One of the main aspects of your relationship with your customer base is trust. You can establish yourself in the field as a recognizable brand that has a creative edge over its competition, but if your audience doesn’t trust you, they won’t be as willing to purchase your products or services. There is a wide variety of ways for you to build and nurture such a relationship with your customer base. This depends on everything from the kind of content that you provide to the way you deal with them in person. The methods most commonly used are your brand ambassadors, customer support, email, special offers for loyal customers, or social media channels.
It is important to note that we live in the digital era when people are always going to do an extensive amount of research before they decide where to buy. The internet is full of online reviews that your customers and clients write based on their interaction with you. While talking to experts at Alinea, they point out that your history and experience need to be transparent so that everyone can easily tell who you are and why they should choose to purchase from you and not from someone else.
Provide amazing content
You should never forget the famous adage that “content is king”. If there is one thing that people truly value when dealing with a business, it is the ability to get engage with top-notch educational content. You have more than one platform where you can provide them with exactly that. Therefore, it is crucial that you make use of all of them. This includes your website, blog, and social media channels.
The idea is to present yourself as an expert and an authority in your particular field. When you post the kind of content such as tutorials, guides, and blog posts, you help your customers solve problems that matter to them, and as result, they will begin to trust you a lot more. Once you have become a thought leader in your industry, your brand is going to start blooming more than ever.
Look at what kind of content strategy your competition has, and then do better than they did. Fill in all the gaps that you can find in what they post about because this is exactly what is going to give you an edge over them. Do your best to make your content more engaging and comprehensive to draw as much attention as possible to yourself.
You should stick to the 80/20 rule. In other words, 80% of what you post should be educational and steer clear of promotional material. The other 20% is where you can present your product or service. This way your content won’t be intrusive, and mentioning what you have to offer is going to sound like a great suggestion on how to solve the issue that you have previously discussed in detail.
Be consistent
Consistency is crucial if you want your audience to trust you. This is because trust is most commonly based on expectations. If your voice and message are all over the place, people aren’t going to feel like you are truly trustworthy. This is because when you are incoherent, it looks like you aren’t a professional at what you are doing, and your customers cannot truly rely on what you’ve got to say.
It starts from the very basics, such as your design. Everything that you come up with – your website, images, logo, print materials, social network profiles – it all needs to show consistency.
The next step is your message. It needs to properly reflect everything that you do. If there is a discrepancy between your message and who you are as a company, it is going to show. You will fail to deliver and, therefore, people are going to distrust you. You need to keep a consistent tone as well. Determine how you want to be perceived by others, and then do your best to maintain that image.
Be active on social media
Your social activity and visibility are also extremely important. After all, you want as many people as possible to learn about your brand. This will allow you to build a strong base of devoted followers. When you are continually active on your social media channels, anyone who comes to your page is going to be able to have a much better idea of who you are as a business. This is one of the platforms where you have the chance to post top-notch content and then directly engage with the audience.
There is a lot of things that you can do via social media. Not only can you communicate with your current fan base and attract more followers, but you can also post images and videos that will always keep them up to date with what you have to offer. This kind of activity matters a lot because it makes sure that everyone sees that you are out there. In other words, it shows that you are more than just a corporate structure that cannot be a kind of a “friend” to them.
We all know how much Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are on fire today. Therefore, not making use of this fact would be a great mistake, as these social media giants are the best places to build trust.
Share your stories about customer success
As we have previously mentioned, people almost always look for reviews to know whether they should do business with you. So, why not make it easier for them and post your own customer success stories? This is a great form of social proof that you are doing things efficiently and should be trusted. Try to back up some of these stories with photographs, testimonials, and results in the form of stats. Even if your business is just a startup, and you don’t have all that many great reviews and stories, it’s quality, not quantity that matters the most. People actually enjoy reading elaborate testimonials and reviews because they are prone to trust the genuine experiences of others. You can also go as far as generating a whole case study of a client that you’ve done a successful business with.
