Your message and the content you provide must be clear, direct, and demonstrates the benefits your business can provide to your potential customers. Content is ingrained into all your marketing efforts and needs to be aligned with best practices to be effective. Content can come in many forms such as written, images, video, and audio but the one thing it needs to be is valuable to your target audience. The quality of your content and the message you are delivering must resonate with your potential customers. But how do you ensure you are connecting or resonating with your potential customers?
Connecting With Consumers
Why should a person who visits listen to what you are saying? Acquiring a customer is all about building a relationship and a relationship starts with trust. To build trust with potential customers it is important to first demonstrate you understand their problems. Your content should meet them where they are at and acknowledge their situation. Once you have demonstrated you understand their problems you can empathize with them. This can help build trust in the relationship you are trying to cultivate so they will become a customer.
For example, let's say you are an accountant who provides tax services. Your content should acknowledge how it can be very challenging for a person to complete their taxes and it comes with many frustrations and doubts about if they are doing it correctly. You can discuss how if a person does not get it right they may either pay too much money which is not good or not enough which could lead to audit. Then you empathize with them and let them know you understand these concerns and frustrations which are very real. Through this content you connect with the person and let them know you understand where they are and how they feel.
By understanding who your customers are, connecting with them and sharing how you know how they feel can build trust and help make your website design more effective. Now that you have built a little trust, next you want to talk about how you can help them with their problem.
Focus on Benefits & Not Just Features
The first thing I notice when I am working on a client website is how much they are focused on themselves and not on their potential customers. For example, I will see websites that highlight all the features of their services but they never mention how those services solve the customer’s problem to start with and discuss the benefits they will receive if they purchase the service.
Using the accountant example, I have seen sites where they list out all the services they provide from bookkeeping, tax services, to payroll. Now this is important but no one really wants to have to pay for these services. They want to pay for the benefit they will receive if this service is provided. For example, a person does not want to pay for tax services but they will pay for their peace of mind that their taxes were completed correctly by a professional to ensure they have paid the correct amount and don’t have to worry about it any more. That peace of mind or that benefit is the value proposition that an accountant provides. Is that listed on their website and communicated in their content? Is the benefit of your services highlighted on your website?
The Value Of Social Proof
Now that you have a clear message about the value you bring and demonstrate the benefits your business offers someone, so what? Consumers today while they appreciate a clear message and it does help with conversion, they know you are trying to sell them on your business. They expect you to communicate how great you are and the value you bring but where is the proof you can deliver on what you say you can? That is where social proof comes in, which is you highlighting what those in the community who have done business with you, say about outcomes of hiring you.
Some examples of social proof include reviews on business profiles including Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook business page and many other business directory and review sites. Getting unique testimonials and adding them onto your site is another great way to highlight social proof. Many people feel embarrassed about asking for reviews and testimonials but I think about it like this, if you believe in the service you provide and you know you have given in a great experience and value to your customers, you should not feel hesitant about asking for a review.
Delivering relevant and quality content will go far in helping you establish trust with potential customers. Quality content is more than simply proper spelling and grammar but also communicating in a way that connects with a potential audience to build trust and let them know the benefits of doing business with you. Creating a clear message about your value proposition and benefits along with social proof is a winning strategy for your website and will help generate more leads. Once you have a great website now you have to drive traffic to your site which is through creating a digital marketing strategy that works. Check out my articles on digital marketing and learn how you can drive traffic to your website.
