Brand affinity

Brand affinity is building an emotional connection between a brand and its customers. People who share the values of a brand tend to choose its product and recommend it to their friends.

This video covers the concept of brand affinity marketing. Here you’ll find the tips to build it.

Why is brand affinity important?

Brand affinity belongs to the most essential marketing metrics such as brand preference and loyalty. Affinity lets companies build emotional connections with their clients which is the cherry on the cake.

Companies can succeed in this task by communicating their core values during every interaction with a customer. Finding a brand that shares the same values, clients feel support, harmony, and gratitude. Hence, they will associate these feelings and emotions with that particular brand. As we know, emotions drive peoples' motives and actions. So, customers will consider this brand the best choice.

This will result in higher sales volume. Besides, clients who feel an affinity to your brand, have increased lifetime value which impacts your revenue positively.

Before we move on to the techniques that will help you develop this metric, let's see the difference between brand affinity and loyalty, since these terms are often used interchangeably by mistake.

Brand Affinity vs Brand Loyalty

These terms differ, firstly, by the driving force which makes people choose this or that brand. Secondly, to develop brand affinity, companies should build brand awareness and loyalty. It means that this is a long-lasting process that includes working on both affinity and loyalty. Let’s look at this in more detail.

The first thing which makes these terms different is the driving force. Brand loyalty doesn’t require companies to build an emotional connection with their customers. People choose a brand wisely. They research competitors, compare prices and features, consider refund and exchange policy, look for reviews and testimonials. So, this is a rational decision that makes customers buy again.

While brand affinity is all about feelings and emotions. They are the driving force that makes people choose this or that brand. Fans of Apple explain their affinity to the company the same way. They share the same values as Apple does and enjoy the feelings they have when using their products. So, they won’t switch brands just because of a price increase, for example. This emotional connection is rather strong and provides additional reasons to remain this brand’s client.

In addition, to develop your brand affinity, you need to work on building brand awareness and loyalty first. If you successfully complete all these stages, your efforts will pay off.

In the next section, we’ll share some proven tips that will help you build brand affinity. So, stay tuned.

You need to carry out complex work that will cover different business spheres. This way, you’ll take an in-depth look at your brand to improve every aspect. Below we’ll share several important tips.

1. Figure out your customers’ values. To build an emotional connection with clients, you need to have a clear picture of their core values, needs, wants, and preferences. This will help you be on the same page. Also, you can find out what they consider your top value. Conduct a survey and ask clients directly. This way, you’ll see whether your audience realizes your values and shares them. If they understand them differently, you can change your direction accordingly.
2. Provide first-class customer support. Customers are ready to pay more for 24/7 support in their language, fast response time, personalized offers, and guys who treat them as friends rather than attacking with tons of prepared links. Your support team is the face of your company which makes clients judge it relying on communicating with it. Make sure your clients feel no anger or disappointment when contacting your support team to ask for a refund or exchange of products. Be helpful and friendly.
3. Partner with influencers. These people can not only enhance your brand promotion but provide you with clients who share your values. Influencers are not only well-known celebrities. You can start by finding a micro-influencer who may like your product or is already your client. Offer them mutually beneficial cooperation and ask to promote your brand focusing on its core values. This way, you’ll acquire qualified and interested leads who have enough social proof to buy from you.
4. Create your brand community. People like to belong to something huge because it makes them feel valuable and find like-minded people. Their common interest in your brand and the values you share. So, it’s your chance to build trustful and long-lasting relationships.
5. Engage with customers on social media. The power of social networks is immense and it’s limited only by your creativity. People spend hours every day on Facebook and Instagram, so why should you miss this opportunity? Find out what they think about your company with the help of social media listening tools, check out your brand mentions, and act on them. Encourage people to comment on your account and be proactive to answer them to show that you care. Give them thanks for positive mentions and contact with those who left negative comments — this is your chance to change their experience for the better. Provide customer service via chatbots with the help of LIKE.TG. Share educational content, photos and videos, user-generated content, and reviews on social media. This will help you attract new leads as well.

Now that you know how to build brand affinity, it’s time to find out how to measure this metric.

How to measure brand affinity?

There’s no single and most accurate way to measure it, but there are a lot of metrics you can monitor to assess your brand affinity. They will provide you with a clear picture of your performance. These indicators include the ones below.

• NPS (Net Promoter Score). It allows you to find out the percentage of customers who are fully satisfied with your company and are ready to recommend it to their friends and colleagues. This likelihood is measured with the help of points from 1 to 10. You can ask your clients to answer these questions in their profile on your site.
• Customer lifetime value. This metric shows how much money your client can spend on your products during your relationships. Customer lifetime value is one of the crucial metrics for each business since it reflects your customer retention and loyalty efforts.
• Referrals. These are people brought to your business by your current clients. You should track this metric constantly to understand the number of loyal clients and the reasons why they bring you or not new leads. Reward them for every new customer.
• “Time spent” in Google Analytics. GA provides businesses with tons of insights into their performance. You can monitor the time spent on each page of your site. You’ll find out the number of sessions and their duration. The higher this indicator, the better. It means that you’ve managed to create engaging and valuable content and your audience likes it.
• Facebook insights and Youtube analytics. These tools are similar to the previous one. They help you understand the performance of your content in terms of time spent watching it.
• Brand search volume. Check this data in Google Search Console. It allows you to find out the number of people who use your brand name while searching with Google. It means that you’ve managed to build brand awareness, create interest and affinity towards your company.
• Mentions on social media. Keep track of your brand mentions to see what customers think about your company. This will help you uncover your pain points as well as your strengths.

Congrats, now you know why brand affinity matters, the way it differs from brand loyalty, have some tips at hand to develop and measure it. Make use of the LIKE.TG tools to bring your communication with clients to the next level.