Have you ever wondered how big named companies generate more traffic to their business? If you are thinking of advertisements, you are thinking about small potatoes. Everyone advertises, but how many customers buy a product based on an ad alone? The reality is that most customers prefer a product or service that they know and trust. You have, on average, four seconds to engage and interact with your customer. That is an offal lot to ask of a single ad. There has to be a better way. Guess what, there is!
Create Relationships
Our job as business owners is to establish and cultivate mutually advantageous relationships that center around trust. With so much of our business now being done online, it has become even harder to create and build these relationships. Is the number one thing getting in the way of these relationships? Most businesses spend too much time and energy focusing on the product and not the company or brand. While this model may work at a brick and mortar location, there is one thing online business is missing. At the end of the day, a business’s employees are the ones selling the product. That means if customers have a negative experience with your employees they are less likely to purchase your product.
Build Trust
However, online there is no one for the customer to interact with. The common misconception with selling online is that we, as business owners are under the impression that the product will sell itself. But what about a product or service no one knows about? We, as owners, need to help set the stage and also put a face to the company itself. Customers are much more likely to make a purchase when they feel that the product is sold by a company that has their best interest at heart. I want you to take a minute and think about the last purchase you made as a customer. Did you interact with a physical person when you made this purchase? Was the product from a company or brand you have used before? Is it something that can be purchased from another company? If so, why didn’t you buy it from them? Lastly, how did the company or product make you feel?
How To Convert
The last purchase I made was from a store. To be honest, I didn’t even need the product. At the end of the day, my interaction with the fantastic staff was what sold me on the purchase. I had wanted to try the product out, and the staff was so knowledgeable about the product that it made me feel more comfortable in making the purchase. However, that wasn’t what sold me on buying the product from this store. The truth is, I had already been looking at purchasing this product and had interacted with multiple knowledgeable employees about it. It was the fact that I felt a deeper connection to this employee than I did with the others. What did she do that the others had not? She told me a little bit about her personal story.
The Power In Vulnerability
The simple act of making herself vulnerable and offering up a little information about her created a window of opportunity. Here is the crazy part; after she had told me a bit of her story and experience, I immediately felt compelled to return the favor. It is an effect called reciprocity. When someone does something beautiful for us, we feel obligated to do the same. It also works when we display vulnerability; in most cases, others will return in kind. The best part of all this is that just like that, a level of trust is established. Trust is an integral part of a business’s success. If your customers do not trust you or your product, no one will buy from you.
Make A Connection
But how do you create these feelings online? You can’t establish a direct one-on-one conversation with every customer, can you? It turns out the best way to establish trust online is through our personal stories. There are several ways to get our stories out there. It is essential to keep in mind we only have a few seconds to engage with our audience. Taking that into account, it helps to provide small bite-size portions of our stories and provide more opportunities in the future for our audience to learn even more. Now, I know you might be thinking that is what your about page on your website is for. Yes, it does start to tell your audience about you and your journey. However, most people don’t start off viewing the about page.
Share Your Story
How do you start to tell your story to your audience? Great question, the key is to segway small bits of your story into everything you say and do. For example, in this article, I have already disclosed a tiny bit of information about me and what I do. Now, I didn’t tell you about my whole life’s story. Because the reality is that we only retain about 25% of everything we hear or read. That is why it helps to offer up small, easily digestible pieces of our stories. One of my favorite ways to do this is through blogging. Blogging can be a fantastic lead generator and is by far the best way to help educate your audience on your company or product. Apple does this the best, by blog about upcoming products, and in every blog, they provide us as consumers a little bit of their story.
Small Samples
With so many similar products out there, it is nice to know that there is one thing that is guaranteed to be unique to us, and that is our stories. When done correctly, we can create a trail of breadcrumbs that leads the customers right back to us or whatever product we are promoting at the time. The key is to think about the feeling you want your company or product to produce in your customer. Once you know what feeling you wish to inspire, you take what you know about your target demographic and apply it to your approach in evoking that feeling. For me, the feeling I try to focus on is the feeling of being heard and hope. Personally, I have more than one business. Yet, the feelings I focus on evoking are always the same. I have even gone so far as to put the word hope into my podcast and books.
Consistency Is Key
It is vital to remain consistent in your focus and approach. Consistency breeds success. What we do continually become our business autopilot and establishes our core values and beliefs. That is why it is crucial to every business’s success to spend the time needed to breakdown what is your end goal. If you don’t know where you are going, it is impossible to create a pathway to success. Even when creating a new product, you spend countless hours determining what needs the product will fill or solve. This is similar to how you determine what feeling you are trying to project and inspire. Once you know which direction you want to go, make sure you always keep it in your sights. By that, I mean, you should do everything with that feeling in mind.
Find Out If Your On Track
How do you keep your company’s focus on track? One of my favorite things to do is talk with my customers. Not only does it help establish an even deeper level of trust, but it also helps gage if you are still on track. Whenever a client or customer approaches me with a new need, I present it to my audience to determine if it is something they feel they need too. Don’t get me wrong, there are going to be some suggestions that send up red flags, and you can politely explain to the client that is not a direction your company will be going in. By engaging with your customers, you let them know that their opinion matters to you, and it can be a great way to test the waters on a project.
Create A Feeling
Regardless of where you choose to take your company and your clients, your story can help you pave the way to get there. There are so many different benefits that come from opening up about yourself to your audience. I am proof that you can use the power behind your story to help your business stand out. Products, no matter how good they are, can be duplicated. You and your experiences cannot! Use that to your advantage. You are, by far, your company’s greatest asset. If you are struggling to be seen online, and your business involves health and wellness, I can help you become an influencer. You have everything you need to succeed. The missing key is how to identify what sets you apart and the knowledge on how to use it to your advantage. If you are ready to establish a system that works for you, make an appointment with me today and find out just how easy it can be.
Are You Ready To Be An Influencer?
There are tons of ways to increase your exposure online and on the air. Don’t believe me? Be sure to subscribe to my next article that will break down even more ways to extend your reach. If you are a health and wellness expert looking for help to become the next major influencer in your field, I would love to hear from you. I offer an online course that can help you do just that. For more information, book a one-on-one consultation call with me. If you are the best at what you do and no one knows you exist, how many people can you help?
