Issue #65 - Can loyalty pay? 🤝
Can you keep customers coming back for more? | How to build brand loyalty | Which brands have the most loyal customers? | 5 businesses, 1 question | UK Business Climate Hub | Words | Tunes | More
Are your customers coming back for more? 🥣
Welcome to Issue #65 of The Backbone - the fortnightly newsletter from Bionic.
There’s nothing like the feeling you get when people regularly come back to buy from your business. But how can you make sure customers keep coming back for more if others are offering the same products or services as you?
This is an issue we’re up against here at Bionic (we know we’re not the only broker in town) but it’s made doubly difficult for us because loyalty often doesn’t pay when it comes to utilities. On the one hand, we’re telling you to switch suppliers but we only want you to switch with us.
That’s why we like to offer more than a simple comparison and switching service - we use cutting-edge tech, smart data, and human expertise to make the whole process as quick and simple as possible. And our Digital Renewals service means you can save even more time by letting us sort your renewals.
Our business essentials series offers tips and guidance on all areas of running a business, from starting out to selling up, and we dug into the details of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy Bills Discount Scheme to help ensure you knew exactly what the government schemes meant for you.
And we’ve been working hard with suppliers to help businesses who signed high-rate contracts during the height of the energy price crisis. You can find out more about this in our guide to blend and extend energy contracts.
Ultimately, we want to help make it easier to run a business and build a community where information and guidance can be swapped between business owners in all industries. Nothing salesy, just a place to trade ideas.
But enough about us, what about your business? How can you make sure customers think of you before anyone else? And are there ways to keep them coming back for more?
We looked at how the world's biggest brands go about building brand loyalty and asked an expert how this can be applied to businesses of all sizes. You can read more from our Brand Loyalty Report below, but first, check out which UK brands command the most loyal support 👇
📨 SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to The Backbone to get each fortnightly edition into your inbox at 7 am every other Friday. Perfect for a quick read at breakfast or on the commute.
👀 READ
How to build brand loyalty 🤝
Increasing your customer base and drumming up new sales is vital to keep your small business thriving. But building brand loyalty should also be a key part of your marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at what brand loyalty is and why it’s important, along with the different ways that you can build and track brand loyalty.
What brands have the most loyal customers? 🏪
Brand loyalty is when customers continue to buy from the same brand or business, even though others are offering similar goods and services. And customer loyalty isn’t just for big brands - it can benefit businesses of all sizes and can them survive through times of economic crises.
But how can small businesses help build loyalty amongst their client and customer base? And how did John Lewis become Britain’s most loyal brand? We have some expert insight from Glyn Britton, Chief Customer Officer at Bionic and Ari McDaniel, Cult Marketing Expert.
🗣 SHOUTOUT
#BionicBusinessStory - 5 businesses, 1 question 🤔
As this issue is all about earning the loyalty of your customers, we thought we’d ask five micro business owners how they find customers but keep them coming back for more. Here’s what they said…
Bionic - How do you find and retain your customers?
🧷 “We usually find our customers in two ways, half of them are word of mouth, people remembering us from Topshop or walking past and seeing what we do. The other half is a result of our social presence. Instagram, in particular, has become a piercing platform for us, customers are able to ask questions about infections and aftercare. They can learn how to look after their piercings from professionals.” Ben Harris - Metal Morphosis
🎂 “Social media has played a huge part in getting my name out to the public. If it wasn't for Facebook and Instagram, I'd still only be getting orders from close friends and family. These platforms have allowed me to advertise to a much wider audience and get my name out there. They’ve given me a place to show my work and gain feedback from customers and people visiting my pages.” Heidi Kay - Handmade by Heidi
👻 “Social media, but I wish I could be better at it. We have seven channels for different parts of the business and it’s just so time-consuming. We also previously partnered with a radio station called ‘Rave 105’ and at our peak, we had around 198,000 people watching one of our live investigations. You could go on to watch the live event taking place. So that got more people interested.” Jonathon Fost - Dark Encounters
🃏 “Most of my customers find me on Etsy. I retain them by asking customers for honest feedback and adapting to their needs. People are more likely to recommend you and return if they feel their opinions are taken into consideration. Make sure you keep the good reviews as well. If you want to promote, it's good to have reviews to back up your product and it also helps you to grow in confidence as well.” Untapped Potential Tarot Readings
💀 “Social media and celebrity guests massively help with networking; social media is a huge part of promoting ourselves but when a celebrity comes to experience our mazes it gives us access to more customers and gets our name out there. We still do flyers, but we put a fun spin on it, we get our actors to dress up and give out leaflets so that means people can get photos with them and tag our social media accounts.” Bex Wiliams - AtmosFEAR
Want to read more small business stories? Head over to Bionic 🦾
📰 NEWS
UK climate hub supporting SMEs to go green 🍃
SMEs make up more than 99% of businesses in the UK and are estimated to employ 16.4 million people. They also generate 44% of the UK’s non-household greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to research from Sage and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
But, despite many SMEs wanting to be greener, the research also found that 90% felt restrained by obstacles ranging from cash flow to difficulty finding the right solutions.
To help businesses with their green transition, the government has set up the UK Business Climate Hub. This will offer access to advice and support on ways to reduce energy bills while cutting carbon emissions.
🦾 BIONIC
Get your business costs sorted 💷
Bionic - the business price comparison experts - compare a range of business essentials to help you save time, money, and hassle.
Our tech-enabled team will answer all your questions in simple terms, and help you find the best deal on business energy, insurance, phone, broadband, or finance. No jargon. No-fuss. #BeABionicBusiness 🦾
Bionic’s tech-enabled service was clean and efficient for Lizi 🧼
Check out more ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Trustpilot reviews
🎧 LISTEN
Playlist 🎶
We’ve just finished reading Pandamonium!: How Not to Run a Record Label and thought we’d dig out the accompanying playlist - it’s everything we’d hoped for and more. Based on the label that gave bands like Ash, Supergrass, Keane, and Coldplay their first releases - this playlist features two out of those four bands and loads more you might never have heard of but might equally end up loving.
Podcast 🎙
The Brand Master Podcast is a show dedicated to helping you build a brand that connects by using positioning, brand personality, a human persona and brand voice. It also shows how communication and messaging frameworks are key along with storytelling techniques. Get actionable tips, techniques, and systems for your business.
👩🤝👩🏾 SHARE
If you love The Backbone (or even if you just quite like it) share it with someone who has equally great taste in email newsletters.
🏡 HOUSEKEEPING
Check your folders 📁
If The Backbone isn’t landing in your inbox every other Friday, please mark this address as ‘not spam.’ If it isn’t in your spam folder, it may have been moved to another folder, like ‘Promotions’ or ‘Social’.
🚫 STOP
Thanks for making it to the end of another Bionic small business bulletin 🤝🏻
Please leave a comment and let us know if there’s anything else we should be featuring.
And don’t forget to send this link to all your friends and get them to subscribe ✌🏻