Content marketing is a business, and business is personal.
People want to do business with people they know, like and trust.
Since the beginning, we’ve considered these three factors whenever we transact.
People don’t buy from people they don’t know, nor do they buy from people they don’t like. Why would they?
And most significantly, people never buy things from people they don’t trust.
But why do con artists and scams still thrive? Well, because to be greedy is human, and sometimes the excitement of greed surpasses logical reasoning.
Generally, though, these three aspects matter in any business or transaction.
Knowing how to implement the know like and trust principle is fundamental in every business.
More so, an online business. One without which no other activity can help the business succeed.
Whether it’s branding, networking, influencing or team building, none works without these three elements.
So in this article, we’re going to find out how to get it right.
And we’ll break it down into the various aspects discussed.
1. Know
Knowing is not the surface knowledge where your customers have seen your names, logos, or brands.
Rather, it’s understanding someone on a deeper level. It’s when your customers know you on a personal level, and this comes in two ways.
First, you must portray authenticity; people want to know that they are interacting with the real you.
Make sure people feel that what you share online and your online personality is what they will experience if they meet you.
Secondly, by sharing personal details about yourself.
Who is Christiano Ronaldo? The best footballer in the world? Okay, disregard anything soccer related. Now, who is he?
Most people don’t know who he really is. But Ricky Regufe knows who Ronaldo is; he’s his best friend. They have shared deeply personal information in the course of their friendship.
For your audience to know you well, advertising your content alone doesn’t cut it. You need to tell them something about you that’s deep and they can relate with.
It could be your flaws, past mistakes or anything that makes you respectfully vulnerable. That way, your audience identifies with you on a personal level.
When you share some vulnerable information about you, your audience feels safe and inclined to do the same.
And a good understanding of your customers’ problems guides you into offering services and products that solve their pain points.
Also, you can share the story behind your brand and why you do what you do. The things that motivate you to get up in the morning.
These actions tap into the human’s primal need to connect and work in your favour.
2. Like
For people to like you, they must connect with you.
Think about your closest friends.
What do you have in common? Do they have similar ideas to you? Most probably.
Do they understand your struggle and support you? Definitely.
So how can you connect with your content readers?
Remember that such people ask themselves the same logical question that you ask yourself when you consider who you like.
Can they trust you? Can you assure them the results that they want? Can they trust that your services or your product will solve their pain points?
Consequently, you need to make them appreciate and respect you. How?
- Create inspirational content that will make them see things in a new light.
- Share values and opinions that match with their ideas.
- Make them feel good around you, especially when reading your content
- Throw in humour that resonates with them
- Use second-person language when writing content to transform your articles into conversations.
- Offer value through applications, checklist, best practice guides, research content and how-to guides.
- Be authentic and share your personality and style.
All these activities will help them connect with you since they relate to your content and the ideas.
People connect with you when you clearly understand the struggles and can even explain them better than they do.
3. Trust
Trust is a psychological state of compromising the willingness to accept vulnerability based upon the expectation of positive intentions or behaviours of parties with whom you interact.
In content marketing terms, it is the act of accepting to invest your energy, time and money to a service or a product with the expectation that it will help you solve your pain point.
People think of trustworthy companies as those that won’t let them down.
To trust you, your prospect must feel safe with you.
In modern times, being able to care about your customers more than your competitors gives you a huge advantage.
And it is much easier to differentiate your service or product based on customer care instead of features.
So, as a content marketer, you need to focus on building a haven for your readers who will feel confident of your ability to solve their problems.
They must know that you care about them. Remind them that you care about their success.
What actions, though, can you take to do this and build trust.
- Provide social proof and testimonials; evidence that other people have tried your products and are happy because they helped them. Your prospects will be confident that they can help them too.
- Share stories of how you’ve successfully helped others achieve results. Similar to testimonials such stories, inspire prospective customers to become clients hoping that they will enjoy the same success.
- Be transparent. Let your customers know who you really are and what you provide and what you don’t provide. Do not make empty promises.
- Have a money-back guarantee. While this is not a good strategy for all businesses, it can be a surefire way of assuring that your customer’s money will be safe if they don’t like a product or service.
- Be accessible. Accessibility is the stamp of reliability. Your customers will only trust in you if you are available whenever they need you.
Conclusion
Remember, in content marketing, it’s no longer a business-to-customers relationship. Instead, it’s human to human connection. Treat it like one.
You need to build a personal and meaningful connection with your customers to succeed in content marketing.
Be known for the high-value services or products that you offer.
be approachable and likeable to attract new customers
And be trustworthy to keep your customers.
That way, your online business will be sustainable as long as you want.