The reality of content marketing is that trust is the key to success. Obviously, you need to be able to answer questions about your product and show it fulfills the needs of your target audience but this alone is not enough.
To really make a splash, you need to build trust with the customer. It doesn’t matter who you’re creating content for, your real purpose has to be developing an improved level of trust between your brand and its audience if you intend on becoming as rich as King Croesus.
**Shining Through The **********
Every single minute there are 100,000 tweets, 2 million Google searches, almost 700,000 pieces of content posted on Facebook and around 350 blog posts added online. Much of this is pure unadulterated horse manure and contributes to the extraordinary information overload of the modern era.
Since we are exposed to as many as 5,000 ads a day, it’s difficult to be remembered by a public so exposed to consumerism that it doesn’t know when it’s NOT being sold to. A benefit of the Internet age is that companies with the largest marketing budgets don’t automatically win the war. However, you can only succeed by adhering to the following advice when it comes to developing trust with prospective customers.
Develop Your Plan Of Action
Knowing the kind of content you plan to publish along with the frequency and location of these posts helps trust as it creates a pattern. Your target audience will know when and where to find your content and also becomes familiar with the type of information you provide. For example, an increasing number of people consume content on social media sites so start posting on Facebook, Twitter and other sites regularly.
Your plan also needs to include an ability to make people aware you have posted content. Be sure to share content on the platforms your audience expects to see it on but don’t over-saturate because this risks being seen as ‘spammy’. The content needs to be carefully crafted and quickly show readers why your post is a worthwhile investment of their precious time.
Respond
Nothing works better for alienating your target audience than failing to answer queries or lack of acknowledgement of a comment. After all, if you don’t take the time to answer why should anyone waste their time on your content?
If you have a busy blog with hundreds of comments it is not practicable to respond to every comment/question but you do need to show yourself in the comments section. If your blog is very popular you could create a special FAQ section where all pertinent queries are addressed.
As is the case with respect, trust is earned rather than commanded. Following through on the above steps does take time but it is worth the effort. Only active, informative and connected companies will attract customers and earn their trust. Once your target audience knows you’re the real deal, the process of turning them into loyal advocates of your brand can begin.
infomatique via photopin cc
Wesley Fryer via photopin cc