If you want a manicure for an upcoming event, would you go to your favorite one or pick a random one?
I’m thinking your answer would be your favourite one. That’s because you like their work. You are satisfied with them. You don’t want to take the risk of experimenting with a new one.
That’s brand loyalty. The repeat visits to your favorite nail salon.
Customer Loyalty is crucial nowadays with the market becoming increasingly saturated with new products and services each day. You have to make your customer choose you from your competition.
According to Harvard Business Review’s research, your emotionally connected customers are 50% more valuable than any other customers.
How do you get customers to choose you?
By nurturing customer loyalty.
Why Brands need to nurture customer loyalty
According to a research conducted by Accenture, 77% of customers participate in retail loyalty programs. They also found out that:
- Loyal customers are more likely to recommend their favorite brand to their friends and family. In fact, 55% of the Americans frequently provide reviews of their favorite brands.
- Loyal Customers are less likely to be price-sensitive when it comes to their preferred brand. 66% of the consumers spend more on their favorite brands.
Brand Loyalty using Social Media
Apart from creating an active customer loyalty program, social media is another smart tool for building brand loyalty. With social media, you have the opportunity of talking directly with your customers and forging a connection.
How would you like if your favorite celebrity commented on one of your posts?
It’s exhilarating.
It’s the same when you, as a brand, respond to your followers.
Social media gives you a platform where you can humanize your brand. Jump down from the stage and interact with your customers.
Help them out.
Answer their queries.
Overall, create a positive brand experience.
A positive brand experience makes your customer like you. Trust you. And even recommend you to family and friends.
That’s when you will build brand loyalty. Here’s what you should be doing to building brand loyalty using social media for your nail salon:
Respond and Engage with Your Followers
Advertising and marketing have evolved rapidly in the last few years. Now your consumers demand you to engage with them. Not having a social media account is not an option, if you want to grow your business.
The emphasis in marketing has moved from informing to listening.
That’s where social media comes in. It allows you to start a dialogue with your followers.
Talking with customers makes them feel valued. According to a Wunderman study, 79% of the American consumers buy from brands that care. Customers want brands to understand them. 89% of American consumers are loyal to brands that understand them.
Social media is also an excellent way to get into the minds of your customers. When you interact with your customers, you understand them better. You can tailor your product and service according to the demands of the customers. Find out what’s trending among your customers. A specific kind of nail art or a certain color. When you offer your customers want they want, you increase your positioning with them. You build a unique kind of brand loyalty using social media
Reward Your Followers
Everyone likes a little surprise or a treat. It makes them feel happy. When your reward your followers, you make them happy. And later they associate the feeling of happiness with the brand. This positions the brand positively in their minds. With a positive brand positioning, you improve your chances of getting repeat visits from the same customers. There are many ways to rewards your followers: giveaways, discounts, and other little nuggets of treats.
Instagram Giveaways are a popular way to increase organic reach and create a positive vibe around your brand. Giveaway posts get more likes. You are more likely to get your followers to comment on such posts.
Plus, when you offer a giveaway to a customer, they feel like they owe you. They are more likely to initiate a positive conversation about your brand.
On Instagram, many brands offer frequent giveaways. Erica Nailed Me is a nail artist based in VA. When her followers reached 2K, she celebrated by treating two of her followers to a nail art session. With her giveaway, she created a positive brand experience for her brand.
Create Shareable Content
You can get your followers to market your brand for you. The trick is to create helpful, funny or thought-provoking content. Your followers are more likely to share content that they think relates to them or help their friends and family.
You want your customers to think of you as a useful brand on social media. Create content that your target customer is searching for. It could be inspirational nail art. It could be tips on how to do the best manicure.
By doing this, you position yourself as the go-to expert when it comes to nail art. When your followers want a certain nail art done by experts, who do you think they will think of?
Source: Simply Nails FB
In this video, Simply Nails has done an impromptu video of their staff doing a French manicure. They are not just helping out their followers by showing them how it’s done, but they are also using the video as free advertising to book appointments.
Invest in Influencers
Influencers are people you pay to say positive words about your brand on social media. These people have a big following. Your ideal influencer is someone your target market trusts and someone who is very likely to buy your product or service.
In the above Instagram post, influencer Jenny Claire Fox promotes Benefit Cosmetic’s personalised Hoola bronzer. With Jenny’s reach of over 142k followers on Instagram, Benefit Cosmetic is capitalising on her reach to expose their brand to the right target market- the female fashionistas. Plus, with an influencer using the brand, people are more likely to give it a try. The more people who try, the better chances of building brand loyalty using social media.
Be Active
Imagine your customer trying to book an appointment with you on Instagram, but doesn’t get an answer. You just lost yourself a crucial business. It’s like your customer walked to your store and you didn’t open the door.
Unacceptable, isn’t it.
But that’s happening. 7 out of 8 messages on social media go unacknowledged by brands.
There are 2.46 billion users on social media worldwide. It seems like everyone is on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. These are your customers. You need to get on social media and acknowledge them.
Many nail salons create an account of social media and forget about them. It’s like they forgot the password. You can always get a new password, but you might not get that customer back.
WAH Nails, a popular London-based nail salon is fully booked throughout the year, through just their Instagram account.
If their customers like a particular nail art, they can easily get them done. WAH Nails uses their captions smartly by telling their customers how to book their next appointment with a certain employee.
Take Social Media Seriously
Creating an account isn’t enough. You have to post regularly and engage with your audience. Otherwise, you might just take down your account. When a customer searches for you on Facebook and he sees just 3 or 4 posts, he might think that your business closed down. It’s especially true for small business. You don’t want them to think like that.
Your social media presence isn’t just for show. It’s to communicate with your customers. Social media users regularly post about their interactions with brands. When it’s your brand, follow-up with your customers.
If your customer writes positively about the brand experience, thank them. Acknowledge their comments. This makes them feel valued.
If your customer reports a problem on social media, take it seriously. While making your social media strategy, you should also work on how you will be responding to your customers. Create channels where customers can lodge complaints. Make it professional and smooth.
As a small nail salon business, you might find building brand loyalty using social media exhausting. We get it. Start with one social media platform and stick to it. Instagram is your best bet when it comes to your nail salon business.
Read More: Attract Spa Customers With Facebook
Plus, you don’t have to do it all. You can always sign up with CandyBar for a 30 day free trial to improve customer experience and brand loyalty.