The importance of content in customer loyalty

Reading time7 minutes
Paulo Andraus
Paulo Andraus
Super Seller

You know that saying you heard in your childhood, "is a bird better in the hand than a flying one?" Well, maybe you've never thought about how well it applies to your day-to-day business.

After all, at the same time that companies invest in various strategies to get as many "birds" as possible when conquering new consumers - such as digital marketing — customer loyalty is more important than ever.

For this, it is necessary to have a specific planning, not only to retain clients, but to make them true advocates of its brand. In this sense, the production of content plays a fundamental role.

See what this role is and how your business can benefit by using content on customer loyalty!

Why content is not just for the first sale

The vast majority of companies that are heavily involved in content marketing look at increased sales, either directly or indirectly. But this need not be limited to the first sale.

In fact, the very methodology of Inbound Marketing, of which content marketing is part, is done to educate people from the initial contact until after the sale.

The purpose of this is to create a virtuous cycle, in which customers start to bring new customers. The Inbound methodology works like this:

  • attraction: the person has the first contact with its content, through search in the search sites, link coming from a blog or through a social network;
  • conversion: the person becomes a lead, or possible client, when lowering deeper material and provides personal information (such as email and phone) in return;
  • closing: after consuming several of your materials, the person feels convinced to buy your product / service;
  • loyalty: by receiving quality after-sales support, the customer is motivated to buy again and recommend the brand to others.

Do you see how the content is used to connect brand and customer from the first stage of the process? When the person makes the purchase, it is much easier to keep it, because he already hears what you have to say.

In other words, the content is not just for the first sale because that was never the goal of Inbound!

On the contrary, it has been done in a way that prepares the way for loyalty from the first contact.

Get 4 Amazing Content Benefits for Your Business

Fidelizar cliente

Understanding the benefits of content for your business will be of great help in keeping focus on creating relevant materials that will help you win even the most demanding customers.

And they are very significant benefits, because they directly interfere in the financial health of the company, as well as in its position in the market. Want to see?

Some of the key positive results of content for your business are:

1. Educate the market

Educating customers and prospects buyers about what your company does is an immense competitive advantage over competitors, both direct and indirect.

Even indirect competitors are ignored by most companies when marketing and planning a sales process. Who are these?

Any "parallel" alternative to your product or service can be classified as such.

For example, if you sell an accounting service, pen and paper, or Excel spreadsheets are indirect competitors as they may prevent someone from seeing the need to hire what you offer.

The content helps show this person how beneficial it is to use a service like yours instead of any other solution.

By doing so, your brand achieves at least two benefits:

  1. Achieves market authority status;
  2. It creates more sales opportunities.

2. Improve brand awareness

Speaking more about achieving authority status, it is important to remember that brands considered leaders are viewed more favorably by consumers.

In other words, customers will look for your offer before seeking a competitor. That's a nice idea, do not you agree?

In addition, brands with strong positioning - also called Brand Equity - they even get a higher profit margin on products and services.

But how does content help in that, after all? It's simple. Quality content generates value, that is, it helps people solve problems faster, more conveniently, or inexpensively.

And from the moment your company generates value to customers BEFORE you try to sell a product, you earn their trust and respect.

The public will turn to what you have to say when you need to ask questions or seek relevant information because you know that your goal is to help, not just sell.

The beauty of this is precisely in the fact that this approach will result exactly in increased sales as a result of the authority gained.

3. Develop a closer relationship with customers

Given the two points above, it is easy to understand how the content contributes to a natural approach between brand and customers.

The more value you generate for your persona through content, the more inclined it will be to continue to seek what you have to say.

Better yet, it will interact more and more with your materials, comment on your posts, share them on social networks and, at the right time, seek to know about the services you offer.

This is what we call sales funel. It is a way of guiding customers from initial interest to buying decision.

Gradually, the visitor becomes a lead, who, after an adequate process of nutrition, becomes a client. And the customer, when handled the right way, becomes a brand advocate.

4. Facilitate partnerships

Partnerships are another aspect of great importance to help companies achieve results faster, at lower costs and on a larger scale than they would normally achieve alone.

Co-marketing is a beautiful example of partnership that can be established, and is based on content production.

Guest posts are also another type of very lucrative partnership that has the content as the center of attention. This post, for example, is a co-creation of Rock Content with JivoChat.

In both cases, it is critical that your company already produce content so that potential partners are drawn to joining forces and delivering results for both sides.

Even when we are talking about partnerships that do not involve the direct production of content, it is worth remembering that having such a strategy makes it easier for potential partners to see your company and get in touch.

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The role of content in customer loyalty

Conteudo para conseguir clientes

As we have seen above, content is present in all stages of customer interaction, but as far as loyalty is concerned, after-sales service is essential.

But how content and after-sales relate?

Think about it a bit: a quality after-sales service requires you to take the customer's questions with the product at hand and help you get more out of what you have bought.

This can be done in several ways, as we can see below:

Specialized Support

Initially, a page client support with common questions answered is already a good way to use content for loyalty.

In addition, the content can be streamed by well-trained callers ready to assist customers in real-time with a support or chat system on their site.

Incidentally, here's a reminder: Content is not just about what's on your blog, but all the relevant information you can give your audience on every page, Landing Pages, Ebooks and offline communication.

Printed material

Sending printed material with product usage tips and a thank you message can have a big impact on new customers, even because nowadays everything is digital.

Some brands even send handwritten tickets as a way to add a personal touch.

Whether you're doing it or sending beautiful prints, what matters is the gesture - and the content, of course!

Customer Success

Customer Success is a form of exceptional loyalty, and it makes so much difference that many companies have hired responsible professionals just to make sure that's a priority.

In a basic way, Customer Success involves helping those who have purchased a product to achieve above-expected results with it.

When this is done the right way, it is expected that the person will buy again soon.

E-mail marketing

Email marketing is the most commonly used tool to perform the nutrition of leads we talked about before.

Using e-mail to present content makes perfect sense, as it is a channel with few interruptions, with high open and conversion rates and, best, highly personalized.

Adding all this to the already traditional blog posts and rich materials that you can create focused especially for those who are already customers, we have a huge range of loyalty options through content.

Customer loyalty is one of the most critical tasks for a company's success and longevity. The more loyal people, willing to promote their brand, the greater their market power, both economically and morally.

This post was created by Rock Content team and translated by pandraus.com

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