A connection, especially an emotional one, can make a huge difference when a customer is deciding to buy.
This is especially true because emotions are the driving force behind most buying decisions. According to the SBA, strong emotions, whether positive or negative, can help build a bond between your customers and your business.
Building brand intimacy and connecting with your customers is essential to growing your business, as a loyal customer is more likely to recommend you than a one-time user. This article covers what you need to know about building brand intimacy and some tips to get you started. Check them out!
What is brand intimacy?
Brand intimacy is a deep emotional connection between a business and its customers and should not be confused with brand loyalty. While brand loyalty is defined by incentives, rewards, or a person’s favorite brand, brand intimacy is solely how a customer “feels” about that brand. Brand intimacy builds reciprocal bonds that are deepened by emotions and typically only occur after a user has interacted with a business multiple times.
Why emotional connection matters
The easiest way to grow your business is to not lose business. Otherwise, you constantly try to bail water out of a leaky boat. When you retain customers, you can double or triple your growth rate. After all, the average business loses between 20-80% of its customers annually simply because of poor customer relationships. If you can focus on building customer relationships and connecting with your users, you potentially can avoid losing as much business year over year.
Building meaningful customer relationships is beneficial to both customers and organizations. In fact, 86% of customers who have an “emotional connection” with a brand are more likely to continue their business. As customers’ relationships with a brand deepen, they move along the pathway to full emotional connection. In fact, their relative value is striking across various metrics, such as purchases and frequency of use.
How to build that connection
According to the above reference from the Harvard Business Review, the better you are at emotionally connecting with your customers, the more valuable they are to your business. Here are four tips for making an emotional connection with your customers:
1. One size does not fit all
You want your customers to feel special, and you can achieve this by approaching each one as an individual rather than just another customer. Grouping all your consumers together will only make you appear inauthentic.
2. Be responsive
If you want customers to trust and respect you, you need to earn it by proving your dedication to making them happy, especially when they are not.
3. Make sure to stay in touch
Following up is an easy way to earn customers’ appreciation. Respond to customers throughout their buying journey, so they build a connection with you. This is also a great way to keep your business top of mind for your customers.
4. Go above and beyond
As a small business owner, you will likely have a close connection with your customers, and you can use this to your advantage. Offer special discounts for customer loyalty, recommend specific products based on what you know about a customer’s interests, and always remedy an unpleasant experience.
The Bottom Line
Building an emotional connection with your customers is essential for your small business’s success. But we know that, as a business owner, you may be overwhelmed by adding another thing to think about to your plate. That’s where the Markaaz Dashboard comes in. We’re building an all-in-one Dashboard where you can review all your business apps, store and send essential business documents, and discover everything you need to be successful in one place. With the Dashboard, business owners have an at-a-glance view of all their business activity at their fingertips, so you can focus on creating emotional connections with your customers.
Learn more about how the Dashboard is changing the game for small businesses!
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