Building a loyal online audience: The basics

By Henry Brown

The ultimate aim for anyone who is marketing for their small business is to earn the trust and loyalty of their audience. If you want build yourself a loyal audience online this year, here is how to do it.

Provide value

The important thing to remember when you are marketing for your business is the fact that you can’t simply try to sell to your audience 24/7. To create a fun community and an audience who loves you, you need to think outside the box and provide them with quality content. To build customer loyalty you need to offer different types of content: from articles to images and even videos. This will give you audience something valuable to read or watch and will make them want to keep supporting you.

Be consistent

One of the key things to remember when you are marketing online is that you have to be consistent with the content you post. If you have a week where you post 10 articles, 2 videos and a ton of other posts, you cannot then go onto the next week and post nothing. The only way you will stay on your audience’s mind throughout the year is to be consistent. Take the time to plan out your content for the next month and this will make things much easier for you when it comes to posting on social media and your website.

[amazon_link asins=’1119235596′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’succeedingin-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’86ecae2d-4c76-11e8-b9e6-1be50708f7c2′]Host a giveaway

Everyone loves free stuff, and there is no better way to win over your audience than to offer a giveaway with some of your new products. Make sure that you market your giveaway well on all social platforms, include it on your website and also email it to your newsletter subscribers. Giving away free items will not only put you in front of a wider audience, but it will allow the winner to see the quality of your product and spur them to become a loyal customer.

Make things personal

If you really want to build a group of people who will support you and follow you through thick and thin, you need to take time to get to know your audience. Social media is about being social, so take the time to post questions to your audience or to have a discussion about something other than your brand. This will spark a conversation and allow you to truly engage with the people who buy your products. You can also ask new customers for their birthday when they join via an account, and make them feel special on their birthday by offering a unique discount code for them to use on the day. All of these things will make your customers feel valued and wanted, and they will support you much more.

[amazon_link asins=’1517057949′ template=’ProductAd’ store=’succeedingin-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’8fd32023-4c76-11e8-9b46-c1ec2d973e1c’]Live streaming

Keeping with the personal theme, your audience wants to get to know the people behind your brand and connect on a personal level. You can achieve this by live-streaming from behind the scenes of a photo shoot, talk about your day when in the office and even take them to test out new products. Bringing your audience along for every step of your business will make a big difference to your relationship.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.

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