Any successful salesperson will tell you that your customer needs to know, like, and trust you before they will buy. But how does this translate into a digital world where our first points of contact are typically not face-to-face?
Let’s be honest, a lot of businesses and marketers struggle to get this right. Even if you are publishing great content, you won’t really connect with your audience and make meaningful connections unless you start to move your website visitors and followers up the ladder of engagement. First, they have to know about you, then they need to like you, and finally, you need to earn their trust. When this happens you’ll start to turn your visitors into customers.
Here are 9 ways for you to get your users to know, like, and trust you.
3 Ways to get known online
Whether you have a new website or you are just digging into building your audience for an existing business, getting known online can be difficult. Producing high-quality content for your marketing helps you attract attention. It also helps you build your reputation as someone who is worth listening to. Here’s a starter on how to get known.
Understand who your customer is.
In the digital world using broad strokes won’t get you anywhere. Your site visitors are looking for specific solutions to their problems. And as the old saying goes, “if you are talking to everyone, you are talking to no one.” Don’t try to talk to everyone. Identify who your customer is and create content specifically for that buyer.
Create the right content.
Understanding your buyer and their challenges is the first step. Turning this concept into content is up next. Do your research and really understand your clients. Ask them questions, do keyword analysis, and above all make sure that you create content that your potential customers want to read. A post that is SEO optimized for Google that doesn’t resonate with your customers isn’t helpful, make sure people want to read what you are putting out there.
Leverage your expertise.
Building on the concept of creating engaging content – we know that people want to read advice from experts. Take your real-life experiences, customer business cases, and other knowledge you have gathered to write from a position of authority. Providing evidence-based examples in your writing further entrenches you as the go-to expert on your subject matter.
3 Ways to Build Your Likability online.
Why do some salespeople make selling their products seem easy while others struggle? A lot of it has to do with likability. Even with exact products and prices, we prefer to do business with some people over others, it is just human nature.
Here are a few ways for you to become more likable online.
Get your people on your website.
I’m always amazed at the number of businesses that don’t have any pictures of themselves or their team on their websites. What a missed opportunity. People like doing business with people, not your website.
Having your images throughout your website, or at least on your about page, builds a certain level of likability immediately – especially if your competition is hiding behind their sites.
Always be authentic.
Your website and content should reflect who you really are. Is your homepage engaging, and does it fit with the brand you are trying to portray, and does that brand reflect what doing business with you in person looks like? More importantly, when you are creating content for your blog, social media posts, and e-newsletters, you should be authentic in the advice you are giving and the stories you are telling.
Build Your Community.
A low effort high return way to build your likability is to build and promote your online community. Rather than posting about ourselves over and over, take the time to share content from and promote other people. It could be your customers, business partners, or a local charity. You may be surprised at how much traction this tactic can have if you become known as a builder.
How to build trust online
Being known and liked are important, but they are the two bottom rungs on this ladder. Being viewed as trusted makes things a lot easier when you are ready to make the sale. These 3 steps will help you become a trusted entity online.
Be consistent.
Consistency can mean a number of things when it comes to digital marketing – consistent quality, consistent frequency, consistent platforms. Having a regular cadence and delivering on the same channels with high-quality content builds trust in our customers. Humans like consistency and things we can depend on.
Show your social proof.
We can say all the right things, offer the right products and services, and do it all at a great price, but nothing helps build trust like having one of our existing customers or clients say how much they have enjoyed doing business with us. Thankfully, we already have an easy mechanism for getting those testimonials. With your customer’s permission, we recommend taking your best Google Reviews and posting them on your site. If you don’t have any testimonials or reviews yet, you have some work to do. Go ask your happiest/best customers to provide a testimonial for you. Most are happy to do so.
Use case studies and portfolios.
Telling about your service is one thing, showing how your service has helped another customer is much better. This is exactly why we’ve built out a section of our website to show off some of our previous work. It is much easier to trust a business that can show they are capable of delivering to their customers.
When a customer learns to trust you, magic happens. Not only will they buy from you again, but they also become far more inclined to recommend your business to others. As business owners, it is important for us to remember that is cheaper to sell again to our existing customers than it is to attract and convert a brand new lead.
If you need help building and delivering a marketing strategy that helps your customers know, like, and trust you please contact us.
