Connect with Customers Online for Best Results

As you follow the advice in last week’s article to write your website content, blog posts and other online communications in an informal tone, remember that the people you want to attract are also your potential customers. Treat them as such!

While every company wants to promote good will and build its brand, the ultimate goal of online marketing through content is to make sales. Connect with customers online through a variety of avenues from social media and your own website to email newsletters and webinars. Connect with customers online through entertaining articles, pertinent information and timely reports. In other words, give them what they want and need in one clean package.

Know Your Target

Writing conversationally is just the second step to successfully connect with your customers online. The first step is to correctly and succinctly identify your target market (aka your potential customers). Once they’re firmly in your sights, deciding what they like becomes much easier.

You can start by flat out asking them directly. Survey your audience to ask them if they prefer to get your great content via social media, in their email inbox or through your website (if they visit regularly). Then give them the goods.

Tweak Your Tweets and Boost Your Blog

One size usually does not fit all your potential clients. In fact, when you want to connect with customers online, you need to engage a wide range of platforms and tactics. But here’s a useful tip: short introductory sentences practically demand readers to click on your link, which gives them the impression that clicking was their decision. That gives them a stake in your message before they even see it.

And once they click through to your content, don’t disappoint your readers. Instead, try a few of these tactics to not just keep them on your site longer, but actually convert them into buyers:

1. Hold contests and giveaways that require visitors to answer questions or send you some other level of feedback. Engage your audience with prizes, kudos, recognition and surprises. Keep the games light enough so they are easy to play quickly, yet make sure they’re serious enough to keep readers coming back for the chance to play again.
2. Create videos of value. When you connect with customers online, you want them to feel good about the experience and pass it on to their friends. By creating humorous videos that contain your message, you give your audience a chance to repost and resend while they garner kudos from their friends and pass along your name.
3. Rehash news that’s of interest to your target demographic. Not everyone has local TV to watch the news anymore and even fewer people read newspapers. Help keep your customers and potential clients informed: choose those news stories that may affect them the most and rewrite them in blurbs throughout the day.
4. Make it personal. Talk about yourself and why you started your business or why you work for your company. Share stories that other customers have told you. Explain how your product or service plays a role in your own life and that of your family and friends. People prefer to do business with people they like. Act like a friend instead of a pushy salesperson.
5. Respond quickly. You can really make a statement that you care about your clients by making the effort to respond to inquiries as quickly as possible. Hardly anyone does that! Make your company stand out from the competition by being first in customer service. Everyone enjoys being pampered, treated like royalty and shown the highest level of respect. Be the person you want to attract, and you’ll continue to connect with customers online in meaningful (and profitable) ways.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.