Once upon a time being there on the web was a progressive step for businesses. Having a website developed was something to be proud of. What was once a mark of business growth and success has now become the norm. Businesses now have to keep up with their competitors online and make efforts to entice the audience by posting new content frequently.
While content marketing evolves and grows, it cannot be denied that the Internet has become over-saturated with a variety of content on every topic imaginable. Creating new blogs and videos is just not enough- you need to offer something of value to the audience. Through your content, you need to reach out to the audience and know what they want from your products, services, and the content itself!
And thankfully, having a constant dialogue with your audience is neither very tedious nor cost-intensive. It’s only a matter of priority and planning. If you want to build your brand and optimize conversions, it’s time to understand how to interact with the audience to get useful inputs and solve their problems.
Knowing What The Audience Wants
It’s easy to strike up conversations with people when we know them better. Learn more about them to understand their pain points and priorities.
Identify Target Audience
By focusing on one set of potential customers, it becomes easier to know where and how to interact with them. For instance, if your brand is mainly youth-centric, Instagram is a great place to have conversations with your target audience. For older individuals, detailed text and mail support are better.
Utilize Search Analytics
Use keyword analytics, and read comments and mails to understand what are the most common issues that your consumers face. A great majority face the same issue or have similar doubts with a product or service.
You can keep the answers ready to speed up the conversations! Also, incorporate your findings into an FAQ section on your website.
Conduct Surveys and Quizzes
Surveys are a great tool to collect info on the needs and expectations of potential customers, though it takes a little nudge for people to participate in one. Quizzes, on the other hand, are more popular online. But they need to be entertaining as people participate in them for fun.
Surveys and quizzes can be used to study the buying behavior of your customers, and know more about their likes and dislikes. You can ask them what they look for when they consider buying a product or service of your category. One can also place questions about preferences in price range, aesthetics of the products, etc.
Collect Feedbacks
Include channels where customers can share their feedback about their purchase. Ideally, you should insist that your verified customers leave feedback. Genuine reviews tell you what to address in your content, and help in making your products and services better.
Run Contests
Entertaining an audience with fun contests increases brand affinity and encourage people to interact with brands online. One example is photo sharing contests on Instagram where users share their pictures showing how they use the brand’s products. Running contests are a great way to keep to the audience happy, and observe what they think of your products and services.
Be Responsive
When it comes to interacting with consumers, how fast you respond is more important than what you answer! Your team should be quick in responding to customer queries on social media, email, phone calls, etc. It won’t help much if you reply to their comments after a week.
Often, people share complaints about products on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages of businesses. Of course, it’s not possible to verify or solve their concerns straightaway. But it goes a long way if they receive a quick placating reply that soothes their nerves and fixes a call for them with the customer service team.
Keep It Simple
Being creative is good, but don’t compromise clarity for it. If you want the audience to engage with your content, keep it simple and understandable. Don’t address multiple topics or concerns in one thread; create separate threads, posts, videos, etc. for each one.
Create Content That Solves Problem
People are looking for something specific in your content- it could be about prices of products and services, how-to information, industry news, or some kind of service support from the company.
When you have identified what people want, the next step is to create content centered on people and their needs.
Knowledge of Products and Services
Your content team should understand your products and services extremely well. They are the ones who simplify the information and communicate it to the internet audience.
It’s easy when your content team is in-house, and usually, they are always in the thick of the affairs. But if you are hiring an external content agency or a freelance writer, you need to make some additional efforts to enhance clarity. Firstly, ensure that the service or the professional you are hiring is capable of creating compelling content for your industry, and is willing to spend time understanding your concerns.
And on your part, you have to leave no room for ambiguity when you brief them about clients, products, and services. Be available to them, so that you can quickly resolve their doubts and ensure that they are on track with your marketing objectives. Follow the same for your social media team and your customer support team.
A Two-Way Relationship Is A Long Lasting Relationship
There is so much content on the Internet that audience has stopped caring about it. Customers want answers; not advertisements or fluff. If they don’t find it at your place, they are quick to move on and find it somewhere else.
Hence, plan ahead and give customers a voice. Use their ideas and feedback to grow your business, and make sure that your team deals with their queries quickly and correctly. Genuinely make them feel a part of your business, and leave no chance to add value to their lives.
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