There’s no doubt about it: in today’s ultra-connected online community, public communication about customer experience travels fast. Whether good or bad, you can be certain that your business will be the subject of a Yelp or Google Business review at some point in its future.
While the thought of being the subject of a negative Yelp review can make some business owners lose sleep at night, your business’s online content can be leveraged to your advantage if it’s managed correctly.
When a business builds up a decent collection of positive reviews, it seems more reliable to prospective customers based on its positive reputation of credibility and trust in the community. In much the same way, content marketing operates on a similar level of established trust and reliability.
Thought Leaders Generate Trust in their Communities
When you use content marketing to your advantage, you become a subject matter expert in your niche. If the information you publish is reliable, consistent, and compelling to your audience, you’ll benefit from shares, likes, page views, and comments. In today’s social media-dependent marketplace, this type of connectivity helps to establish a high level of trust in your organization.
Consider the following tips when looking to establish a reliable flow of communication and authority in your industry:
1. Become a subject matter expert and a thought leader in your industry.
Focus on delivering hyper-relevant content in your specific niche so your customer base looks to you as an authority. Eventually, you want other businesses in your industry to consider you a thought leader as well, which can generate cross posting across industry experts and greatly improve the visibility of your business. This powerful combination enhances your credibility and boosts your audience’s trust in your brand.
2. Establish your brand voice and tone—and stick with it.
In order to nurture a long-term connection with your audience, you’ll want to infuse your content with a consistent voice and tone. Make sure your content writers have reliable guidelines to present information that is in line with your brand and reflective of your corporate persona.
3. Focus on influencers and connect with them regularly.
When industry experts share your posts and link to your products and pages, your business instantly becomes more credible to a wider audience.
4. Tap into your employees as solution-providers and brand ambassadors.
When you create empathy between your employees and your customers, you establish the foundation for trust. Your customers are human beings looking for a solution to a problem, and as such, they are seeking a connection with someone they can relate to on the other side of the transaction.
When your customers bond with your employees via social media posts and other communication methods, it establishes a relationship with your brand that transcends the cold disconnect that often pervades today’s automated business transactions.
5. Prioritize consistent content delivery.
When it comes to building your business’s reputation as a thought leader in your community, focus on delivering compelling, useful information on a regular basis. Not only does this prevent your website and blog from appearing outdated and stale, it lets your customer base know that you are on top of the latest industry innovations and techniques that present your business as the solution they need.
We’ve all heard the phrase about doing business with people you know, like, and trust. Try to be consistent in your use of these five tips to build that trust. You’re on your own in getting people to like you.
