Every time you write a blog post for your online home business, you create a piece of content on the web aimed at building customer relationships. Think of yourself as the loopy part of hook and loop tape. Offer a soft, grabby connector for your customer’s searching hooky part.
How to Be Fuzzy, Soft and Engaging
Focus on them, not your product. If someone signs up for free information from you, your first message should be all about thanking them. Don’t hit them upside the head with a Buy This Now message. That’s like proposing marriage over a first coffee together.
Let them get to know you. Are your photo and name on your blog? People are hard-wired to connect with faces. Provide some of your story on your About Me page. Why? An About Me page is the most read page of a blog—because they want to know who you are! Reveal a little of yourself in your posts so they can identify with you. We all like like-minded people.
Over-deliver. After giving good information virtual roundtables your customer can use today to start solving their problem, invite their participation with you somehow. Ask for their opinion, provide a poll question they can answer, or tell them to push a button for a video that further illustrates a point you made.
How to Be Sticky, Hooky and Engaging
You already started when you asked them to participate with you.
Train them to take action each time you connect with them. Give them something to click or do in every email or a blog post, and make it rewarding for them. They’ll stay on your site a bit longer. When prospects take action, they become participants who then become customers.
Introduce an unexpected viewpoint. Challenge accepted norms by looking at an old problem from a different angle. It can wake them up a bit, give them an insight they never thought of before.
Offer your information in other formats. Most customers read. Others retain information best when they hear it spoken aloud. Sometimes video better conveys how to do a new or confusing technique.
Wave your freak flag. Let them see how you’re different from your competition, what makes your offer unique. Every business needs a unique selling point, even lemonade stands. Don’t hide yours or be plain vanilla while building customer relationships.