This is surprising: Only 38 percent of people say that they can trust most people. Fifty-seven percent say they cannot, according to the General Social Survey (GSS.)
Trust is a funny thing. It’s hard to earn and easy to lose.
As a business, trust is essential to sales. Recent statistics show content is the key to building that trust:
● Watching product videos makes 52 percent of consumers more likely to buy, according to Octoly.
● Fifty-nine percent of consumers place equal weight on personal recommendations and online reviews, according to Balihoo.
● Seventy-seven percent of consumers are more likely to purchase a product after learning about it from a friend or family member, according to Nielsen.
The goal of breaking through the noise is to get people to recommend your business. One of the best and easiest ways to do that is through content marketing.
Here are four content marketing tips to show how your business can better connect to customers in a crowded market.
1. Focus On Producing Higher Quality Content
The first step toward giving your customer a better impression of your brand is improving the quality of your content.
You may already post blogs to your website, videos and images on social media networks, and frequently upload other forms of content to your website. The variety of content you create is great, but are you adding value? Or are you just adding noise?
High quality content outshines the competition and improves your consumers’ lives, building trust in the process. When you’re creating your next blog post, webinar, or podcast, ask yourself the following:
● How will my audience benefit from this information?
● Is this something my audience needs to hear?
● Does this content answer a question my audience is asking?
If your content passes the sniff test for quality, hit publish. If not, revise until it’s ready to shine.
2. Ask For The Share
Once your content is live, invite your readers to share it. If your readers share it, chances are others in their networks will notice.
Shares are personal recommendations from one person to others. People are more willing to trust your brand when they get an endorsement from someone in their network.
3. Watch The Numbers Behind The Content
Too often, content producers hit publish and then walk away feeling accomplished. In reality, it’s just the beginning of the marketing process.
For your content marketing to succeed, you need to know what works, what resonates, and what falls short. Watching the numbers behind your work will tell a more accurate story about what your audience wants.
Here are some of the more critical analytics to monitor:
● Traffic. How many people landed on the webpage?
● Referral Sources. How did people find your content?
● Time. How long did people spend with your content?
● Shares. Did your readers love it enough to share it?
By watching how your audience engages with what you produce, you’ll get a better sense of what’s wanted and what’s getting lost in the shuffle.
4. Use Multiple Forms Of Media
Some people love to read blog posts. Others want to watch webinars or listen to podcasts. Mixing up the media in which you deliver your content can help you reach a wider audience without diluting your message.
Try mixing video, audio, compelling visuals, and text. You can use combinations of these media forms too. For example, add a video to a blog post and include a small description and transcript below it.
The more methods you have for people to interact with your content, the more likely you are to be heard.
Building trust starts with getting heard. If you want to grow your customer base and establish your business as one to trust in the market, high quality content is critical. Watch what the market wants from your company and then deliver in a variety of media forms.