Finding new customers is at the core of growing your business. You’re always going to be searching for the next hot product, the next big acquisition, or the next novel business idea. But the headlong drive towards everything new can easily cause you to forget what makes up the bedrock of your business: long term customer loyalty. Customers are 6-7 times more expensive to acquire than to maintain, meaning that a strong base of loyal customers is at the heart of every great business.

Gaining and supporting customer loyalty is particularly important in the private label supplement industry, where many obstacles could get in the way of sustaining your customers’ trust. When an industry article about misleading labeling or faulty products comes out, your customers need to feel assured about the quality and consistency of your products. And they likely will, if you’ve spent months or years establishing a trusting relationship. This relationship should be based around transparency, quality, and value.

But how should you go about creating it in the first place and nurturing it thereafter? Fostering a trust-based relationship requires a well-crafted approach to both marketing, sometimes called relationship marketing, and everyday business practices. Follow these three values to boost your customers’ loyalty:

#1 Customer Engagement

What most business students and even marketers don’t understand is that engaging with your customers is a balancing act. There are diminishing returns when it comes to this kind of interaction. A post by the Harvard Business Review points out that customers often don’t want to be engaged with brands or companies and often suffer an information overload. So this trap needs to be avoided.

Still, as a private label supplement retailer, your business needs customer engagement to sustain your brand and bring in sales. Retailers who completely avoid customer engagement run the risk of seeming inactive in the industry, and this doesn’t do you any favors when it comes to fostering a reliable, trust-worthy brand reputation. You need to be at the forefront of your industry, keeping up with news, developments, and new ingredient research.

Your customers are taking and consuming your products every day, so they naturally want more consistent engagement from you than, say, the company which made their vacuum cleaner. Updates about new ingredients or research will help them feel more empowered about their buying decisions, and sharing this kind of information will let them know you care. But how exactly should you structure your customer engagement for maximum success?

#2 Shared Values

The most common reason customers want to develop a more engaged relationship with a company is shared values, and that is the best way for you to reach them. Fortunately for you, your customers and your company likely already share a series of core values like health, wellness, and being educated about one’s personal health. So when you’re trying to engage your customers with content about your products, you’re already giving them information that they have a demonstrated interest in. This is a key element of successful customer engagement.

#3 The Process

So you’ve determined that you need to do more to develop a loyal customer base and you’ve identified your shared values with your customers. What next? Now it’s time to determine what channels work best for you (social media, e-mail, blogging, etc.), and what content you need to be sharing. For private label supplement retailers, this should involve things like the latest medical studies, proper usage and dosage information, advice on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and other content which your customers will appreciate.

By sharing this kind of information, you’re educating your customers as well as demonstrating your shared values. You’re showing your customers that your company is transparent, on the forefront of the industry, and that you care about their health beyond what supplements they’re using.

Better Engagement, Better Business

The kind of trust and loyalty this kind of engagement can build over time is invaluable. It makes sense from both a financial and moral standpoint and will ultimately help both you and your customers in the long run. So what are you waiting for? Start understanding and engaging your customers better and let the results speak for themselves.

About the author:

Stefani Thionnet has 23 years of experience in establishing profitable, high-performance organizations and new ventures within the private label nutraceutical, skincare, cosmetic, and health and wellness industries by delivering strategic business plans with online branding and sales solutions. Currently owner and CEO of Private Label Supplement, Stefani believes that a company can only thrive through its clients’ success. For more information check out http://www.privatelabelsupplement.com/

Posted November 4th, 2014