Most people in marketing have heard of the words brand loyalty, brand awareness, and brand identity. Brand affinity is just as important. Learn about brand affinity and how it can help grow your brand!

Brand Affinity

Brand affinity is about making a connection between you and your customers on a more emotional level. It makes your customers feel that they have a real relationship with your brand and share the same values.

Difference Between Brand Loyalty and Brand Affinity 

Brand loyalty and brand affinity are similar in that they both promote customer loyalty. Brand loyalty is when customers keep coming back to your business because they like your products and service. Brand loyalty stops right here, but brand affinity takes it one step further.

Brand affinity makes sure that you have a great relationship with your customers, and selling products and services aren’t the only things that keep them coming back. You want that relationship to be on an emotional level where your customer actually believes in your brand and doesn’t just “like” it. They can relate and understand your brands’ messages and values to where they eventually make your brand part of their identity.

How Does Brand Affinity Help Your Business

Brand affinity can help grow your business with the help of your customers. If a customer believes in your brand and what it does, then it will be easier to get their attention. As they keep investing their time in your brand, you can become part of their identity, which can lead to them promoting your brand by using or wearing any of your products.

How To Increase Brand Affinity

Defining what your brand stands for and your brand’s voice are the first steps you should take before diving deeper into increasing your brand affinity. Who are you and what are your values? Ask yourself these questions to figure out your brand identity. 

Once you’ve figured out your brand identity, you are ready to develop a winning brand affinity strategy. Following are several methods you can use to increase your brand affinity. 

Attract Your Target Audience Using Social Media

Without an audience, how are you going to build brand affinity? Using your brand identity, you can figure out who shares the same values as your brand. With the right social media strategy, you can effectively target your ideal audience. Social media provides you with the necessary tools to create the right content to attract and engage with your target audience. 

Listen To Your Audience Online

Listening to your audience online shows them that you value what they have to say. There are many businesses out there that just skim through comments and reviews and do nothing with them. Showing your audience that you’re actually listening to their comments or answering questions can help your brand develop brand affinity. A good way to show this is through the use of polling. Polls are a great and simple way to engage with your audience and receive feedback. It also lets them know that you value their opinions and involve them in the development of new products. 

Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the best ways you can go about increasing your brand affinity. Think about the many times you’ve seen a service you use that asks you to refer a friend, and in return, you get a reward. When your customers start to trust your product or service, they will be more likely to recommend you to their friends and family. Their friends and family trust their judgment and may be convincing enough for them to check out what you offer.

Keep Your Customers Up-To-Date

Keeping your customers up-to-date with any changes or new products in your company shows them that you are making an effort to keep them informed. Make sure the information and content you are sending them are useful and educational. You don’t want to send them updates about something that has nothing to do with your brand. That can turn your customers off from receiving updates as they may think you are spamming them with unnecessary information. You want them to increase their affinity towards your brand, not lower it. 

Show The Uniqueness Of Your Brand

Don’t let your brand blend in with the competition. When your brand is able to offer something unique to your customers, more people will begin to gravitate towards you. Offering a seemingly “exclusive” product is intriguing.

Conclusion

Work on different ways to increase your brand affinity. Start with understanding your brand and your buyer personas, so you reach consumers who share the same values and beliefs. Remember, brand affinity can push your brand to stand out from your competition. It may be just what you need to grow!