11 Ways You Can Leverage Creativity to Boost Loyalty
By: Creative Lab
Tags: Branding, Brand Strategy, Online Shopping, Content Marketing, Brand Loyalty

11 Ways You Can Leverage Creativity to Boost Loyalty

Retail Shortages Plus Increased Time Spent Online are Creating Opportunities for Brands to Earn New Fans During the Pandemic

Three in four of you reading this sentence have shopped for new brands since the start of the pandemic, according to a new McKinsey study.

That means those obscure DTC brands, long-delayed luxury splurges or new restaurants hitting you with deep discounts are suddenly more palatable. What else are you going to do, put in another 12-hour work day?

Couple those findings with a Wharton study from earlier this month suggesting retailer loyalty has decreased during the pandemic in part because consumers are experiencing more issues with retailer product availability (presumably caused in part by what the study says was a 37 percent uptick in online shopping) and brands seem to have a big problem.

Or maybe it’s an opportunity.

Everyone’s at home watching — make that craving — new content, and there’s really nothing stopping you from putting on a show.

With that in mind, here are 11 ways your brand could earn your brand new fans and even impress your old ones by thinking creatively over the next few months.

Behind-the-scenes live streams: It’s hard to go wrong when you’re being earnest. Plus, the combination of a behind-the-scenes setting and a live shot puts the bar for quality nearly on the floor, as everyone assumes you’re using a smartphone for your broadcast and simply winging it. And that’s good: having a direct feed onto the devices of your customers, even for a few minutes, is invaluable. These are also great opportunities to slip in promotions and unique insights, and can also easily be archived on your platform of choice for replays. Create surveys (that don’t suck): Someone on your creative team (or your agency’s creative team) has a sense of humor (we hope). Use it to entertain your audience while also getting information from them that will help you deliver better products and services. Throw in well-designed quizzes like this alongside your more straightforward information solicitations. Start an exclusive Slack channel: If there’s one thing you already know how to do, it’s talk about your brand. Create an exclusive Slack channel, then hype up the waiting list, send exclusive invites and schedule expert-led conversations about practical tips in your industry alongside a free-for-all room or three. A digital destination for likeminded fans to gather when they can’t answer one more message from Darryl in accounting that afternoon has the chance to be a great brand experience. Get confessional: If there was ever a time to crank out an emo blog dispatch about how your team is really feeling, it’s now. This is a bit of a minefield under normal circumstances, especially for more conservative brands. But we’re so far past the “what day is it?” Twitter jokes it’d be hard to take issue even with any non-offensive attempts at this that fall flat. (Pro tip: Run it by a rational editor or two before shooting it out in the world, unless you’re Entireworld’s Scott Sternberg.) Turn the camera on your customers: The people who spend money on your products want to feel like part of your community. Telling their stories with your brand as a backdrop (seven examples of how to pull this off here) is a surefire way to deepen that relationship. Find a charity partner: Your audience wants to know you share their values. Nothing exhibits that better than redirecting some of the revenue they gave you to a shared cause you can all believe in. It’s a rare win-win-win: You deepen a relationship in an authentic way, your audience gets to see a piece of your soul and a cause you both believe in gets to do more great work. Go Steak-Umm on ’em: No charity partner in mind? You can still spread the good news, whether it’s a mix of Millennial angst and correcting coronavirus misinformation — the much lauded Steak-Umm Twitter approach — or a steady stream of advocacy on other content. The second option is both great and much safer for brands with anything to lose. Giveaways (of value): Coffee mugs are awesome. Stickers are fun. But when every brand starts giving them away for referral traffic, how much do you really value them? Instead, consider unique pieces that only fit with your brand (perhaps exclusive branded carabiners if you’re an outdoors company). Or, for a better personal touch, why not offer expert value, like hiking trip planning from a trained guide if you’re that same outdoors company? Create a (COVID-safe) public experience: This one’s a bit counterintuitive for the current times. But tightening up your mask and creating a street art installation about those same brand values — or even a thoughtful out-of-home display campaign that addresses the current crisis — can be a more-cost-effective-than-usual way of meeting your audience in the middle when they do venture out. How-to content with a smile: A FAQ section should be table stakes for any brand. But how many basic questions are still coming in to your email or help line? Quick, themed videos (even if you don’t have a ton of production budget to go into them) answering user questions are a great way to add some value and put a friendly face on the solution. Create a customer content contest: Low-cost, high-participation ideas can be ROI goldmines when you pull them off correctly. Whether you’re asking customers to share their biggest successes with your product or post photos of their dogs wearing your logo, having them proactively make a display of their loyalty to win recognition or a prize will can earn you some surprisingly great authentic marketing. (Warning: Have everyone think through the down sides of the contest before you launch it, so you don’t end up on a list like this.)

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