Content that Creates Loyalty, Trust & Engagement

Have you ever wondered about the importance of content when marketing a product or an idea? Good content means good marketing. And a good content strategy is that which helps build the image of your brand, gain trust and engage consumers. Achieving all of that through your content is far more difficult than you think. In this article, we will answer questions about what is considered to be good content marketing. We will examine how you can create content that takes your brand where you want it to be – to a whole new level!

Related: Twitter Marketing: 4 Surefire ways to drive more traffic from Twitter

Customer Engagement is a Precursor to the Goal

When you talk about creating content, as expected, the main purpose for it would be high customer engagement. Suppose you start a blog. Your main goal is to drive as much traffic to it as possible, and to achieve this engaging people is your first priority. 

Customer engagement is the heart and soul of any marketing strategy, and producing high-quality value-adding content is the first step towards creating it. According to Clarabridge, a fully-engaged customer can yield 23% more revenue than average. Furthermore, highly-engaged customers are very likely to buy more from you, and promote your products and services to their peers.   

In today’s day and age there are various methods and channels to engage your prospects. Unfortunately,  this is where the problem arises. We live in a world where we have access to unlimited amounts of information right at our fingertips. As a result, customers don’t want to be sold to, but to be given the freedom to make an informed purchase decision on their own time. 

This means that to grab your clients’ attention, first you need to become really good at anticipating their needs and wants. Then, to keep these customers engaged, you need to develop a strong customer engagement plan that takes into account every touching of the customer journey.    

Some people consider  customer engagement as an all-important key performance indicator of a brand’s customer relationship health, however, this is true to an extent

Essentially, customer engagement boils down to how much and how often your audience interacts with your brand. It’s a big umbrella category of various metrics to track – likes, shares, comments, brand mentions, etc. And because there are so many digital channels you can use, it can be difficult to measure without the right resources, tools and experience.    

A high engagement rate indicates that the audience is responsive to your content and very well aware of your brand. However, just because you can successfully grab your audience’s attention with your content it doesn’t automatically mean that they are going to show brand loyalty. 

So, in addition to aiming for high customer engagement rates, you need to find a way to show your prospects that your company is one of the good ones out there and that you have your clients’ best interests in mind. In other words, you need to gain your audience’s confidence and trust.

Brand Trust Is Necessary

Gaining trust for your brand is fairly difficult. If we were to describe brand trust, it would be how the consumers see and feel about your brand and the people behind it.

Customer trust is vital for success. It’s the most important part of your overall brand strategy as it makes you the reliable choice for consumers. Once brand trust is built, and your customers are so sure of your brand that they recommend it to their friends, family, and colleagues it will transform into brand loyalty, earning you a sustained competitive advantage worthy of envy.

Ubiquity is the key to gaining brand trust. Your content strategy needs to cover different marketing channels. For instance, you have a very convincing article on your blog but only three people read it. What is the use of it then?

You need to bring the content to the people. Rather than just posting words, start effective conversations, use images, share valuable information from a different brand not related to your agenda. Your content should move from social to physical, from words on the computer to words of mouth.

Truth is when people respond well to people. You can create a catchy slogan or a vivid design, but it might still be less effective than a favorite movie star. People create affinity to your brand. Instead of just focusing on content, share the focus on who is going to use it. You can discover people within your brand to do that. Do a bit of research to find out things about them and use that to help promote your brand:

• Pick a person who is Twitter savvy. Have them do live tweets once a week where they answer questions about your brand.
• Have them be someone that has a funny bone. They can engage people with their humor. People let their guard down when they laugh and feel more comfortable. Eventually, they will trust your brand even more.

Brand Loyalty is the Sweet Fruit of Successful Content Marketing

Brand loyalty often means how many people return to your website, open and read your emails and newsletters, follow and engage with your social media accounts. Building this loyalty needs focus and research. You need to define your goals, set clear objectives and work on achieving them.

When thinking about your content strategy, use content that works for you. Ask yourself: What makes consumers trust my brand? Then come up with a creative way to proactively communicate it to them. It could be a great quote, a GIF or a video.

Figuring out what content gets you brand loyalty requires patience. You do not need to switch between content formats if one thing doesn’t seem to be working right away. Give it time, and see if it gains momentum.

Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi puts this in this way:

The sheer majority of brands will continue to crash and burn with their content creation and distribution efforts. Simply put, most brands resist telling a truly differentiated story, and even those that do tell one aren’t consistent or patient enough to build loyal audiences over time.

For starters you can use the template from Authority Rainmaker. It will provide you with an analysis of what content on your website is doing well with the visitors. Once you know the type of content that is working for you, calculate the ROI using Siege Media’s Content marketing ROI calculator to get the costs estimated for the content. You can even use tools like BuzzSumo to evaluate the performance of your content and find ways to improve on it.

Bottom Line

Creating content can help create brand trust and loyalty and engage people. It allows you to also understand the long term benefits of good content marketing. The success of good content is the success of your brand. And putting out successful content might take a bit of effort on your part. Planning, searching and then implementing what is best for your site will likely deliver the results you want. And remember, you will need to stand out and engage people in order to get trust and loyalty from your clients.