Six steps to perfect branding (and why it increases customer lifetime value)

If you want to sell a product or service, you need to focus on some essential aspects. These include a good offer, clear structures in sales, and efficient marketing. The better the strategies you choose, the higher the Customer Lifetime Value.

In this article, you'll learn why customer lifetime value is such an important metric - and how you can maximize it using six specific branding measures.

What is Customer Lifetime Value - and why is it so important?

In its simplest definition, customer lifetime value (CLV) is the value that an average customer has for a company, throughout their lifetime as a customer of the company.

As a business owner, you absolutely need to know the CLV. Only then can you adjust your marketing measures accordingly. For example, if the CLV is 100 euros, the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) must of course not exceed 100 euros. The margin between CAC and CLV - and thus your sales - must be maximized.

One of the great advantages that CopeCart offers you: The Customer Lifetime Value is automatically calculated and displayed to you. This means that you don't have to waste valuable time on the tedious calculation of this important key figure, but can call it up quickly and easily at any time. The information it contains is worth its weight in business gold.

But what role does branding play in connection with customer lifetime value? Through branding, you build a community around your company. You bind your target group emotionally to you, making them loyal fans of your offering and your company. As a result, they are more likely to become repeat customers. And that's exactly what increases customer lifetime value.

Now you'll learn how to build a coherent branding in six simple steps and ensure that you turn your target group into loyal customers.

Building branding in six steps: Here's how it works

1. Expand your target group knowledge

The first step is to understand your target audience and your ideal customer as best you can. All too many entrepreneurs focus so much on their own product, on all the different aspects of their business - and completely forget about their customers. 

But only if you know exactly what your customers want can you help them in the best possible way.

That's why, especially when your business is still in its infancy, you should make customer contact your top priority. Find out what problems your target group has and how your product can help solve these problems. For example, make as many phone calls as possible to people in your target group. Attend trade shows or other events where they are present. Find out more in Internet forums and Facebook groups, ask around in your personal environment.

Without a detailed knowledge of your target group, you don't even need to think about branding.

2. Define your company philosophy

Think of a sentence that precisely and concisely reflects what you want to achieve with your offer and your company.

Copecart's mission statement reads:

We want to make selling online as easy as possible for our customers. Register once and sell directly.

A clearly formulated company philosophy has a double purpose: First, you give your target group to understand what you can do for them.

Second, the company philosophy also serves as a constant reminder to yourself of the goals you want to achieve with your business. Only if you have a clear goal in mind, you can take concrete steps to ensure that you will reach this goal.

3. Find the right customer approach

If you know who your customers are, you need to find the perfect way to approach them. Casual or formal? Serious, witty or ironic? You or you?

Addressing customers is one of the most important building blocks of a good branding strategy. After all, it reflects your company's values and philosophy. Optimally, a well-chosen customer approach creates an emotional bond. Potential customers feel understood and personally addressed. These are the best prerequisites for turning them into paying customers.

The approach you choose depends primarily on the identity of your target group and the nature of your offering. Above all, it's important that the way you address your customers is consistent and uniform: your website, all emails and blogposts, telephone conversations, online ads and so on should ideally use the same language.

4. Create the perfect logo

What do all the world's famous companies have in common? How do you recognize Apple, McDonald's and Coca-Cola? That's right: their logo. 

A good logo is an essential part of your branding strategy. It is often the first association customers have with your company.

Optimally, it should reflect what your company stands for. A good logo is unique, yet has a high recognition value.

If you think your current logo isn't good enough, don't worry: it's never too late to adapt your own logo or even completely replace it with a new one. This is proven by the fact that some of the biggest companies in the world - such as Volkswagen, Lego, and Instagram - changed their logo when they were already enjoying enormous notoriety.

5. Expand your online presence

You now have a logo and a mission statement; you know how to appeal to your customers. The key now is to be as omnipresent as possible online. Crank up your social media channels and dress them in the branding you've chosen.

Use social media to connect with your customers. Showcase yourself and your business, always illustrating how you can help your customers solve their problems. 

Nowadays, social media is the first port of call for people who want to find out more about a particular company or person. If a potential customer is thinking about buying from you - and if that's why they're visiting your social media channels - they should have no choice but to actually become a customer. To ensure this, you need good content.

6. Publish content regularly

You need to build a community around your business. The best way to do this is to publish online content regularly.

The type of content plays a secondary role. Whether it's blog articles or YouTube videos, Instagram, Facebook or podcasts: The main thing is that you regularly publish high-quality content that adds real value for your customers.

So find what you enjoy and are best at, and focus on that. 

Online content works so well as a branding measure because it allows you to showcase your company's values and benefits. It builds trust between your potential customers and your company - and ultimately, all branding is about building trust. 

In addition, you provide your target group with interesting content free of charge. In this way, you bind them to you and prepare them to pay money for your products or services. 

Conclusion: Maximize CLV through branding efforts

You now know why CLV is one of the most important metrics of any business. CopeCart provides you with this metric automatically. So you always know how high the average customer value is and can adapt your marketing strategies accordingly. Because only if you know how much profit an average customer brings in, you can decide how much money you should spend on ads to acquire them.

Branding plays a key role in increasing customer lifetime value. By making your business a true brand, you retain your customers for the long term. The likelihood that they will buy from you again and again increases - as does the customer lifetime value and ultimately your sales!