The data leveraged from those who opt-in to share their social media activity with you creates a more sophisticated picture of your customers, which allows you to better understand and target them.
Here are 5 top tips for building customer loyalty using social media:
1. Link your CRM and social media channels.
There are lots of tools out there to link CRM and social media channels. So, when a customer engages with your brand on social media (e.g. liking/retweeting a post to receive a reward), you receive social data which can then be tied to the specific customer; and which in turn lets you segment, target and personalise future communications.
2. Listen to your customers to gain insight
Listening to social media conversations regarding your products and services (both positive and negative) lets you quickly resolve customer service issues. This hugely contributes to customer loyalty – who doesn’t like to feel that their voice has been heard? You can also keep an ear out for discussions around your competitors, and customer interests outside of your brand; both of which bring you a deeper knowledge of who your customers are and what they want.
3. Interpret your data to give customers what they need and build relationships
Understanding your social listening data lets you identify customer needs and opportunities as well as brand sentiment- are there improvements you need to make, or are a particular customer segment keen for you to develop a new product/service? Use your data to recognise your key influencers – who are your brand advocates or Superfans and what are their purchasing habits? Can you connect or collaborate with them in some way?
4. Give customers a reason to connect and engage (offer rewards)
For a customer to grant you access to their social data, there has to be something in it for them. Offer rewards for specific interactions, such as liking, sharing or commenting for example. You could even offer them an initial bonus for connecting their social data to your CRM.
5. Measure the ROI of highly engaged social media contacts versus those who are not.
Ultimately, you need to be able to understand the ROI of a social media fan vs. a non-fan. Linking your CRM to social media provides measurable analytics; such as campaign performance and engagement, cost per action vs. average transaction value, and qualitative insight on customer preferences, motivations and behaviours: all of which let you identify the true value and impact of your social media activity.
Download our Data-Driven Marketing Guide on linking social media and customer loyalty now