How Content Drives Relationships

Today, interaction with customers and clients is mostly performed online. Fewer people seek face-to-face interaction for proof of credibility before making purchasing decisions. The big question, though, is, what signals to customers that a brand can be trusted? Content, of course!

Content marketing has never been more important. An effective strategy that builds interest, trust, and engagement in your brand is essential for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. Like the old relationship cliché, if you don’t have trust, you don’t have anything. Without building a trustworthy relationship with your audience and Google, you can’t expect success in driving sales and organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page.: the 2 go hand in hand.

Our content writing experts here at Click Intelligence have put together this handy guide on how content can nurture lifelong relationships between your brand and audience, the benefits this brings, and how you can build connections through your content marketing efforts. Let’s get stuck in!

Why Is Content Important For Building Relationships?

Content that builds relationships includes social media updates, videos, white papers, authority articles, case studies, interviews, and blog posts – just about anything you can imagine! The golden ticket for ensuring that these help relationships, though, is making certain each piece of content – no matter how big or small – is carefully thought out with your customer in mind.

To grow authority, relevancy, and credibility in your field, you need an effective content marketing strategy. Not only do you need to tell your brand story and get your personality out there, but you need to produce content that people want to read and learn from. There’s no point in churning out any old content to tick a box. Your content needs to have value for the reader. Doing this will create a buzz around your brand, make it likable, and show that you can be trusted.

Trust in your brand-to-customer relationship will set you apart from your competitors. If you focus your efforts on producing valuable content your audience wants, and your competition doesn’t do this, then you’ll have a definite advantage if customers are stuck choosing which brand they should shop with.

Other reasons why trustworthy content is important for your relationship:

• It shows customers that you stick to your word
• It boosts trust in your products or service
• It demonstrates that you value your customers
• It gives your brand personality

Relevant, valuable, and consistent content nurtures trust, and it is this trust that will persuade customers to complete the desired action.

Core Benefits Of Using Content To Grow Trust And Relationships

Digital and content marketers worldwide have heard of the phrase “content is king.” It’s true, you get your content right, and you’ll reign supreme in the search engine results pages (SERPs), sales, and in retaining and attaining those all-important customers.

Content marketing allows you to drive sales and grow your customer base through informative and trustworthy content. All of this helps to create lifelong relationships between the customer and you.

We’ve discussed some advantages of using content to build a trusted relationship with your customers. Here are what we believe to be the top benefits of using content marketing to build customer relationships.

1. Customers Trust You

Of course, this had to be our first point! When your content promotes your brand as an expert and authority figure in your industry, it shows you can be trusted. When your content answers your readers’ questions, teaches them something new, and addresses a problem they are facing for free, it will make your customers appreciate you more and cement trust.

Your website blog should contain many relevant and wide-ranging posts that showcase your knowledge and are related to your industry to promote you as an expert in your sector. This will also signal to Google that you can be trusted, which is great for rankings. When you have established this trust, customers will view you favorably and will be more likely to buy your products or service as they feel it could help them. This will also mean that you will become their go-to whenever they need advice or support in the area you specialize in.

2. Your Brand Identity Is Strengthened

When you create content that has a consistent tone of voice and considers your target audience first, your brand identity will be stronger as a result. Showing customers who you are, your personality, your brand values, and how your products or service helps will set the tone for your audience’s expectations. When your brand identity is strong, customers will be more likely to engage with your content through likes, shares, and comments, and make them want to use your products and services above anyone else’s.

3. Improves Your Search Engine Visibility

According to HubSpot, 5.6 billion searches are done on Google daily. That’s a lot of potential organic traffic that you can take advantage of. Google values content that puts the user first and matches search intent. If your content marketing strategy has your audience at its heart, you’re already halfway there in impressing Google! When you combine this ethos with targeting keywords and other SEO best practices, you will rank higher in the SERPs. The higher you rank, the more clicks from organic search traffic, which is great for business. If a new visitor considers your content helpful, they will likely return to you again.

4. Gets People Talking For The Right Reasons

Content that engages your audience will encourage them to talk about it, which is great for nurturing lifelong relationships and making more people aware of your brand. If your content centers around the interests and opinions of your readers, they will be keen to engage with you, whether this is through likes, shares, or comments. When you open up this 2-way conversation, you also build a community focused on your brand, which helps make readers feel valued. Again, this makes them more likely to buy your product or service. Always be sure to respond to and/or acknowledge customer interaction as this further helps to strengthen your bond as it shows that you value their opinions whether or not they share yours.

5. Encourages Them To Buy

There are 3 stages of the buyer’s journey:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision

When your content focuses on each journey stage, you are more likely to secure a purchase and strengthen your relationship with your customer.

For example, if you are a healthy meal plan service, content at the awareness stage might include, Top Tips For Living A Healthy Lifestyle, as it identifies ways to address a challenge they are facing.

The consideration stage should give customers information on solutions to their problems, such as 5 Easy Dinner Ideas. At the decision stage, they want to read content that reassures they’re making the right decision in using your service, How A Meal Plan Service Makes Healthy Eating Effortless.

By gently guiding customers through each stay of their purchasing journey, you will boost your conversions and produce customers who will be more likely to return and tell others about your service.

How To Build Relationships Through Content Marketing

So you know the importance of driving relationships through content and the benefits of this, but how exactly is this achieved? There’s no need to panic, here are our top tips on building relationships through your content.

Tell A Story Through Your Content

Valuable content often tells a story. If you can provide content that maintains your customers’ interest regardless of whether they have just discovered your brand or have been loyal to you for years. Quality, informative and engaging content that showcases your brand’s values and personality is at the heart of this.

Make Your Customers Feel Important

To build lifelong relationships with your customers, you must show them that you value them. With a customer-first approach instead of a product-first one, you can do just that. At every stage of content creation, ask yourself what the customer will get from your content. If it’s not a lot, scrap the idea. However, if the content meets their needs, go for it! To go that step further, ensure that your content marketing strategy encourages customers to interact with you and reach out, as this will show them that you consider their views important.

Go To Them

Make it easy for your audience and go to them. It’s all very well posting on your blog, but it is pointless if nobody sees your fantastic, valuable, customer-driven content. Research your demographic and the platforms they engage with the most and make sure you post on them. If your demographic is on Instagram, you should be posting there and signposting them to your all-singing, all-dancing superb blog! Through this, you can build awareness of your brand and encourage them to interact with it.

Ask For Feedback

When you show your customer you value their opinion, it improves your relationship with them. Regularly ask your audience for feedback on how they think you’re doing, what they like and don’t like about your offering, and what they want more of. When it comes to content writing, you can produce content that considers the points raised in feedback.

What Next?

Remember to be patient when you want to build stronger relationships with your customers. Just like with any in-person relationship, it takes time to build trust and feel comfortable, but through consistent effort it is achievable, and the same applies to content marketing! At Click Intelligence, we have decades of experience in providing Content Writing services to brands just like yours. If you want help producing compelling content that fulfills the needs of your audience, reach out today, and we will be more than happy to advise.