If Apple listened to its customers’ long-time complaint of privacy issues, then so should you listen to your audience. Customers are vital to the success of any business, and that includes the blog you’re trying to market. But they are fickle, aren’t they? Couple that with perfect competition in just about every industry, and you’ve got what looks like a slim chance of attracting and retaining your audience. So how do the successful ones do it? Hint: It has to do with customers.
1. Know your customers
How do you know what your customers need? Your best tool is understanding your customers needs and preferences.
For instance, if you sell pet food, you can tell your audience that you are a great source for cat and dog food, and you have special discounts on great-tasting dry food. If you sell other pet products, you can tell your audience that you are a great source for and have discounts on treats, collars, and toys.
The point here is knowing and understanding your target niche through market research so you can provide valuable information that they’ll appreciate.
2. Be subtle and personal
Let us stress the word “tell”. Don’t be the big guy in the corner shouting at the top of your lungs about your company’s great customer service and what-not. Your tone can come off as being too commercial or sales pitch-like which isn’t attractive to customers. They can pick up on your message when you use “how we” statements or tell them about your client’s needs.
Instead of rehearsed speeches, include short stories about small businesses, how you overcame personal struggles, and “how do you” stories to give a personal and sincere message that your customers relate to.
3. Remember your readers
If you know that your previous readers enjoyed stories about how you got your first dollar, your new audience will appreciate you telling a story about the first time you got your first dollar.
“Remember” stories, stories about your clients, your employees, and people in your community will resonate. People need stories about triumph, hope, and inspiration, but take care not to overuse it, else your audience will get bored (or worse, see you as insincere) and tune out.
4. Be interesting to your audience
You want to engage your audience in your stories, but you also need to hold their attention. You need to be interesting and relevant to them. They need to be able to pick up on your message. If your blog is about how your business helped a client get out of debt, your customers must be able to relate and be able to get why you are providing this information.
5. Be consistent in your writing style
Your stories need to be consistent with your content. If your business blog is about helping individuals rise out of debt, you need to write about relevant articles every week. If you can’t keep up the steady output of interesting, topic-related posts, the customer will be able to tell and tune you out.
6. Be creative in your message
Your blog post can be about anything, but you need to choose your focus carefully and think of innovative ways to introduce your topic and capture your audience’s interest. You don’t want to write a blog that is constantly about how your business helped a client get out of debt and then use that same story to talk about something else. You need to have a nice variety of content so that your customers are constantly interested in your content.
7. Be consistent in your pricing structure and timing
You need to have a pretty consistent pricing structure on your blog posts. If you help clients get out of debt, you want to have a pricing schedule that relates to the length of time it takes to help them get out of debt.
8. Be persistent in your marketing messages
You need to start marketing your “Remember” story pretty quickly after you finish writing it. You don’t want to wait until your business blog is up and running to start marketing it. You want to start marketing your “Remember” story as soon as it is written. If you help a client get out of debt, you want to start marketing it as soon as it is written.
Keep in mind that these tips aren’t meant to give you an uncharacteristic growth like Netflix did back in 2020, but when done right, you can expect to see positive improvements and growth in the long run.