples include fashion, beauty, travel, and lifestyle. It’s also beneficial for brands seeking to build stronger connections with their target audience.

One of the key benefits of ambassador marketing is how it can humanize the brand and bridge genuine connections with consumers. This can help brands reach new audiences and demographics, improve brand loyalty and advocacy, and generate valuable user-generated content (UGC) that can be leveraged across marketing channels. Ambassadors serve as trusted advocates, which can significantly impact purchasing decisions through word of mouth.

For example, a clothing brand ambassador program would typically involve partnering with those that have a passion for fashion. These fashion brand ambassadors would be provided with opportunities to connect with the brand such as creating styled looks featuring the brand’s clothing, sharing discount codes or special offers, and attending events or product launches on behalf of the brand.

The program would also involve providing ambassadors with exclusive access to new collections or products, as well as personalized discounts or incentives to encourage them to promote the brand authentically. Additionally, brands may collaborate with ambassadors on co-branded content or campaigns, further leveraging their influence to reach a wider audience.

Potential pitfalls of ambassador marketing

While ambassador marketing can be a powerful strategy, there are some potential pitfalls to be aware of. One common challenge is ensuring that ambassadors align with the brand’s values and messaging consistently over time. Ambassadors are independent individuals, and their actions and opinions may not always align with the brand’s image or goals. It’s essential to establish clear guidelines and expectations to mitigate the risk of ambassadors that represent your brand from engaging in behavior that could damage reputation.

Another potential pitfall is the risk of audience fatigue. If consumers are exposed to unauthentic content, such as in the case where influencers with no affinity to the brand are used, they may become skeptical of the authenticity of the endorsements. Brands must strike a balance between leveraging ambassadors’ influence and ensuring that their messages resonate with their target audience.

Additionally, brands should regularly evaluate the performance of ambassador campaigns to ensure they are achieving the desired results and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Getting started with community

A brand community serves as a dynamic conduit, connecting passionate brand advocates and fostering two-way and personalized communication. This results in relationships that nurture lasting emotional loyalty. Here are a few steps to consider:

1. Set Clear Goals: Define what you want to achieve with your ambassador marketing campaign, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or generating user-generated content (UGC). 
2. Identify Your Target Audience: Understand who your ideal customers are and identify ambassadors who can effectively reach and influence them. 
3. Invite Ambassadors to Join Your Community: Look for individuals who align with your brand’s values, and have a genuine interest in your products or services. Start with your customers! Extend invitations to influential voices within your niche to join your brand’s ambassador marketing platform. This step goes beyond mere numbers – it’s about creating genuine connections with individuals who hold sway with your target consumer. 
4. Establish Relationships: Build relationships with your ambassadors based on trust and mutual benefit. Provide them with the resources and support they need to create authentic and compelling content.For example, personal care brand, hello products, needed a solution to create more brand ambassadors. They turned to TINT to help them create the hello friends community. The hello friends community generates thousands of pieces of UGC, reviews, photos and more across key online channels. Whether it’s a new product that needs a boost or general brand awareness, their community members are an army of ambassadors to activate and drive conversion on the brand’s website, key e-commerce channels, and social media outlets.
5. Define Expectations: Clearly communicate your expectations and guidelines to your ambassadors to ensure that their content aligns with your brand’s image and messaging.
6. Track and Measure Results: As existing members champion your community to their circles, the ripple effect becomes a force multiplier for growth. Monitor the performance of your ambassador campaigns to evaluate their effectiveness and make adjustments as needed.

For a marketing strategy to be effective, it’s crucial to invest time in building relationships with your customers, your ambassadors, and provide them with a way to feel connected. Focus on building long-term relationships with your customers based on mutual trust and respect. Align with ambassadors whose values and audience align with your brand, as authenticity is crucial and potential customers will immediately see through false/staged content.

TINT empowers brands to identify and invite brand ambassadors into your community fold to not only gain valuable content creators but also open avenues to organically expand your brand’s reach. It’s a relationship where their expertise enriches your community while your platform provides them with an authentic space to share insights to engage and grow their reach.

Ready to embark on a journey of community growth? Unlock the full potential of ambassador marketing with your own brand community. Schedule a demo today.

The post Unlocking the Power of Ambassador Marketing: Comprehensive Guide appeared first on TINT.

An easy way to incorporate customer-first thinking involves building loyalty programs. If you currently offer an incentive to your consumer base but are still waiting to see actionable results, it might be time for some fresh loyalty program ideas to kickstart interest in your brand in 2023.

The past three years have represented a historic shift in brand loyalty, with 39% of consumers saying they have changed brands or retailers and 79% saying they intend to explore options in the “new normal.” Modern marketers need to rethink the tools of the past and design new and engaging loyalty strategies. 

What is a Customer Loyalty Program, and Why is it Important? 

A brand loyalty program is a dedicated marketing strategy designed to incentivize consumers to become repeat purchasers and to develop a positive and lasting relationship with the brand. 

A successful loyalty strategy can work wonders in insulating your brand from losing consumers during downturns while increasing purchase frequency and basket size. In addition, they can: 

• Drive revenue – Loyalty leaders grow revenues roughly 2.5 times as fast as their industry peers
• Reduce acquisition costs – It can cost five times as much to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.
• Increase lifetime profits per customer – An increase in loyalty of 5% lifts lifetime profits per customer by as much as 76%.
• Generate brand advocacy and word-of-mouth – 70% of consumers say they are more likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programs.

However, a glaring problem for marketers is developing loyalty program ideas that won’t fail on launch. 

Traditional loyalty programs rely heavily on purchase-based incentives, like discounts, gifts, or cash back, which can slowly turn your customers into Transaction Drones who will quickly abandon you when the tap turns off. Research from Capgemini showed that a whopping 77% of loyalty programs that use transactional rewards fail within the first two years. 

What Features Should a Good Loyalty Program Have? 

Today, winning at loyalty involves emotional engagement, community connection, trust-building, and the ability to engage meaningfully. This is in addition to exceeding customer expectations for your product or service. It’s a tall order, but fostering this kind of brand connection results in a lasting and powerful relationship. 

• A good loyalty program will create emotional loyalty.
• Emotional loyalty is when a consumer consistently buys from a brand.
• Emotional loyalty drives purchases even when customers have other options available at a better price.
• Emotional loyalty is built on consumers’ connection with a brand’s values. 

Research by Gallup has shown that customers with strong emotional connections to retailers will visit their stores 32% more often and spend 46% more than those without emotional bonds. 

A good loyalty program will: 

• Deliver emotional benefits that delight, educate, and entertain consumers
• Create community connection and a shared identity that fosters a sense of belonging and facilitates conversation between like-minded consumers 
• Showcase brand values to promote lifestyle alignment 
• Use personalized engagement that utilizes zero party data and first party data to offer relevant brand interactions 
• Be easily shareable and generate positive momentum through word of mouth
• Provide exclusive offers and experiences that promote a high-value exchange for participation
• Have a simple and straightforward user experience that doesn’t require multiple steps or confusing rules or hoops to jump through 
• Subtly encourages future purchases in between purchase cycles to motivate consumers to stick with you
• Solicit and encourage ongoing customer feedback to boost innovation and create a positive feedback loop among consumers 

Examples of Successful Customer Loyalty Programs in Action

Creating an innovative loyalty strategy can be challenging. Here are eight great ideas from brands with loyalty programs that work to get you started. 

The North Face XPLR Pass

As a highly experiential brand, The North Face aims to offer a loyalty program with valuable experiences for its target audience. With its XPLR Pass, customers earn points on every purchase. They can accumulate points in unique ways like attending exclusive events, checking in at specific locations, and downloading The North Face app. 

When redeeming points, customers can use points toward unique travel experiences, like a mountain climbing adventure in Nepal, endurance challenge entries, camping packages in national parks, and climbing experiences.

Why does it work so well? 

• Emotional benefits 
• Exclusive experiences 
• Community connection 

The North Face elevates its loyalty program beyond asking for repeat purchases. They have developed highly curated experiences to build an emotional connection. This also aligns with brand values and promotes its outdoor and exploration lifestyle. 

Hero Skin Squad Community 

Fast-growing premium beauty brand, Hero Cosmetics, aims to mobilize passionate consumers to strengthen brand relationships while sparking brand advocacy and valuable insights. The brand created the Hero Skin Squad as a home base for consumers to connect with the brand and other like-minded consumers. 

Here, community members can earn reward points through interactive brand experiences, including social sampling, promotional offers, surveys & polls, and engaging community discussions. 

Why does it work so well? 

• Emotional benefits 
• Personalization 
• Community connection 
• Ongoing feedback 
• Easily shareable 

The Hero Skin Squad is a powerful asset to drive long-term consumer relationships, and this loyalty strategy is anything but transactional.

• The community offers a wide variety of engagement fueled by zero party and first party data to make consumers feel valued.
• They provide unique experiences and co-creation to connect consumers to the brand.

They also facilitate conversation among consumers with dozens of relevant topics and discussions. 

Sephora Beauty Insider 

Sephora’s Beauty Insider program is often touted as the industry leader in loyalty. As a tiered rewards program, Sephora encourages consumers to spend more to accumulate points and reach new levels of rewards. Every tier has a distinct set of perks and incentives, along with a generic rule that on every dollar a customer spends, they earn one Beauty Insider point.

Sephora’s rewards go beyond monetary incentives. The brand offers “experiences” that can include exclusive one-on-one sessions with the top players in the industry, access to exclusive products, and free entry to master classes conducted by well-known makeup artists from around the world.

Sephora Beauty Insider also has an active online forum where Beauty Insider members can share tips, ask questions, and discuss products. 

Why does it work so well?

• Emotional benefits 
• Exclusive experiences
• Community connection
• Ongoing feedback 

Sephora made a concerted effort to move beyond a transaction-based loyalty program to one that leverages emotional drivers.

In an interview with Allegra Stanely Krishnan, vice president of loyalty at Sephora, she says company-wide collaboration and listening to customer feedback took Sephora’s Beauty Insider from a purely transactional program to an interactive, experiential membership program. As Krishnan puts it, “Loyalty is at the core of everything we do.”

Grubhub Tastemakers Community 

Popular food delivery service, Grubhub, needed a home to connect with target diners to boost brand equity, drive loyalty, and spark brand advocacy. The brand created the Grubhub Tastemakers community as a brand-owned asset to cultivate relationships with key audiences such as college students. 

Grubhub activates its online community to participate in campaigns like posting photos and videos to Instagram and TikTok, hosting virtual dinner parties with friends, and offering feedback and ideas to drive marketplace delivery on college campuses. 

As diners participate in community activities, they earn points to be exchanged for discounts and brand swag. They also use the community to promote its monthly subscription service, Grubhub+.

Why does it work so well? 

• Personalization 
• Emotional benefits
• Community connection 
• Easily shareable 
• Subtly encourages future purchases 

Grubhub is an excellent example of a modern-day approach to retention that fuses existing loyalty program ideas (like points) with personalized engagement, community connection, advocacy, and insights.

Amanda Albee of Grubhub says:

“We have been able to listen to our most influential consumers and understand how to turn them into brand loyalists. In turn, we were able to leverage the voices and opinions of our advocates to inform and optimize brand strategy. We’ve seen a huge increase in brand loyalty through this program, and we saw an increase in members who consider our brand the preferred choice over competitors.”

REI Co-Op Rewards 

REI has the unique ability to concentrate on a very niche group of consumers. For a one-time membership fee of $30, a consumer can become a part of their co-op program and gain access to perks such as discounts, yearly “dividends,” free shipping, discounted “garage sales,” and discounts on experiences like adventure classes.

Why does it work so well? 

• Emotional benefits 
• Showcases brand values 
• Community connection 

REI says it takes an aggressive commitment to values. This values-based loyalty strategy puts purpose over profits but still delivers business value. Co-op members contribute account for more than 90% of purchases with the retailer. 

REI knows its core customers are outdoor enthusiasts who spend a significant amount of their time in natural places. This makes preservation and sustainability a prime core value. Their co-op program is centered around showcasing these values and making consumers feel good about being a part of it. 

Nordstrom’s Nordy Club 

Nordstrom has always promoted a robust loyalty program, most notably showcased by the retailer’s anniversary sale. They revamped their loyalty strategy with the Nordy Club in 2018. The program’s centerpiece is the “Nordy Portrait,” a unique user profile each customer can create through their mobile app. Customers can customize style profiles and view accumulated points.

Each tier of the loyalty program will also grant access to personalized experiences, such as the option to have Nordstrom’s in-home stylists make a house call. Members can access beauty and style workshops, and higher-tier members get priority access to VIP events. 

Why does it work so well? 

• Personalization 
• High-value exchange 
• Exclusive experiences 

The Nordy Club was designed to go beyond the model of points and enhance the relationship with existing consumers, focusing on personalized experiences no matter how one chooses to shop. 

Vice president of retention and loyalty, Dave Sim, says:

“Our loyalty program is our opportunity to not only thank customers for shopping with us but to serve them in a more personalized way. When thinking about this evolution, a guiding principle was to offer something for everyone, no matter how much they spend or where they interact with us. 

The name, The Nordy Club, is directly inspired by how our most loyal customers and even some employees refer to being a ‘Nordy.’ The strong connection our loyalty customers have to our brand drives us to ensure we’re providing the best experience possible.” 

Kitty Krew Community Perks

ARM & HAMMER Cat Litter aimed to build loyalty among happy customers while activating advocacy and capturing critical insights about their consumers. They created the Kitty Krew online brand community to do just that. 

Consumers can earn “purrks” by participating in community activities or purchasing products. Their “pawsome” rewards include cat toys, cat charm bracelets, bag carriers, and much more. 

With the Kitty Krew, the brand can also mobilize and activate targeted consumers to share their ARM & HAMMER Cat Litter experience through reviews, UGC photos and videos, and much more. Community members can offer feedback on product innovation through surveys and polls and participate in discussions with other cat owners. 

Why does it work so well? 

• Personalization 
• Community connection 
• Exclusive experiences
• Easily shareable 
• Ongoing feedback 

Most people would think of cat litter as a low engagement category, but ARM & HAMMER knew they could spark a high connection with the right message. ARM & HAMMER Cat Litter designed an online community experience to foster engagement between purchases that ultimately drives long-term loyalty. 

A Nielsen360 analysis found that their Kitty Krew members drove 13x more customer lifetime value than any other marketing channel. Brand Manager Shonda Brown said this about Kitty Krew’s effectiveness: “We can actually disrupt the environment and disrupt our competitors. We have these loyalists that we want to get the message out and to speak on our behavior, and in a more organic way than a brand trying to be the voice.” 

Apple 

Apple is an iconic brand that relies 0% on rewards and is entirely fueled by emotional loyalty. When it comes to loyalty, sometimes the most successful idea is not engaging in a loyalty program at all.

Despite Apple’s premium pricing, it still commands unquestioned loyalty from its dedicated consumer base and is one of the world’s most successful and profitable technology companies.

Apple’s customer satisfaction and loyalty have been growing steadily, reflecting how consumers view the brand. According to NPS Benchmarks, Apple’s NPS score in 2022 is a resounding 72, significantly higher than the average NPS score of the consumer electronics industry. 

Why does it work so well? 

• Community connection and shared identity 
• Emotional benefits
• Easy to use 

Apple’s cult-like following is from a fanatical focus on delivering a niche product with emotional placement directly into consumers’ lives.

The Apple brand has become its own form of self-expression, which has helped transform Apple from a company of products into a community of people who identify with those products.

Want to Build Your Own Customize Loyalty Program?

Our team is ready to help you strategize and take your brand to the next level. Get in touch with us today.

The post 8 Ideas to Upgrade Your Loyalty Program Strategy appeared first on TINT.

What is it that makes you a loyal customer?

There’s a good chance that it’s because the brands you choose offer a quality, seamless customer experience. 

You’re not alone in this sentiment either. 73% of consumers say that customer experience is one of their top factors when making purchasing decisions.

The question is: As a brand, how can you effectively manage your customer experience? 

That’s where a customer experience platform comes in.

Before we talk about customer experience platforms, let’s consider what the overall customer experience really entails. 

What is Customer Experience?

Customer experience, or “CX” for short, defines the total customer experience with a brand—from early engagements between the consumer and brand to the purchase and beyond, including customer service. 

This is different than the other “X” –  “user experience” or “UX” – which is focused on screen-based interactions at a specific point in time. 

CX is applicable to all brands with customers. It’s also difficult for brands to control, considering that CX is based on the perception and the attitude of customers towards your brand. No matter what your brand claims to offer as far as customer experience is concerned, customers will make their own judgements. 

CX covers the entire customer journey at every touchpoint. Examples of these touchpoints include:

• Online ads
• Social media
• Emails
• Branded content
• Customer reviews
• Point of sale
• Customer service interactions
• Exchanges/returns
• Loyalty and rewards programs

As your consumers experience these different touchpoints, they form an overall opinion about the customer experience provided by your brand. 

But what makes a positive CX so important?

In today’s market, businesses that put the customer first are thriving more than ever. Many customers are actually willing to pay more for products and services if the brand is providing a top-notch customer experience. 

Consumers have a wealth of choices and instant access to brands through online orders, social media, and more. To separate from the competition, brands need to pay close attention to the customer experience at every touchpoint. 

Not only does an excellent CX create satisfied and repeat customers, but it also helps create brand ambassadors. 

CX is the first link in an important chain toward boosting brand loyalty and advocacy.

What is a Customer Experience Platform?

Creating an excellent customer experience involves closely monitoring your customers’ interactions’ with your brand. A CX platform is the best way to do this.

A CX platform is software that allows you to measure, manage, and improve your customer experience. It starts with collecting data on customer interactions with your brand and creating responses by analyzing the data closely. Customer experience platforms are capable of analyzing individual customer behavior, leveraging analytics, and coming up with personalized solutions to increase customer retention.

What to Look For in a Customer Experience Platform

A quality customer experience platform offers many valuable features for your organization to use, including:

Personalization and segmentation 

A fundamental function of CX platforms is segmentation and personalization. They allow brands to send personalized messages to users based on determined segments, such as location, shopping cart activity, and more. 

This personalization is one of the key drivers of customer loyalty and creating an excellent customer experience. 

Personalized experiences even go as far as persuading customers to spend more based on the experience alone. All the more reason to seek out a CX platform with in-depth personalization features.

Insights tools 

Running surveys and polls is a textbook way to get quick and valuable feedback and insights from your customers on their experience with your brand. With in-platform insights tools, you’ll be able to gather data that can not only be used to optimize your customer experience but to personalize at an individual customer level as well. 

Social media and voice of the customer

A key way to assess your customer’s journey is to hear from them directly. CX platforms can give you the ability to aggregate and analyze customer feedback and sentiment about your brand on social media, discussion boards, and other digital channels. They may also give you the opportunity to respond, enabling you to elevate your customer service experience directly from the platform.

Reporting & Analytics

The feedback gathered from your customer experience platform can be used throughout your organization to better the overall customer experience,  correcting and improving upon existing practices at every touchpoint. So the reporting and analytics your CX platform delivers will be key. 

It’s important to consider what departments will be using the platform and for what purpose. Data can include demographic, psychographic, social, and behavioral data, voice of the customer (VOC), and business analytics. The ability to provide actionable insights, as well as to utilize the data within the platform to improve the customer experience are all important considerations when determining the right CX platform. 

Integrations

A software’s ability to integrate with other key tools within your organization can significantly boost efficiency and the overall effectiveness of the software itself. 

This is no different for a CX platform. Choosing a CX platform that integrates with your current Marktech Stack can help you utilize the data more efficiently and effectively. 

A Quality CX Platform Allows You To Deliver The Best Possible Customer Experience

There’s absolutely no hiding from the fact that success for brands hinges on providing the best possible customer experience. 

It starts with the initial engagements between brand and customer before a purchase is even made. It continues through the purchase process and beyond to follow-up emails, returns, loyalty and rewards programs, and more. 

With all of these customer touchpoints to manage, a quality CX platform is crucial. 

Choosing the right platform allows you to analyze these touchpoints and act on them using relevant data to provide an experience that customers will be raving about. 

Questions About Customer Experience Platforms? 

TINT’s Community Powered Marketing platform gives brands the tools they need to provide an industry-leading customer experience. Because of this, we’re well-versed in CX. For any questions about customer experience platforms, reach out to us. We’re happy to help. 

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The post What is a CX Platform and Why is it Important? appeared first on TINT.

Veggies Made Great makes a bold statement in how they make their products: the first ingredient in every product we make is vegetables.

Their double-chocolate muffin? The first ingredient is zucchini, followed by carrots. Their taste? Delicious.

“We always say that — whether you love veggies or don’t love them —Veggies Made Great has a product offering for you because you can’t taste the zucchini or carrots in our double-chocolate muffin,” says Christine Luongo, Senior Brand Manager for Veggies Made Great.

Making great food products is one thing; convincing consumers to eat their vegetables is another. But Veggies Made Great has been successful in inspiring people to love eating veggies by creating high-quality, remarkably delicious, and nutritionally smart, veggie-rich foods that are ready to eat and available everywhere, including Walmart, Costco, Target, and ShopRite.

Luongo and her team at Veggies Made Great were recognized for their efforts by taking a Silver at the 2020 Loyalty360 Awards in the Customer Engagement and Advocacy category in a program in partnership with Vesta.

“No other brand can own Veggies Made Great’s claim of having vegetables as its first ingredient,” says Luongo. “This unique market position has earned it a passionately loyal following.”

Harnessing Consumer Energy to Build Consumer Advocacy
Consumers are so enthusiastic about the brand that Luongo says they regularly reach out to say how much they enjoy the products. That led the marketers at Veggies Made Great to seek a solution into how they could harness their consumer energy to build consumer advocacy; the answer they came to was an online community, a central destination where they could bring their brand loyalists together and learn from them, as well as provide them with information, introduce them to other like-minded people, and utilize their passion for building awareness through advocacy campaigns.

“When I first joined the company, I was blown away at the loyalty of the brand,” Luongo says. “And I think that we see such high consumer loyalty because there’s really no other brand out there on the market that can state veggies will always be the first ingredient. We don’t consider ourselves to have any direct competitors, and because of that, consumer loyalty and advocacy is just off the chart.”

Veggies Made Great ingeniously dubbed their loyal followers as “Veg Heads,” who were regularly reaching out to the brand to share their enthusiasm and excitement about the products. As a newer and smaller challenger brand, Luongo says the company realized they needed a way to effectively and efficiently engage with these consumers and harness their passion to power online brand advocacy.

They turned to Vesta and its Vesta Community SaaS platform to create the Veggies Made Great community, an online branded community designed to build loyalty, drive engagement, and activate advocacy among Veggies Made Great consumers. The community quickly established itself as a welcoming destination for the products’ consumers, establishing loyalty between transactions, driving game-changing brand evangelism, and elevating sales.

“We wanted to be able to scale that and harness all of that energy that we were seeing that was going on, whether it was people posting about us on Instagram or people sending us a message to say ‘I took your muffins to a school birthday party and gave out some coupons,’” Luongo says. “We knew all of that was going on, but we wanted to build a central source where we could sort of organize that energy and scale that energy.”

Inviting Consumers into the Community
She says Veggies Made Great invited consumers of their products into the community with a simple ask: “If you’re interested in learning more about the brand, having access to health experts, and partaking in missions and offers and surveys in exchange for chances to win a free product or free product coupons, we’d love for you to join this community.”

“We tapped our typical channels: our email subscriber list, our social media followers,” Luongo says. “And right out of the gate, I think within the first year, we hit over 10,000 community members.”

With an average purchase cycle of 2-4 weeks, Luongo says the community that Vesta built for them offers a platform to provide value to consumers and keep them engaged and loyal between purchases in three ways:

1. Word-of-Mouth Campaigns: To build awareness of their challenger brand, the marketers at Veggies Made Great have created innovative word-of-mouth campaigns to drive user-generated content and organic advocacy. Creative missions have built engagement through gamification and social sharing, driving consumers in-store to “plant” coupons or online to post hilarious videos of members’ veggie “reveals” after their children sampled their Double Chocolate Muffin. These fun activities drive authentic excitement and brand advocacy.
2. Surveys: The marketers at Veggies Made Great utilize surveys to identify and segment users, enabling them to ensure the highest level of personalization in their activations and communications; understanding preferences, purchase habits, and lifestyle characteristics enable Veggies Made Great to deliver target activations that reinforce consumers’ connection with the brand and drive meaningful engagement.
3. Discussion Forums: The Discussion Forum offers “Veg Heads” the opportunity to engage with each other and the brand, building trust, and a sense of community. In addition to dietary discussions, the forum focuses on cultivating a holistic lifestyle environment, including bringing dieticians and personal trainers to answer questions and focusing on family health and wellness content.

Transform Digital Relationships into Offline Actions
With minimal lead time and creative assets, the marketers at Veggies Made Great were able to transform a digital relationship into offline actions with major impact at the retail level, driving members in-store to purchase products or “plant coupons.” Last fall, they launched the “Plant a Coupon” mission, which asked Veg Heads to “plant” discount coupons on product boxes in stores nationwide and then spread the word on social media. The campaign created a “treasure hunt mentality,” Luongo says, engaging community members as well as those who found the coupons on products in-store. In addition to generating a coupon redemption rate that was 30% higher than the industry average, the campaign created explosive interest and fun for members.

“They could sign up to receive 20 stickers and 20 coupons in the mail from us with stickers that say ‘Planted by a Veg Head,’” Luongo says. “And we asked them actually to go into retail stores and plant the coupons on boxes, on the shelf in the stores. And we promoted sort of this gamification mission, which really engaged the community members.”

She says consumers would often take a picture of their sticker and post it on social media with messages such as, “Go check out the coupons that I planted at the Target on Main Street and save a dollar when you purchase Veggies Made Great.”

“We had a lot of fun with them with missions like that,” Luongo says. “We also utilize the community to gain insights into our consumers. We do that obviously to help us as a brand, but ultimately help the community members and our consumers.”

The company also utilized the Vesta community with their most engaged community members to get insight into some of the products they had in the ‘innovation pipeline.’

“It’s been really fun for the community members and been very eye-opening for us as a brand to say, ‘How do you think this nutritional profile looks? How did you feel about the taste? What’d you think of the texture?’” Luongo says. “It’s been fun for the community members to partake in those activities. It’s been really helpful to the brand to know that when we go to the market with a product we have, that sort of ‘pulse checks’ the consumer before it even launches.”

Impressive Results of the Campaigns
The results have been impressive. Community data shows that 93% of community members are likely to recommend the Veggies Made Great brand to their friends and family, an increase of 15% over when they first join the community. Luongo says this has helped produce their robust Net Promoter Score of 73%.

Community data from the Vesta platform shows that prior to joining the community, fewer than half of the members have tried the products. After joining, 9 out of 10 report purchasing, a 43% purchase conversion. And 53% of members report purchasing the product at least once per month. Through the community, the Veggies Made Great team is able to capture the number of social posts, product reviews, and photos members post. In just one year, the community has generated over 6,630 total reviews for the brand, and more than 2.2 million social impressions.

“Because we are a better-for-you brand, people love to share about us; they love to tell their friends and family about us,” Luongo says. “If you’re feeding your kid a double chocolate muffin, you might as well feed them Veggies Made Great double chocolate muffin because of the health benefits that come with it. And we know that people are excited to share about the brand.”

Visit https://www.veggiesmadegreat.com

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The post As seen in Loyalty360: Consumer Community Grows Veggies Made Great Brand appeared first on TINT.

Veggies Made Great, the leader in unique veggie-rich foods, was selected for its robust engagement and advocacy efforts which focus on its Veggies Made Great Community, built on the Vesta Communities platform.

“We are honored to have been recognized by Loyalty360 with a Customer Engagement & Advocacy Award,” said Christine Luongo, Senior Brand Manager at Veggies Made Great. “We love working with Vesta to build a community where we can interact directly with our consumers to get valuable insight as well as reward consumer loyalty.”

The Loyalty360 Awards recognize brands that build more robust and deeper loyalty with their customers in a proactive, meaningful, and measurable way.

“We congratulate the team at Veggies Made Great for the well-deserved recognition of their creative and tireless efforts to establish and cultivate authentic and meaningful relationships with their passionate ‘Veg Head’ consumers,” said Vesta CEO Susan Frech. “We are proud that our Vesta Communities platform has enabled Veggies Made Great to create an engaging and scalable online Community where their customers feel appreciated and understood, and are naturally inspired to advocate for the brand.”

According to Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, this year’s awards were the most competitive yet, showcasing brands committed to building strong and long-lasting customer relationships. “For our 2020 Loyalty360 Awards, we are amazed at not only the quantity but the quality of submissions we received this year,” said Johnson. “We are thrilled to recognize the Veggies Made Great team for their amazing work in the Customer Engagement & Advocacy category.”

To watch the Loyalty360 Awards ceremony on-demand, the recording is now available here on Loyalty360’s YouTube page.

To learn more about driving best in class customer engagement and advocacy, we hope you’ll drop us a line or contact us.

Interested in more?

Discover how Veggies Made Great revolutionized their brand with their online community.

The post Veggies Made Great, in Partnership with Vesta, Wins Award for Customer Engagement & Advocacy appeared first on TINT.

For marketers, this is a massive opportunity to cultivate consumer connections, and you don’t want to miss the mark. Being certain that your brand is meeting consumer expectations for community is crucial. 

In our Brand Sentiment Navigator, we asked the more than 7,000 consumers for their thoughts on what kinds of activities most appeal to them in online communities. Here’s what they told us and how you can build your online brand community to stand out.

Our Tips to Build an Online Brand Community that Stands Out

Embrace “community” as a key part of your brand value proposition
Marketers should think about how an online brand community can be part of their brand’s “secret sauce.” For many brands, “community” is baked right into the brand at the outset. Think Peloton or Etsy: one doesn’t exist without the other. Your online brand community should be among the features/benefits set. With the seismic shifts happening in our online behavior, building your online brand community could be the key advantage that makes a consumer choose you over a competitor or the reason why a consumer stays with your brand long-term.

Align brand community outreach with all other brand activities and properties
A brand community should never be a siloed effort. In fact, activating your brand community can be the very thing that brings your entire brand plan “to life” and ensures tangible results. From promotions to new digital content to partnerships and more, a community is a key distribution channel in addition to an engagement channel. Ensure your brand community is involved in all brand initiatives and you will reap the rewards.

Use community engagement to position your brand as a resource
When it comes to online communities, consumers are most looking for information exchange, creative expression, and connection to others. Let your brand community be an outlet for achieving those aspirations. Your brand should be the facilitator, not the star of the show. Let consumers lead the conversation with discussions and ongoing feedback collection.

Use a community to enhance your marketing tech stack with zero-party data
Building an online brand community provides you with a rich source of zero-party data that can enhance your entire digital landscape. They can help you learn more about your consumer and also offer an authentic, welcoming way for your brand to deliver personalized experiences. Consumers are highly aware of how valuable their data is and they will only give it to the companies they deem most worthy. Using cookies to drive personalization is creepy and annoying. Using an online brand community to drive personalization is friendly and helpful.

About the Brand Sentiment Navigator:
TINT Community Powered Marketing provides us with direct access to millions of consumers, allowing us to tap real-time sentiment in this fast-moving crisis. Since March, our ongoing Brand Sentiment Navigator has surveyed over 35,000 consumers, revealing insights into U.S. consumers’ changing opinions, attitudes and behaviors to help brands make better decisions faster. The research in this post was gathered from Wave 8 of this study, conducted in August/September 2020 with 7,416 respondents. Visit our research hub for access to all of our studies by following this link.

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The post [EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH] Make Your Brand Community Stand Out: What Consumers Want from Their Online Communities appeared first on TINT.

Sue shared insights into how she sees brand communities helping marketers generate meaningful digital connections with consumers, and the role of communities in building loyalty between transactions by personalizing experiences that create a powerful emotional connection. Sue emphasized that building an online brand community gives marketers the option to give to their consumers, and in return to gain back lasting loyalty. 

1. Brand communities give your consumers a home.

An online brand community allows marketers to provide loyal users with a home and destination where they can cultivate and build their relationship between transactions. It enhances your digital presence outside of a transactional environment and brings users together with a like-minded community who reinforce the affinity with your brand. And at a time when consumers are increasingly concerned about social media channels, an online brand community offers a safe and trusted space where brands can own and deliver their desired experience. 

2. Brand communities give your consumers a voice.

There is a big opportunity to build loyalty by leveraging real-time conversations. Marketers that have created that two-way dialogue and ongoing feedback loop through their brand community have been able to gain real-time insights and provide responsive customer service, confirming their commitment to their consumers.

The advantage of this was made clear this spring, when Vesta Community clients were able to communicate with their consumers about supply, address their questions and concerns, and provide needed support during a challenging time. Being able to easily stay connected with users enabled marketers to reinforce their brand’s commitment to their consumers, and dramatically increase brand opinion and loyalty by their community members.

3. Brand communities give your consumers better value and experiences.

Building loyalty with today’s consumers is about more than just providing value in your product or service. Marketers need to go further, acknowledging the importance of their patronage through enhanced and meaningful features and experiences at every touchpoint. Brand communities allow marketers to easily build that value at scale, providing enhanced information, access, content, and experiences to loyal users.

The best brand communities understand the importance of delivering value in building loyalty, and are focused on how the community can benefit their consumers rather than how can they push their brand or product. Those marketers turn to their communities first to share news, launch new products, provide special offers, and reward with free products. They utilize the Vesta Community platform’s progressive profiles to segment and deliver personalized experiences at scale. And in return, they are rewarded with lasting brand loyalty, as well as predictive insights, zero-party data, and authentic brand advocacy.

To learn more about the ways online brand communities build loyalty, click here to view a video of their discussion. 

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The post 3 Ways Online Brand Communities Are Building Lasting Loyalty appeared first on TINT.

With Facebook boycotts, disappearing third-party cookies, and the growing list of “walled gardens,” many marketers are reassessing what their marketing tech stack should look like and how it serves the brand’s objectives today and in the future. Most marketing stacks consist of technology partners that fall into categories such as CRM, AdTech, Insights & Analysis, Experience Optimization, and SEO. The stack can help in three ways: 1) attracting customers, 2) engaging customers, and 3) analysis/optimization. But all too often, marketers become enamored with the attraction and analysis part and put engagement on the back burner. Engagement can be challenging for marketers because it is highly visible to consumers, rather than hidden behind the scenes in a dashboard. Any consumer-facing effort requires strategic resources to make it successful. However, when done right, engagement serves as the instrumental link to streamline efforts between initial acquisition, retention, and long-term brand loyalty.

This is where building a coalition of passionate consumers via online communities plays a decisive role, and the era of social distancing has been an important reminder of its value. Marketers are embracing the fact that people crave a sense of belonging and to identify with like-minded people. We’re reaching a new age where “community” is starting to become the common denominator and for many brands, it will be an integral part of the value position from the start. From data-powered personalization and insights to activation and advocacy, a community channel can serve as a vital engagement outlet to streamline all efforts across the marketing stack. While you’re trying to sift through the mountain of options available, here are four ways community engagement enhances your entire marketing stack.

A Community is a Zero- and First-Party Data Goldmine

The days where marketers have access to a firehose of third-party information are coming to an end. Consumers also now appreciate the value of their data. Instead of it being a passive background activity, consumers will start to use their data as a form of active engagement, a type of “loyalty currency,” only given to the brands they trust the most. That’s why there must be a clear and equivalent value between the data provided and the experience received. Freely shared zero-party data paints a holistic picture of consumers beyond the standard age/gender/household income/purchase history that most marketers are accustomed to. From an action standpoint, zero-party data empowers brands to offer interactive, digital experiences with audiences that create emotional bonds. An online brand community integrated into the marketing strategy is a powerful way to connect data to the bigger picture and encourage consumers to be a part of something they believe in.

A Community Sparks Action from Database Deserts

CRM is an essential tool in the marketing toolbox, and it serves as an owned channel where the brand controls the consumer relationship. However, while many brands have massive databases, too often any activation comes in the form of a one-way push via emails. Research from eMarketer says only 30 percent of US email subscribers make purchases from the lists they subscribe to. When marketers create an online brand community, they are creating a social CRM, turning their communication with consumers into a two-way relationship, and offering personalized engagement, emotional attachment, and community connection.

A Community Facilitates Audience Optimization for Better Ad Spend

Most marketers use third-party technologies to monitor the efficiency of these campaigns, and marketers are always looking for ways to optimize their spending. Cultivating an online community helps marketers refine their audience targeting for more effective media spend. After all, what better lookalike audience is there than your most ardent community advocates?

A Community Produces Content That Enhances SEO

Building a community of people who love your brand allows you to activate consumers to produce fresh, unique content quickly and easily. Forty-eight percent of consumers say UGC is a great way to find new products, and 25 percent of search results for the world’s 20 largest brands are links to user-created content. Not only does UGC hold a higher probability of showing up in search engines, but it also ensures the first thing consumers see is content they will trust.

For marketers looking to invest in Martech to optimize CX while increasing efficiency for their teams, community-building and engagement technology should be on the list. However, it’s important to remember that technology providers are simply there to help achieve an overarching vision or objective. Certain digital technologies (especially the new and shiny ones) are not a strategy. Community engagement technology will always be unique in that it is not meant to be behind a dashboard. It is consumer-facing and will be a reflection of your brand promise. In a time when marketers are looking to simplify their marketing stack, mobilizing a passionate consumer community presents an opportunity to “future-proof” your brand with an effective bridge between acquiring customers and retaining them in the long-run.

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The post As Seen in Loyalty360: How Brands Should Use Community to Enhance Their Marketing Stacks in Tough Times appeared first on TINT.

These questions and more were addressed during Loyalty360’s Virtual Loyalty Expo by an expert panel focused on brand communities, moderated by Sue Frech, founder of Vesta and CRO of TINT.

Learn how brands can achieve a true two-way exchange to grow user-generated content, loyalty, insights and brand engagement, and what the best practices are for launching a brand community, engaging community members and amplifying brand initiatives, and key metrics for success.

Featuring:

• Michele Muhammad, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for DSE Healthcare
• Christine Luongo, Senior Brand Manager, Veggies Made Great
• Eric Bianco, Brand Manager, Culturelle Probiotics at i-Health
  

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The post [EXPERT PANEL WEBINAR] How Communities Can Transform Consumer Relationships – As Seen @ Loyalty360 Virtual Loyalty Expo appeared first on TINT.