Bridging The Gap Between You & Your Audience
As a business, you may have a plan to market your products and services. You get a logo, create a website, whip up some social media posts, and then hear crickets.
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For new businesses, it can take a lot of time to establish a trust base with your audience. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a few paid ad campaigns will win you your customers’ hearts and trust. Today’s customers are savvy and quick to compare brands and offers. We have the smartest customers in our history. Why? One word, GOOGLE! They can research the heck out of your and compare you and your business to 10 others in less than 5 minutes.
Because you are likely to approach a market where your competitors are already established, getting noticed can be your biggest obstacle to growth.
There is a natural gap between a new business and its target audience. It can be caused by a variety of issues or choices, such as:
Being the new brand in an established niche,
Wrongly assuming that your audience is ready to listen to you,
Managing your presence without considering your impact
Not listening to your audience- I know this is a hard for one when you’re starting out
Focusing too much on what you say and not enough on how you say it
Unfortunately, as a new business, you need to make yourself relevant to your audience. Products and services can only do so much for brand awareness. When you are competing for attention on the market, chances are your competitors have similar offers. Therefore, when product differentiation is not an option, you need to bridge the gap between you and your target through strategic interactions.
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Don’t be online, be influential online!
Being online can enhance your visibility. But it doesn’t guarantee it. With billions of websites and active social media users, your voice could be lost in the background. Therefore, rather than building an online profile and hoping for the best, you need to establish yourself as an influential presence. Building influence takes time and effort, so it’s not an overnight process. Yet, in the long term, it can drive customers and boost your brand reputation. Consistency in your communication and values will create a baseline for growth. Be the brand that people can rely on for x or y! To do so, you need to be not only active and reliable, but you should also focus on your strength. Providing a solution for your audience’s problems will earn you their trust, as you can showcase your targeted, using freebies as appetizers.
Don’t confuse your audience
Building your presence online means that you need to create effective and EASY navigation through your website or your platforms that guide people to their goals. Someone who comes to your website to find out more about your services and how they can improve their life doesn’t want to get confused. They want to know where to click and what to do to pursue their journey. That’s precisely where positive user experience, using insightful data from a tool such as Userzoom can make a great deal of difference. Confusing navigation and online interactions make it only more difficult to gain your audience’s trust.
Be where they need you
More often than not, people stumble across new businesses as they look for a solution to their problems. As a result, organic search results continue to reign in the business world. Improving your content and website for best SEO results can help to optimize your ranking. Ideally, you want to focus on the way people use search engines. With more and more voice search processes, you need to consider how smart assistants such as Amazon Echo or Google Home use search engines. By 2022, over half of the U.S. adult population will own a voice-controlled assistant, so you can’t ignore the trend. Voice search tackles longer search queries, such as asking a question rather than typing keywords. Including new search patterns in your content can boost your visibility when people need it. Truth, we just got our first Amazon Echo, now to hook it up!
Take the initiative
Did you know that a lot of customers look for a solution in the wrong places? Many take to social media platforms to expose their issues and ask for guidance. It can be a good idea to set up searches using some of your most relevant unbranded keywords to identify potential customers. While it can be a time-consuming process, you’ll be pleased to know that it can be highly rewarding. You can answer generic queries by introducing your business and your solutions, for instance.
Show your true self
Who are you, and why should I trust you? Now more than ever, you need to be authentic. Customers are looking for someone that they can relate to that is the expert.
This is the question many customers ask silently as they decide whether or not they want to order from your brand. Your about us page can only answer some of their worries. But more often than not, people want to know who is behind a business. Your audience doesn’t trust a brand; they trust a person. Therefore, introducing yourself as the business owner or the entrepreneur who founded the company can work wonders. An introductory video can be an easy way to show your face and let your personality shine. You can use it as an opportunity to talk about how your background has inspired you to start a company or share the emotional journey that made you a business owner. But you should also take the time to include a call to action to encourage people to get in touch or discover your product.
Your smile is your LOGO. Your personality is your BUSINESS CARD, and how you leave others feeling after an experience with you becomes your TRADEMARK..png
Have an advocate a.k.a Brand Ambassador
Don’t just praise your hard work and dedication; let other people do it too. Having a relatable and trustworthy brand advocate can help reach out to your audience. For instance, a social media influencer can be a fantastic brand advocate as part of a marketing campaign on social media. People can tell if someone is faking interest, so if you’ve decided to work with an influencer, you need to make sure they can try your product or service before promoting it. In fact, social influencer partnerships can be highly useful to improve your product before hitting a broad audience.
Contribute to other channels- share your knowledge!
What are the most relevant sources in your industry sectors? You can contribute to business blogs or podcasts to share your expertise. It’s an easy way to approach an existing audience group and let them know about your brand. Guest contributions can increase your reach and visibility in the market.
Why don’t people trust you? The most common answer is that your audience has not had time to build trust in your brand. To bridge the gap between a new business and its target, you need to develop a strategic communication plan that gets your voice out and across for all to hear.
Ready to be known and get found online?
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