Social Media, blogging and web video are great channels to communicate with existing customers and reach new prospects, but you should constantly ask yourself "I am conning my customers?" Social Media makes it so easy to engage with your market, the danger is using it like the broadcast mediums of yesterday. You must keep your communications authentic, transparent and consumer focused. A fundamental shift is diminishing brand power and growing consumer influence. This is fueled by ubiquitous network access; powerful pocket sized computers and a simplification of the user experience, improving the use of those computers. Traditional promotion, advertising and direct marketing methods while still profitable are becoming increasingly inefficient and more importantly, unappealing to customers. Consumers are ceasing to purchase from companies who do not connect with them on a personal level.
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Our research shows that over 50% of consumers do not trust or believe messages that are delivered via advertising. In addition, it is very easy for dissatisfied customers to be highly critical of products, brands and services and share that dissatisfaction via blogs, product reviews, message boards and social networks. Companies need to find a new way to promote, sell and maintain relationships with customers. Gone are the days where large scale advertising alone can drive and sustain a brand. Because of these new market rules, you need to ask yourself, "am I creating value for my customers through the content, products and services I am delivering?" If you are using incentives (such as promotions, discounts and free add-ons) on a constant basis, chances are the value you are delivering to the market is highly commoditized and indistinguishable from its competitors.
How to avoid becoming a content con-artist
- Stop creating promotions
- Create valuable content
- Brand that content and distribute it under your name
Stop creating promotions
Promotions don’t build loyalty, attachment or relationship, they are a quick fix. If you are going to run a promotion, you may as well walk up to people on the street and say to them I will pay you X dollars to come in my store and buy something. That is essentially a promotion. Sometimes it takes the form of sweepstakes, discounts, coupons and the like. When you resort to discount and incentive tactics, you are competing on price. You have given up on the differentiators in your business and chosen to compete with the Walmarts of the world. In the long run, this is a losing battle.
In addition, promotions could attract non-qualified leads. These leads will clog your pipeline, distract your sales people and lower your closing ratios. Quality information and entertainment directed at your core audience will be more effective at attracting qualified leads and improve your sales efficiency.
Create valuable content
The best way to create loads of great content for potential customers and existing customers is your blog. Generate high quality blog posts that are 800-1,000 word articles, rather than opinion pieces. Articles should be "evergreen" content that is relevant for years to come. Opinion pieces and news commentary are great ways to bolster the quantity of your blog posts, but are only valuable for a short amount of time. Customers like to be educated and be entertained. If you sell sporting goods, content on sports training could be a huge value to your consumers. For example, Brainloaf’s target audience is business owners, marketers and sales people. We seek to produce professional, valuable advice based on strategies and tactics we know are working for other people. When writing blog content, I would encourage you to avoid blogging about new products and features on a regular basis. Don't eliminate it, but make it a small portion of your total content production.
Distribute that content under your brand
Treat people as intelligent human beings, not prospects, targets or consumers. Are you communicating with only the intention of drawing an audience to communicate with from a direct marketing basis or are you truly putting out valuable content there that they know people will love, that's targeted their target audience to build brand awareness, and build rapport with potential customers? That is your first priority. You need to make sure that your intentions are genuine and in line with your target audience needs and desires. Your content needs to be valuable to your targeted audience, not marketing fluff, product information or re-purposed sales materials. It should be actionable information that people would find useful in day-to-day life or business.
Lastly, consumers should know that it is your brand publishing the content. Don't think that by minimizing your brand's branding of the content that you developed, that you will make it more authentic. Just the opposite. It's the customers' right (and desire) to know the source of content. They need to evaluate and understand the context of the opinions and facts presented in any brand published content. It is very important that your content is well-branded and readers know where it originated.
In summary, treat your customers as intelligent people who are interested in topics, training and entertainment that your brand is connected with. People buy things because of the value it delivers: status, convenience, or a basic human need: pain, pleasure, and survival needs. Make sure you understand those goals for your customers and use the above rules to create engaging content that will appeal to potential customers. Keep creating great content and your pipeline will be full of qualified leads.
Image attribution:
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