1. Linking social media
and customer loyalty
M
arketing Guide
Da
ta-Driven
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2. Contents
In context
Connecting social media to
loyalty programmes
Listen, interpret and act
How to get buy-in from the board:
the ROI of social loyalty
Top 5 tips for building social loyalty
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So, what do we mean by social loyalty?
For loyalty to be successful, brands must listen to and engage with their customers - never more
so than on social media. This guide explores how ‘social loyalty’ affects brands, and how to best
utilise your social media channels to increase customer engagement, nurture relationships and
ultimately boost your ROI.
Loyalty
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3. • Participation within retail loyalty
programs when social media is
included has been proven to
help brands acquire
more customers.
(Source: Chirpyfy)
• ofall organisations
do not analyse
the demographics or profiles of
the customers that are active or
influential on social media.
(Source: Aberdeen Group)
• of consumers
receiving a quick
brand response on social media
would be likely to recommend
that brand to others, compared to
of customers who
received no response.
(Source: NM Incite)
FastFacts
45%
83%
19%
71%
In context
Often brands use social media to force out content without understanding that they should be
engaging in two-way conversations. Just like in the ‘real’ world, building a relationship is about
listening to and understanding the other party to create a dialogue and rapport. Both parties
should feel that they benefit from the relationship; and this is what builds loyalty.
We can’t stress enough that listening to your customers on social media is absolutely vital.
From building communities of brand advocates, identifying wants and needs, as well as
monitoring brand sentiment; listening lets you take immediate action based on real-life insight.
The data leveraged from those who opt-in to share their social media activity with you creates
a more sophisticated picture of your customers, as well as a depth of understanding which can
be used to segment and target specific groups. But, for a customer to grant you access to their
digital lives, you must give them something in return.
Knowing that they have been listened
to will only serve to build customers
good feeling towards your brand.
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4. Connecting social media
to loyalty programmes
Building social loyalty
Whether fans or followers, give them a reason to connect and engage:
• Offer rewards for specific interactions (shares, check-ins, uploading
photos etc.). You could even offer customers a bonus for connecting
their social data to your CRM (but be very clear on how you’ll use
their data). Set some rules for what you will/won’t reward.
• Provide variety in rewards – offer different levels for different actions.
• Keep track of your Superfans – use your CRM and social data to
identify your top brand advocates. You could offer them a higher
status, or even invite them to collaborate with you in some way;
from a simple blog post right through to designing a product.
• Don’t keep quiet about it – let your existing customer base know
about your programme. Consider using other channels including
email, in-store POS, etc.
Tech know-how
There are lots of tools out there to link CRM system and social media
channels. We help our partners by joining them both up to track any
social interactions through their CRM. The beauty of this is explained
in the diagram:
1. By engaging with
your brand on social
media, the customer
feels like they’re not
really doing anything
to receive a reward
(they’re not spending
money)
3. Feel-good factor
from the customer
(their reward may
take them closer to
making a purchase)
2. You get an
amplified message
(they’re sharing with
their network)
4. You recieve data
on engagement
levels, which in turn
lets you segment,
target , personalise
and refine future
campaigns.
Powering
loyalty through
CRM and
social media
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5. 1
What you should be listening for:
• Conversations regarding your products and services
- both positive and negative. Many brands who listen
are able to quickly resolve customer service issues
and complaints. Ignoring them and leaving them to
fester could result in them going viral, which will be
far harder to combat! This hugely contributes to
customer loyalty – who doesn’t like to be listened
to and feel that their voice has been heard?
• Discussions around your competitors –
understanding what customers like and dislike about
your competitors gives you a chance to develop and
tailor your offering to gain the competitive edge.
• Customer interests outside of your brand – knowing
which publications or websites they are fans of is
valuable insight, and can inform future promotion
and targeting methods.
Listen Interpret Act
Listening to your customers on social media
provides a rich insight into your target
audiences – who they are; what they’re
talking about; their interests and aversions.
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6. How to use your data:
• Recognise customer needs and opportunities for
product and service development.
• Understand brand sentiment – what are your
strengths and weaknesses in your customers eyes?
• Identify key influencers – who are your most
influential fans or brand advocates? Can you
connect or collaborate with them?
• Segment your data to build different customer
groups and understand the types of social media
communications that work best for them.
1 Listen Interpret Act
Now you need to understand the data
you’ve gathered to inform your future
engagement strategies.
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7. • Involve the whole business. Use the knowledge
gained to inform and improve your processes,
product development and services from the
customers perspective.
• If you’ve highlighted customer knowledge gaps,
think about how to provide the information
they need.
• Offer a personalised experience based on
interaction history and preferences.
• Test and learn – customer engagement vs. value.
• Join in the conversation – talk to your customers,
respond to them. Share things that they’re
interested in outside of your brand.SHARE
1 Listen Interpret Act
You now have all of this wonderful insight to
grow your brand. So how do you implement it?
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8. Back in 2013, whiskey brand Maker’s
Mark announced that it was lowering its
alcohol content from 90% proof to 84%
proof, due to increased product demand
and low bourbon supplies. Outrage
ensued and consumers took to social
media to voice their disgust, even
encouraging a boycott of the brand. But,
because it was listening, Maker’s Mark
was able to react immediately and made
the speedy decision to return to 90 proof.
They responded on social media with,
‘You spoke. We listened. And we’re
sincerely sorry we let you down.’
What this shows is just how powerful
social media can be in building loyalty
and trust. Despite the initial negative
reaction, Maker’s Mark turned this
around simply by listening to what their
devoted customers wanted, which of
course created positive feelings and
confidence in the brand.
(Source: BusinessInsider)
Remember: listening to, understanding, and acting on social
insight lets you build a more informed engagement strategy;
and engaged customers are loyal customers. It’s far harder
to win new customers than satisfy existing ones.
InFocus
1 Listen Interpret Act2 3
Key questions to ask when listening:
• Who and what are you going to listen to?
• What do you want to achieve? For example, understand brand
sentiment, increase engagement.
• Which platforms and tools best help you to achieve your goals?
• How will you respond to/act upon the insight?
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9. Here are a few reasons why linking social
media to loyalty delivers worthwhile ROI:
Measurable analytics:
• Content performance and engagement levels
• Web traffic and conversions
• Cost per action vs. average transaction value
Qualitative insight:
• Customer preferences, motivations and behaviours
Segmentation based on demographics
and interaction levels
From this, you can then identify the value
of a social media fan to your brand:
• Who your true Superfans and advocates are,
and the impact they have on your bottom line by
spreading your brand’s message.
• The spending value of a social media fan vs.
a non-fan.
• The return on investment of your social media spend.
How to get buy-in from the
board: the ROI of social loyalty
Creating a social loyalty strategy takes time and effort.
What’s crucial from the start is to understand your
objectives, metrics, success measures and the tools
you will use, as well as how you will link your social
media to your CRM. There are a number of online
dashboards and tools you can use to support, as well
as specialists such as the lovely Ikano Bank team!
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10. InFocus
In the USA, Starbucks conducted research
to compare the purchase behaviour
between those exposed to the brand’s
social media updates (organic exposure
as opposed to paid placements) and
those who were not. What they found
was that within 4 weeks of exposure, there
was a 38% lift in purchasing among those
exposed to social media updates.
(Source: ComScore)
We can help you to get the most out of your
customer data to grow your social loyalty and
ultimately increase your ROI.
Top 5 tips for building social loyalty
Link your CRM and social media channels.
Listen to your customers to gain insight which can then
be used for segmentation and targeting.
Interpret your social listening data to give customers what
they need and build relationships.
Give customers a reason to connect and engage
(offer rewards).
Measure the ROI and impact of highly engaged social media
contacts versus those who are not.
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11. No matter what stage you are at with your customer engagement
we have the intelligent, intuitive insight to help you achieve ROI
and drive incremental revenue:
Ikano Bank is awesome with data,
but even better at relationships.
And that, ultimately, is what turns customer loyalty
into a business’s success.
Do you want to build a new loyalty or customer
engagement programme?
Do you want to improve an existing one?
Or, do you simply want to turn customer data
into actionable insight?
Wherever you are with customer
engagement, we have the
intelligent, intuitive insight to
help you achieve greater ROI
and drive incremental revenue.
For more information please contact:
Barry Smith
barry.smith@ikano.net
07551 671 825
0115 850 3644
www.ikano.co.uk
ikano_UK