Using SEO to Enhance Outdoor Brand Loyalty

While your target customers would prefer venturing down a rugged trail to spending time online, they’re actively using the internet to find and connect with outdoor brands that offer the caliber and selection of products they need to enjoy the great outdoors. Nailing SEO for outdoor brands in your quest to build brand loyalty calls for specialized strategies that ensure your ideal customers can find you year-round—ramping up for peak season and well into the off-season.

Why Brand Loyalty Is So Important for Outdoor Companies

Mastering SEO for outdoor brands will improve your visibility on the competitive digital shelf, where savvy shoppers are actively searching for brands and products that align with their lifestyles and goals. They’re open to building brand loyalty—choosing products from a brand they know and trust even when faced with offers and similar products from competing brands.

• 80% of outdoor shoppers buy from outdoor brands at least once every two months
• Under 28% of outdoor gear shoppers faithfully shop with a particular outdoor brand

While consumers buy outdoor gear and goods regularly, building loyalty in this highly competitive space isn’t easy. Around 80% of customers lose faith in a company after a single bad experience. Outdoor brand loyalty is lower than other categories due to the seasonality of products, heightened SEO competition, and the increased importance of creating relevant content for customers on topics important to them, like hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, conservation, and exercise.

So how are brands like Patagonia and The North Face doing it? A former marketing executive at Patagonia said, “Share your beliefs. Demonstrate how they integrate into your product, design, and presentation…Those that believe what you believe will become part of your tribe.” The North Face relies on communicating brand values and a shared enjoyment of the outdoors, along with the XPLR Pass loyalty program.

Both brands dominate search results with targeted keywords, lots of relevant content, and authority-building backlinks. Both are known for their brand promises, lifetime warranties, and buy-back programs to give new life to used gear.

In the face of competition with major and boutique outdoor brands, how do you build brand loyalty? Start by addressing the most common challenges and take notes from the brands doing their best.

• Fine-tune your SEO strategy and keywords to make sure you’re one of the first results when your target customers—local and online—search for gear and goods.
• Build a strong backlink profile to boost brand authority and establish trust with potential customers.
• Use relevant, on-brand content to build connections and create frequent touchpoints with customers, educate them on relevant topics, and provide value beyond your products.
• Make brand promises—and keep them—to develop a cohesive, trustworthy brand image.

Marketing For Seasonality

Marketing seasonal outdoor products beyond peak season is one reason brands struggle to build loyalty. Brand loyalty isn’t a part-time affair; it must be nurtured year-round if you want your brand to stay top of mind.

Should you invest in marketing for a seasonal product when it’s off-season? Absolutely. Your strongest competitors are prioritizing seasonal brand loyalty, so don’t let up on your marketing efforts during the off-season. It’s a great time to nurture prospective buyers, post engaging content, and build anticipation for the upcoming adventures your target customers are looking forward to.

Keep interest alive year-round with these tried-and-true methods for seasonal brand loyalty:

• Track relevant trending keywords and create content on these topics that’s better than the current search results
• Write engaging, educational content that answers customers’ common questions or covers industry news, new products, and trends
• Create a seasonal content calendar, regularly producing timely posts that build interest in your brand and provide value for your customers
• Build an email list and send newsletters regularly with new content, promotions, and news that build anticipation
• Allocate a sufficient marketing budget for the peak and off-season, according to your past revenue trends, average advertising spend, and business goals
• Consider adjusting your budget and ramping up marketing campaigns around holidays and major events during the off-season

Keyword research and tracking is one of the most essential components of successfully marketing a seasonal product or brand. How can I track when certain keywords are trending? You can use free tools, like Google Trends, to see current trending keywords and their engagement patterns over time, but data is limited with free tools.

That’s why many outdoor brands opt for paid tools, like Moz, or a trusted SEO agency to research and track relevant, high-value keywords that can be targeted with content to generate leads and drive conversions.

How SEO Can Help Build Brand Loyalty

You know that brand loyalty is important for outdoor brands and understand some of the challenges to building a bridge with these high-value lifetime customers. But how can mastering SEO for outdoor brands help you drive brand loyalty?

• Stay top of mind: Increasing your rank on search engines and appearing first means shoppers won’t forget about you
• Target local customers: Local SEO keywords help you uncover sales-ready leads (SRLs) in specific areas; up to 75% of local searches convert into leads
• Connect with lifetime customers: Improving your website’s search rank gets you in front of high-value customers who frequently purchase outdoor gear and products
• Provide value with high-ranking content: Keyword research and tracking puts your content in front of prospective customers to increase visibility, authority, and trust
• Better buyer targeting: SEO helps you better target buyers likely to become loyal and develop personas you can use to drive more conversions in the future
• Boost brand authority and trust: Developing a strong backlink profile with links and collaborations with reputable websites establishes you as an industry authority to build loyalty and trust

The Bottom Line: How Retention Leads To Profits

Every loyal customer has a positive effect on your bottom line, and retention reliably increases profits. Outdoor brands spend a lot on acquiring new customers, so retaining existing customers can drive costs down. Loyalty and retention can also boost revenue over time with increased purchase frequency, higher purchase amounts, and higher lifetime value. Loyal customers:

• Cost 5-7X less than acquiring new customers
• Are 64% more likely to buy more often
• Spend 67% more than new customers
• Have a higher lifetime value
• Provide insightful buyer persona data to help you grow your brand and better target new customers with lower acquisition costs

There’s a wealth of information pointing to ways customer retention directly influences your profitability. Check out customer retention and churn statistics to learn more.

Actionable Steps: Enhancing Your Brand

Your customers are eager to build strong relationships with outdoor brands that get it—the ones that understand the significance of their adventures, journeys, and enjoyment of time spent outside. Leveraging the power of SEO for outdoor brands can help you turn casual browsers and shoppers into lifelong, loyal customers.

Focus on keyword research and trend tracking to elevate your brand in search results, create educational content to add value, develop a backlink outreach strategy to boost brand authority, and drill down on the essence of your brand to communicate your values and brand promises in a way that inspires loyalty.

Need help creating a solid SEO strategy to improve your ranking positions and uncover keywords that get results? Talk with an SEO expert today and see how you can enhance your brand’s loyalty.