8 Ways to Build Brand and Customer Loyalty on Instagram

October 1, 2021
By
Kyra Goodman

Here are 8 simple and devastatingly effective ways you can keep your most valuable customers loyal.

Building brand loyalty and customer loyalty is critical.

Not only because it creates a reliable stream of returning revenues…

Not only because it generates unbeatable word-of-mouth referrals

But because it costs 5 times more to get new customers than it does to keep an existing one.

There are hundreds of ways you can build brand and customer loyalty - like sending out gifts to high value customers and clients, creating a rewards system, or simply sending them a personal message about how much you value their business.

However - if you’re looking for a channel that lets you celebrate your most-prized customers like no other can…

Look no further than Instagram.

But before we get into the 8 ways you can build brand and customer loyalty on Instagram, a quick explanation:

Brand Loyalty vs. Customer Loyalty

There’s a key difference between brand and customer loyalty:

Customer loyalty is based on pricing.

They’ll continue returning to you as long as you keep offering the best prices for them.

Brand loyalty is non-pricing related loyalty.

They perceive your brand is being better than competitors, and they’re likely to choose you every time regardless of price.

Like everything else in business, the easy way (customer loyalty and changing pricing) is fickle. You can only reduce your prices so far, and it’s only a matter of time before someone undercuts you.

Brand loyalty, on the other hand, can make you stand out for decades. Take Nike, BMW, Apple, Gucci…

But generating brand loyalty takes more effort and investment - luckily, we’ve got some tips you to do just that:

8 Steps to Establish Brand and Customer Loyalty on Instagram

Find your brand voice and story

When it comes to Instagram, your brand voice and story have two key elements:

  1. Immediately recognisable visual style
  2. A value proposition based on who you are and who you’re for

Here is how a coffee shop Typehype has styled its Instagram gallery. It has embraced the combination of professional photos, minimalist typography, and coffee to stand out in its followers’ feed.

Typehype Instagram aesthetic

Source: @typehype_berlin

Provide excellent customer service

Integrating customer service into your business profile can help you earn brand and customer loyalty as well. Some brands even create separate Instagram profiles to deliver immediate customer support. Others add an “Email” or “Contact” button under their Instagram handle so that users can easily connect with you at any time.

Excellent customer service is all about timely replies, helpful advice on the product or service, and relevant referring to a knowledge base.

Air your brand values

This might seem risky, but your best customers are always going to be the ones that share your values.

Here’s how Patagonia made their stance on fossil fuels known:

Patagonia's stance against fossil fuels

Source: @patagonia

Again, this might be daunting - but remember that any potential new customers you lose would be heavily outweighed by the loyalty of customers you keep.

Post user-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) has two instant benefits:

  1. It celebrates current customers, meaning they’re more likely to stay, and
  2. It fills the gap in your followers imaginations of how they can use your product as well

Check out this great example from LaMetric:

LaMetric's customers gaming set up

Source: @getlametric

You can encourage your followers to create UGC for your brand by creating a unique hashtag. Check out how Lulus did it:

Lulu's hashtag campaign love lulus

Source: @lulus

Maintain the conversation

You want your followers to feel like they’re in touch with you, so keep them tuned in with your news, updates, product launches and achievements.

Here’s how smart lighting company Nanoleaf combined user-generated content and the announcement of its new integration with Razor Chroma RGB devices.

Nanoleaf campaign with Razor

Source: @nanoleaf

Make it personal

Your customers want to get to know you, so make your posts personal. Introduce your team by going behind-the-scenes, and dump the polish and replace it with what’s real.

Check out this great example from Tortus:

Totus Instagram

Source: @tortus

Partner with influencers

Influencers - especially those that are SMEs in their field - are sources of trust. So when they choose you, their audience knows that you must be the real deal.

Sun Peaks, a ski resort in British Columbia, formed a partnership with a top Canadian adventure photographer and Instagram influencer Callum Snape (@CalSnape). The result was dozens of incredible photos of this resort posted in front of a target audience - the influencer’s Instagram community.

Source: @calsnape

Want to build brand and customer loyalty on Instagram?

Normally, building brand and customer loyalty on Instagram is hard.

You might be wrestling to get your product tagging, struggling to find user-generated content, or having no idea if your hashtag campaign is working at all.

But normally, people aren’t using Sked Social.

With Sked, you can easily schedule your posts with product tagging, do a simple search to find UGC, and get individual hashtag success metrics.

All from one place.

Try Sked Social free for 7 days, and see how you can nail brand and customer loyalty with Instagram.

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