It takes time, empathy, and understanding to form a relationship with your customers, and that’s crucial to stay on their minds. Here's how.
Did you know that there are more than 30,000 new consumer products launched every year — and unfortunately, 95% of them fail? Yes, you read right – from product ideation to the actual launch, keeping your brand and product on top of the customers' minds is no easy task.
There are multiple reasons why products end up failing, but one of the top reasons is that brands and product developers often overlook customers' feelings. Knowing their pains and joys can help ensure your product creates emotional attachment by providing solutions to fill a gap in their lives.
Indeed, emotions may influence our behavior as consumers more than we’d like to admit, and emotional attachment is a significant factor when it comes to making your product lovable.
So how can your product elicit this strong emotion from your consumers? Here are three steps to do that.
Assess your company values
Ensure that you share their values and support their community. As Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said,
“The brands that will thrive in the coming years are the ones that have a purpose beyond profit.”
Research found that 50% of consumers worldwide say they are belief-driven buyers. Further, nearly two-thirds (64%) of consumers worldwide will buy or boycott a brand based on its position on a social or political issue. That's why understanding your audience is crucial to address sensitive situations better.
Provide a good customer experience
A positive customer experience is fundamental, as it helps increase customer engagement, loyalty, satisfaction, and better reviews to pass on to their family and friends. Who wouldn't want all that?
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This illustration shows how customers find themselves attached to a brand because of customer experience than for the product itself. As customers crave connection and social interactions, adding social features to your platforms, such as in-app messaging, group chat, social feed, and video, is an effective way to guarantee a great customer experience.
Further, customer feedback is one of the primary drivers of successful customer experience strategies. In-app messaging features can bridge the communication gap between you and your users. A fast response is critical, as waiting for an answer can cause customer frustration, especially when it comes to bad experiences. With in-app live chat and automated FAQ bots, you can be sure you’re on top of your customers’ concerns and answer their queries fast.
Look into communities
As social beings, we need to be part of a group where we feel valued. And what better way to leverage our social nature than by integrating social features into your product?
By adopting features such as social feed, groups, profiles, you can create in-app communities in your product and enable your users to express themselves, communicate with your and like-minded peers, and more.
Ultimately, everyone benefits from this collective social involvement. Your users are more engaged and have higher chances to stay on your app. It also contributes to building trust between users because users view user-generated content as more authentic and valuable than the messages coming directly from the brand.
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Also, strong communities help businesses acquire new members, resulting in lower customer acquisition costs and a tight viral loop. That’s why it’s necessary to take advantage of your community, especially with brand and product marketing efforts. Building a community-based platform is the best marketing strategy — and a priority if you want a closer relationship with your customers.
As with any relationship, earning the coveted affection from your customers takes time. It is an accumulation of things that your brand and product need to provide. Emotions play a crucial part in a person's decisions — and love is what you want to focus on. Emotional attachment towards your brand and products is ultimately vital in your success, so make sure you leverage opportunities to bring new and existing customers to feel nothing but love for your brand.