Five Ways Printers Can Use Social Media to Build Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty means people keep coming back for more.

Think about your favorite supermarket or a store you regularly go to. If you venture somewhere else, do you ever feel the sharp stab of guilt?

If you do, you’re not alone.

In fact, plenty of people strive to make connections with brands and businesses and, when they find one that fits their values and morals, they stick around for the long haul.

When you look at it this way, it’s easy to see why customer loyalty is important. Not only does it mean repeat buyers, but it also builds a tribe of people who are willing to advertise your brand for absolutely nothing.

So why is customer loyalty important for printers in particular?

Finding a good printer is difficult, so when someone finds a company that serves their needs, they’re going to go back for more.

On top of that, statistics show that selling to current customers is more cost-effective and profitable than trying to attract and sell to new customers.

Seems like a no-brainer then, right?

How Can You Build Customer Loyalty?

The most pressing question you probably have right now is “How can I build customer loyalty?”

One of the quickest and easiest ways to build rapport with current customers and new customers is via social media. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn give printers the opportunity to create a deeper connection with their customers by hanging out with them in their preferred online place.

When you bear in mind that a whopping 72% of people are more likely to buy from a business if they have interacted with them on Twitter, you can start to see just how powerful social media can be.

How to Use Social Media to Build Customer Loyalty

1. Listen and Interact With Your Audience

Before you do anything, it’s important you know where your audience is hanging out. There’s no point going all in on Facebook when the people who are most likely to want your business are actually using Instagram.

A breakdown of how many people visit the top social media sites every day. Source

The first step is figuring out where these people are hanging out. Once you’ve done that, you can listen to their conversations and join in to start building that much-needed rapport.

Despite the digital nature of the world, where everyone seems to do everything from behind the comfort of a screen, people are craving deeper connections with brands which translates into the printing industry.

How to Listen and Interact

To find out where your audience are hanging out, you can:

• Find your top competitors and see which channels they have the most followers and are getting the most engagement on
• Use hashtags and search terms to see which platforms the majority of conversations about your industry are happening

2. Go Behind-the-Scenes

Let’s face it, people love to see behind-the-scenes of their favorite brands. It taps into the voyeuristic nature we have as humans.

This again ties into the whole idea that consumers are actively seeking out deeper connections with brands, and to do that they need to know more about you.

When you invite customers “backstage”, you’re essentially inviting them to become part of a community or, on some levels, a family, which ultimately makes them feel like a part of something and want to give back (and yes, that means buying from you!).

How to Go Behind-the Scenes

Showing off your behind-the-scenes stories on social media doesn’t have to be complicated. It can simply be something like:

• Posting pictures of what you’re doing throughout the day
• Sharing stories from team members
• Posting reviews and stories from previous customers
• Going Live on social media in-the-moment to show a specific aspect of your business
• Creating videos that showcase a certain process you do and sharing them across social channels

3. Share Your Customer’s Best Stuff

As well as showing all the juicy stuff you get up to behind-the-scenes, you also want to give customers a different perspective. Try mixing up business posts with some of your customer’s stuff, too.

Research shows that people are more likely to listen to their peers or people they can relate to (and are less likely to listen to brands). It also provides a more authentic view into your business and makes you more relatable on a consumer level.

This chart shows just how powerful user-generated content (or customer-created content) is. Source.

How to Share Your Customer’s Best Stuff

Sharing your customer’s best stuff is easy once you know how to get hold of it. You can:

• Ask customers to share photos of their final prints back in the office or when they’re in action at an event and post them on social media
• Create a hashtag where past customers can share their stuff with you
• Turn customer-related content into other forms of content, like a video or share stories on a Live video

4. Share Offers and New Products

In one study, it was revealed that 73% of people follow businesses to get updates on future products. Basically, if you’re not sharing offers with your customer base, you’re missing out on huge potential.

Remember, these people actively want to hear about your products, so use your social media channels to give them exactly what they want. By providing offers, discounts, and new products to followers, you attract repeat custom and start to build a loyal following.

How to Share Offers and New Products

Obviously you don’t want to just blast your social media feeds with offer after offer, but a well-placed discount every now and again can work wonders for making current customers feel special and like you value them. Maybe you could:

• Offer a voucher on Twitter or Facebook for past customers to get a discount on their next print purchase
• Share updates on your latest printing service and give previous buyers the chance to try it out first

5. Share Quality Content

People continue to buy from brands they trust. Fact.

And, to build that trust, you need to exert your authority in the printing world so that people actually have a reason to trust you.

One of the best ways to do this is to share high-quality content on your social feeds that shows customers you know what you’re talking about and are highly knowledgeable on all things printing.

How to Share Quality Content

There are plenty of ways to share quality content with your social media followers, but you can start by:

• Creating actionable guides to printing and other design-related processes and sharing them on your social feeds
• Share content (whether it’s yours or someone else’s) that solves a major problem your audience have
• Answer key questions customers are sharing on social media with a knowledgeable response

Social Media is the Perfect Tool For Building Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is invaluable to a business.

When you’ve built a community of raving fans, you don’t have to work as hard to sell your services and you have a group of people who are ready and willing to market your business for free.

Without customer loyalty, brands have to work really hard to keep new customers coming through the door.

To build that much-coveted loyalty, you have to build trust and create a rapport with consumers who are looking for deeper connections. Because of the social and conversational nature of social media, it’s the perfect place to start a dialogue with your audience and continue nurturing already-established relationships.

What kind of things do you share with your audience on social media? Let us know in the comments below!