Every successful relationship is built on a foundation of trust, and it’s no different for the relationship between your company and its customers.
That fact is what makes managing customer relationships such an important factor in the success of your business. Companies rise and fall through the support of their customers — and, by 2020, those who work to build trust with their customers will generate 20% more online profit than those who do not (Gartner, 2018).
Make That Gut Feeling a Good Feeling
The reason companies succeed when they build trust with their customers is linked to how consumers behave when making purchasing decisions.
The truth is that how consumers feel about your brand has a far greater influence on their purchasing decision than, for example, information about your product, or the details of your service.
To understand this better, you need to think of your brand as a representation of your product or service. If your brand represents features and attributes but leaves feelings to one side, there can be no emotional link to influence a consumer’s preference and actions.
In such a scenario, it doesn’t matter if your solution is better than the competition from a detailed perspective. If it fails to create an emotional connection with consumers, your brand will be overlooked.
That’s why your brand needs a personality. Research has shown that consumers perceive the same type of personality traits within brands as they do with other people. And, just like people, they are attracted to certain traits more than others, so you need to make sure your brand’s personality is communicated in the right way for your target audience.
How to Build Customer Trust with Content
Nurturing customer relations in this way is not an overnight process. There’s no single campaign you can launch to demonstrate the reliability of your company. Instead, you’ve got to build that trust with your audience one post at a time. That means the best time to start is right now.
Show You Understand Your Customer
The first step in earning the trust of your customers is to demonstrate that you know them well.
Start by building the identity of your customer. By undertaking extensive market research, you’ll find out more about your customers’ needs, wants, desires, and frustrations. Then, you can produce content that addresses their concerns and appeals to their interests directly.
When your content marketing plan is built with this information in mind, you’ll put yourself in a better position to meet customers’ expectations and influence their decision-making journeys.
Demonstrate Competence
Use your content as a platform to demonstrate the skill and expertise of your company. Sharing insights and helping your audience to solve their problems, even before they’re ready to call themselves your customer, goes a long way in establishing their trust.
Be Transparent
Communicating honestly and transparently with your audience is essential in building a relationship with them. Don’t be afraid to “overshare” when it comes to insights about how your company operates, and don’t hesitate to give potential customers something of value early in their journey. The more you tell, the less they’ll be left unsure about, helping to build their confidence in you.
Showcase Your Authenticity
Consumers have more choice and more information available to them than ever before. That means they can be picky about the companies they choose to engage with. Your content needs to speak authentically in order to resonate with customers and inspire them to choose you over anyone else.
Prove You Are Reliable
Saying you are reliable is one thing; being reliable is another thing entirely. Yet, showing consumers you are dependable can often be as simple as doing what you said you were going to do. Sticking to a consistent content schedule, such as promising and delivering a weekly blog post, is one way to regularly achieve this. After all, it only takes one missed update to undermine the value of your word.
At Prize Content, we conduct extensive market research for our clients. Then, we use our insight to develop authentic brands that speak to consumers through an ongoing series of high-value content.
Your business could be establishing trust, driving engagement, and nurturing leads through content marketing. Find out how by speaking to Prize Content today.
