Trust is a valuable aspect in any relationship and businesses and their customers are definitely included in this. Most people only choose to do business with agencies they believe to be authentic, and building this trust is essential to make yourself stand out from the competition. Here are five ways to successfully build brand loyalty with your audience.
- Know Your Audience
One of the best ways to gain someone’s trust is to show you understand their experiences and who they are. This can help you to communicate with your audience more easily. You’ll know how to customize messages specifically for your consumers, making them more likely to return to your business. Here are a few ideas on how to get to know your audience:
- Read reviews: Keep up to date with the reviews on your website. This can give you insight on what people think about your products and enable you to see if you already have loyal customers or not.
- Monitor social media comments: Taking time to read and reply to comments on your social media can give you a quick glimpse into who is interested in you.
- Live interviews: Why not just ask your audience directly? Ask questions about their interests. Gathering these insights will be a valuable resource for content creation.
- Online analytics: Utilizing analytic tools, such as Google Analytics, can turn ideas about your audience into facts by showing you certain statistics like where they are located.
Researching your audience takes time and effort but it is well worth it. Having a target audience helps create a tone and voice for your message, making it easier for you to create content that your audience can relate to.
- Keep Your Content Consistent
When it comes to creating content, whether it’s written, a podcast, a video or any other format you are focusing on, be consistent. This can be very valuable for the growth and success of your business. Organizing and
Make your brand message consistent throughout all platforms.
adhering to a post schedule will help you gain credibility with your customers and cause less confusion. They will
start to expect your information on certain days and hold you accountable to post consistently. When you do, you will ultimately gain their trust. Having your content show up at the right time with the right audience will improve your brand’s reputation.
According to Lucidpress, “Consistent presentation of a brand has seen to increase revenue by 33%.” Creating a unique voice for your business throughout all platforms will help customers remember you. When they know your brand, you start to gain their trust. People will know what to expect, strengthening your reputation through consistent content. They will see your logo or branding and will know what to feel. This will lead to a better customer experience, which could result in many loyal customers.
- Engage With Your Audience
Communicating is important when getting to know your audience, and it’s just as important to continue engaging with them afterwards. Having people comment on your content is a good sign that you are growing your customer base. This also shows newcomers that people are actively reading and engaging in the content. Encouraging dialogue and responding to comments can be a huge boost for your marketing strategy.
One of the biggest benefits to having a two-way conversation with your customers is the lasting connection you can make with them. This connection can be strengthened through your availability to help. Hubspot says, “Nearly 90% of consumers trust a company whose service they’ve rated as ‘very good’ to take care of their needs.” That’s a big percentage that shouldn’t be ignored. We’ve all had those frustrating moments of trying to contact a business for help and your needs are never met. Making it a point to go above and beyond in helping your customers can give you that desired increase of people returning to your business because they trust you.
- Use Your Website
If your website makes a good first impression, those viewing it will likely start to build trust with your company. Here are a few ways you can utilize your website to make a good first impression:
- Consistency in your message: As we talked about before, you want to make all your content consistent, including what goes on your website. When your brand has a voice, make sure it shows throughout all platforms. Letting your content stray away from your brand guidelines can lead to distrust, since people will sense a change in personality.
Keeping the content up to date on your site helps build trust between you and your customers.
- Update your content: You want to make sure to publish new content regularly to show that you care about your business. This can help you increase traffic on your site, which inevitably increases business. This also shows you have real people working on your site, which is another great reason to have confidence in a business. More updates on your website can also help better your search rankings. By talking about your product and services often, your website will start to show up when people search for those services. And you’ll have the added bonus of staying up to date on the latest web technologies.
- Make it easy to get in touch: Having multiple ways for a customer to contact you through your website is important. Making it easy through chat, call or email will present your website as trustworthy, as it shows your business doesn’t shy away from inquiries. It’s also important to display your contact information prominently. According to Hubspot, “51% of people think ‘thorough contact information’ is the most important element missing from many company websites.” You can gain more site traffic by having your contact info easy to find through a contact us page or by displaying your contact number on the top of every page. Making it easy for people to contact a real person will go a long way in building trust with your audience.
- Be accessible: Online accessibility generally refers to how your site is designed and functions for individuals with disabilities. Hootsuite says, “At least one billion people—15% of the world’s population—experience some form of disability.” This can include those with auditory limitation, visual impairment and much more. One example of how to make your website more accessible is to avoid characters. This will not only make your text easier to read, but also easier to understand through VoiceOver and other assistive tools. Incorporating easily accessible resources on your website is vital as dependency on online resources grows almost every day.
- Educate rather than sell: Not a lot of people stay on a site that is heavy on promotional content. Every time you try to sell to them, you compromise their trust. People are generally tired of advertisements and have learned to ignore them when they see or hear an ad. However, with educational content, your audience will rely on you for learning about certain topics. You can show you are worth their attention by creating helpful, useful content.
- Show your personality: This helps create emotional connections with your audience. Show that you care by being responsive. Be transparent and ensure your communication with them is a clear two-way street. Being yourself will help customers relate to your business, leading to a more trustworthy relationship. You can also personalize your website by adding bios that showcase your team’s personalities or even add a picture of you and your team on your About Us page. It may feel strange at first putting yourself out there, but once you do, you will be able to see the difference on your site. It will feel much more real, and people will likely want to engage more often knowing who they are speaking to.
Following these ideas and showing that you are a relatable business will bring more traffic to your site. Websites play a large role in the trust-building journey for each customer.
- Be Genuine
As mentioned above, creating emotional connections can establish customer loyalty. Being genuine and transparent will not only help create these connections, but it also helps you to
The more you are able to establish relationships with your audience, the more likely they will trust you.
stand out. Don’t be afraid to openup and share your story as it relates to your business. You will be seen for the unique value you bring to the table.
You should also be straightforward in every aspect of your company. Don’t make promises you can’t keep, and be upfront about pricing. Part of being genuine is putting yourself in another person’s position. When you are a customer yourself, you look for businesses that are honest in their information and product quality. Genuine companies mean what they say, and most people will be able to sense that. This shows consumers that if you make a commitment, you keep it.
Simply put, being genuine means staying true to who you are. Know what your company stands for, be confident in your message and care about your audience. Authenticity ignites human connection, which is important in a time where most consumers are skeptical about businesses. Evaluate how you are connecting with your audience and be yourself.
Following these five steps can seem overwhelming, but it’s really all about going back to the basics of marketing. You don’t need big budgets or expensive software. Using the passion you built your business on and focusing on your audience will lead you to being a loyal company with a loyal following.
Do you need help figuring out where to begin building brand loyalty with your audience? Our team of experienced marketing and PR specialists can help! We offer a complimentary 30-minute, no-obligation consultation with our CEO Erika Taylor Montgomery! Contact us to learn more about how we can help you achieve your business goals.
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