Having an online business requires a definite skill set and a marketing mindset. Your customers are buying from you ‘sight unseen’. In order for them to do that it takes a certain level of trust. Trust that you should have built up with them, prior to them purchasing from you.
So just how do you go about building that trust?
As someone with an online business or even just an online presence (a.k.a. a website), you need to grab and hold the attention of your prospect to coax them gently towards and down your marketing funnel.
- Know the pain points of your prospect – how can you help them.
- Offer value for free to demonstrate you are a person who can be trusted.
- Offer up a story about yourself – it’s human nature to be attracted to people that we have a connection with (however small)
- Keep your prospects engaged at all times – make them feel like they matter to you.
[tweet_box design=”box_02″ float=”none”]The key to a successful business is supply and demand. Find out what people need and be the one that provides it for them. You need to be very aware of your audience’s needs, questions, complaints and hangouts. #business #engagement #trust #marketing #contentmarketing #digitalmarketing[/tweet_box]
Know your customers
- Do they need to earn more money?
- Do they need to learn a new skill for their business?
- Do they need to outsource a task to make their own life easier?
- Do they think they are stuck and can’t move forward?
And similarly, you need to be aware of the people that are currently supplying the goods to your audience (a.k.a. your competitors)
- What do they offer?
- What prices do they charge?
- What methods do they use to engage their prospects?
- How can you make yourself more desirable than them to your prospects?
Now that I have your attention….
It isn’t enough to grab your prospect’s attention once and then forget about them. You need to keep them fully engaged at all times whilst you gently guide them down your funnel and offer up your goods or services. You do this by means of a marketing funnel, set up in an email autoresponder such as Mailchimp. You drip feed them your value and sprinkle it with offers of your products and services.
But you can’t continually keep selling to them – they will soon lose interest in that approach. You need to reinforce your value by offering them things they need without a dollar amount attached to them. Make them feel special and valued by you.
Then when you do have something that you want them to buy they will be so trusting of you and the value you provide it will be an easy decision for them to make to purchase from you.
What techniques do you use to engage your prospects and clients? Leave a comment below.
