Going Beyond Transactions - Building Lasting Emotional Relationships with Customers

In today's competitive business landscape, creating lasting emotional relationships with customers is essential for long-term success. These emotional connections go beyond simple transactions and help foster brand loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and increased customer lifetime value.

In this article, we will explore various ways businesses can strengthen their emotional bonds with customers, and where digital collectibles belongs on that journey.

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Understanding Customer Relationship Types

It's essential to recognize that not all customer relationships are the same. In fact, at different stages of a business lifetime, they may prioritize the nurturing of certain types of relationships with their customers.

There are several types of connections that businesses can establish with their customers:

1. Transactional Relationships: These are short-term, one-time interactions where the customer's primary focus is on the product or service being offered. Customers may not have a strong emotional connection to the brand, and can, in fact, easily replace the brand with a different one.
   
   Businesses at the early stages are focused on increasing customer awareness of their products and services, and building trust. They should prioritize improving transactional relationships first, creating positive first impressions through exceptional customers service and offering reliable products and/or services. They are also focused on optimizing targeted marketing efforts, and telling a compelling brand story.
   
   
2. Experiential Relationships: As the business matures, they are not only providing a consistent, positive experience, but also creating new, personalized ones to build deeper bonds with their customers. Since customers now have too many options for goods and services, brands need to find new ways to build 1:1 relationships with their customers.
   
   For example: Businesses can offer personalized shopping experience and recommendations for their customers. They can also host exclusive events for their most loyal customers such as product launch parties, new product feedback workshops, or pop-up shops for new customers to experience their products. Brands can offer loyalty rewards, solicit customer feedback, or have special collaborations with influencers and partners to offer more value-add for the customer, generate buzz, and increase positive associations with the brand.  
   
   The purpose of building an experiential relationship is to create a deeper emotional connection between brands and customers, as well as fostering feelings of trust and a sense of belonging. This results in stronger brand loyalty, more repeat purchases, and increased customer lifetime value.
   
   
3. Emotional Relationships: At this stage of the relationship, customers are not only loyal to the brand but also actively promote and endorse it to their networks. They have a strong emotional connection, and feel as if they are part of the brand. These customers are brand advocates.
   
   Businesses fortunate enough to have a network of strong brand advocates need to do everything to regularly nurture this community, which further solidifies their sense of belonging and connection to the brand. They can create opportunities for brand advocates to interact with other customers, sharing their experience, and even hosting in-person events. They should look for ways to surprise and delight, exceed customers' expectations, and show appreciation for their support. In addition, as Millennials and Gen Z become a larger group of retail spending, and require more from businesses to be value oriented, brands need to consider sharing their missions and values, and emphasize ones those that resonate with their customer base.

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Digital Collectibles' role in Customer Relationships

In our previous article, we talked about digital collectibles in detail. In short, digital collectibles are unique digital asset, such as images, music, videos that are different from most digital items in that they give the holder true ownership to that digital item. We explore what this means in our article on True Ownership. Having ownership of a digital item connects the holder emotionally to the item, which in turn, engenders connection to the business. This is especially true for younger generations of consumers that have grown up natively with digital media.

Brands such as Starbucks, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Disney, and many more have begun to experiment with digital collectibles in different ways.

For example, Starbucks is looking to offer holders of their digital collectibles special experiences such as virtual espresso martini-making class, to access to unique merchandise and artist collaborations, to exclusive events at Starbucks Reserve Roasteries, or trips to Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia coffee farm in Costa Rica.

Coca-Cola launched a collection in July 2021 on International Friendship Day which were animated, one-of-one digital artworks. They also unlocked surprise items such as a limited edition virtual jacket ‘Coca-Cola Bubble Jacket Wearable’, the ‘Coca-Cola Friendship Card’ inspired by the original 1940s artwork, and other unique items. They donated all proceeds from the NFT auction towards Special Olympics International.

As the user experience for collecting and using digital collectibles improves, more and more businesses will use these special digital assets to deepen their relationship with their customer. They may offer exclusive access similar to Starbuck's program, or they can auction assets and contribute to a cause in line with the brand's mission, ala Coca-Cola.

In fact, there are many new and innovative ways to utilize these digital assets just waiting for businesses and brands to discover.

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Conclusion

Focusing on building lasting emotional relationships with customers is critical for businesses to differentiate themselves, increase customer loyalty, and drive long-term success. Emotionally connected customers are more likely to remain loyal, advocate for your brand, and contribute to your business's growth, making these connections a critical component of a successful marketing strategy.

If you're a business that's looking to build deeper relationships with your customers, and is interested in venturing into the digital collectibles world, join our waitlist. We'll custom generate a collection for you (for free!) and give you a taste of what a digital collectible for your brand could looks like.

Fill out this form and join the waitlist to get your free collectible today!

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