Uniting Goodwill + Customer Loyalty in One Step

Connecting and adhering to these four factors establishes the focus of both your business and its marketing strategy:

1. Your mission, or all that your entity does to improve the lives of its customer base;
2. The fundamental high quality of your products and services;
3. The existing goodwill that your business enjoys with its current customer base; and
4. The benefits and qualities that you want your customers to experience every time they access your goods or services.

Most small businesses shouldn’t try to compete with national mega-corporations. A mom-and-pop restaurant that creates spectacular burgers, for instance, need not focus on besting the Golden Arches down the street.

Instead, the small business owner can identify and focus on his or her core niche of local (and regional) visitors to encourage repeat visits and positive customer advocacy throughout their community. The strategy is to understand the local community aesthetic and present a marketing campaign that hits those notes.

Because of their ability to attract and retain repeat customers, loyalty programs can be especially significant for a small business. When the product or service is designed to respond to the local community’s specific traits and tastes, it will automatically attract local residents to engage with it.

Implementing the right technological tools, particularly since few leave home without phones or tablets nowadays, distinguishes your product or service—even if it’s something that’s been around as long as ice cream. Yes, one can even bring innovation to ice cream sales!

One small Long Island–based Rocking Horse Ices and Ice Cream Treatery uses Belly, a digital loyalty rewards program, for its customers to track their purchases. After signing up for the program, customers earn points for free items with each purchase, and the app keeps track of their progress. (Read the full Newsday article.)

The program run through Belly benefits the store by:

• Keeping customers happy,
• Boosting their social media interaction, and
• Capturing customer and product data to inform future business decisions. For instance, the shop’s owner can discontinue non-selling items, increase production of popular items, and design specialty items based on customer comments.

The Rocking Horse project responds to each of the four guiding factors mentioned above:

1. The store’s mission is to provide its customers with excellent ice cream treats and service, while building loyalty and repeat business;
2. The products are unique to the store, so their relatively limited availability increases their popularity;
3. Goodwill is built every time a patron experiences both the tasty treats and the rewards earned through the loyalty program; and
4. Consistently good food entices existing members to return while encouraging potential new customers to come into the store.

A small business marketing strategy that promotes goodwill while rewarding your customers links their personal enjoyment of your product or service to your specific shop, restaurant, or service. As a result, your business’s longevity is improved and its reputation spreads throughout the local community and beyond.

Contact us to find out how we can reach your local market while unifying your brand and its message!

Photo Credit: myoldpostcards via Compfight