Your audience is your content’s lifeline. They not only help determine the lifespan of your content but its performance too. Suffice to say, content needs an audience, and an audience needs a trusted source of information. But how can you demonstrate that you are competent and trustworthy?
While it is possible that you are master of your craft, and it could be easy to automatically gain trust from your family and friends. Online environs work differently. You need to actively build your credibility.
Let’s delve in and explore key elements that can enable you to become a trusted source of information for your audience.
The benefits of being a trusted source of information for your audience
Don't believe that building audience trust is important? Check out these statistics. 89% of shoppers remain loyal to brands that share their values. Meanwhile, brands that blog generate 67% more leads.
Plus, 40% of B2B buyers consume three to five pieces of content before reaching out to a salesperson.
Clearly, building an audience matters. But an audience that doesn't trust your company amounts to nothing.
Top examples of companies that build audience trust
Here are some companies who know how to give their audience information they need and didn't know they needed!
TravelPerk's business travel during Covid guide.TravelPerk created an online guide to help businesses around the world deal with the impact of the coronavirus on their travel.
Intercom's future of support research. Intercom shared their predictions for customer support in 2021 based on their proprietary research. Research and case studies are the most trusted source of information by companies' audiences. One of our best HARO tips is to use Help a Reporter Out to get more of the right people filling out your survey. Just reply with the survey link to people who respond to your HARO query.
Into the Gloss's tips for DIY moisturizer. Into the Gloss (the content machine behind beauty brand Glossier) created a guide to using everyday ingredients like oatmeal and olive oil as moisturizer. Because the brand sells beauty products, giving away free tips for DIY projects establishes a lot of trust with their audience of readers and customers.
Tips for being a building audience trust
Want to build up an audience that trusts your brand and will buy your products or services? Here's some concrete advice to help you along the way.
1. Create authentic content
The world is overflowing with content; both from credible and unreliable sources. Just to bring it to perspective, by 2015 211million pieces of content were being published every minute.
So, how do you stand out from rest?You have to create authentic content. Content that is original and accurate.Content that speaks to the audience in a personal way. Content that presents you as a trusted source of information.
Originality doesn't necessarily mean you have to be the first to create the content. You simply need to be unique.The more unique you are, the more visible you are, and the more you attract an audience.
Find your voice and maximize on it.Nobody likes a copycat. Speak to your audience in a way they can relate and understand.
Even as you consistently deliver content, don't lose your voice. Your audience will notice any change in your tone. This makes it easy for them to know whether the information is coming from you or someone else.
2. Create authoritative content
As a trusted source of information,you need to be a subject matter expert in your industry. Delivering information that you do not fully comprehend is a sure path to failure.
Communicating clearly and effectively helps in establishing your authority in your industry. You don’t want your audience guessing what you meant when you said that or did that.
For example, if you have a tutorial video, try to ensure that by the end of the video the viewer is in a better position to execute what you taught. If you run a fitness page, post videos and content of your workouts with a catchy title, "Best Calisthenics Workout" this way you can draw in interest while also promoting a sample of your content.
Remember your content needs to be backed up by credible statistics and sources. Such information can be used as a point of reference by third-parties, helping you establish yourself as a trusted source of information.
Authoritative also implies that you stand for something. Your views are not always changing. People look up to people whose beliefs and stands are unwavering no matter the conditions or circumstances. This alone creates a level of admiration that attracts a huge following.
Try to ensure that you are usually among the first to comment, inform, and educate on anything new in your industry. However, keeping up with trending topics manually can be an uphill task. Use a social media aggregator that will keep you up-to-date on trending topics in your niche.
You can also engage in productive debates and conversations with reputable, authoritative figures in your niche to enhance your credibility. Such discussions also boost engagement with your audience, as they jump in to contribute.
3. Always be honest and do your due diligence
Trust and honesty always go in tandem.To exude confidence through your information be honest. To establish yourself as a trusted source of information, honesty is the best policy.
Erroneous information results in your audience losing faith in you. People want to share helpful and accurate information. This is because lies do not only affect the content creator but also those who share the information.
4. Be consistent with content creation
Consistently creating and posting content can go a long way in enabling you to become a trusted source of information. How? Well, the more you keep on churning out reliable information,the more people depend on you for information.
Consistency also helps you grow and improve on your craft. By regularly giving out information and comparing the new and the old, you can easily monitor your growth level.
As you engage with your audience,they will also let you know what you need to improve. This way you also get to learn what your audience wants and deliver. A satisfied audience is a happy audience.
Did you know? Brands that post consistent content on social media use Curator to add their social media feeds to their websites.
5. Interact and engage with your audience
Interacting and engaging with your audience builds a strong community around your content. It develops relationships that are hard to break. Take time to listen to what your audience says.
Reply to their questions. Try to honor their requests. Hold honest conversations with them whenever possible. If there are physical events in your industry, you can attend and mingle with your audience. Physical connection still beats digital connection any time any day.
If you use multiple platforms and it seems difficult to engage your audience, use social media aggregators. Social media aggregators like curator.io make interacting and engaging with your audience as easy as pie.
6. Showcase social proof often
Has your information positively impacted someone's life? Has the person reached out to you and shared their stories. Use that to build your credibility. Such testimonials prove that you can be trusted.
Just to reiterate, even in testimonials honesty is key. Don’t just create testimonials to boost your popularity. Ensure that you further show pictures of those behind the testimonials and any relevant credential information they are willing to share with the world.
Key takeaways
The advancements in technology have increased the demand for content. This has resulted in a sea of both reliable and unreliable information out there. Consequently, it can be tasking venture to find a trusted source of information.
So, as a brand how do you become a trusted source of information for your audience? Building and maintaining trust among your audience is not difficult as it may seem. If you follow the above tips, you might just find yourself maintaining and growing your audience with time.