Building A Loyal Audience

The key to any successful business is having a loyal audience which returns and will purchase over and over again. You may think as you start out in the business world that you simply need a killer website, social accounts and thousands of followers. But it is the integrity of these followers which you need to look out for, and maintain if you are to succeed.

1. Quality, not quantity

The biggest misconception when you are building up your empire is thinking that you have to have more followers to make a more successful business. Of course, the more followers you have the more likely you are to get a sale, but it is the quality of your followers which you want to look out for. Think about if you have 10,000 followers- only 1000 of them may actually purchase your product and engage with the brand. However a similar company with 1000 followers may have 800 people who purchase and engage. This is a huge difference in the percentage of engaged audience members. When you are creating a promotion, you need to track the people who visit and see if they are the people who come back again and again.

2. Emails

Email has always been a large part of good marketing, however you need to make sure that the quality of your emails is good enough for people to read. Instead of simply creating a poster with 20% off written on it and sending that out, take time to write an engaging email, share a funny story and add links to your products. You are much more likely to gain a loyal, engaged audience this way.

3. Partnerships

Collaborating with similar brands can be the key to helping you grow and nurture your online family. By exposing yourself to their audience and visa versa, you can all come together and create on big community.

4. Test, test, test

Whatever type of marketing you do within your business, test it. Keep testing and testing again until you can see where you need to improve and what is successful for your brand. Use google analytics to test if referral traffic is booming, look at your social posts for likes and comments, see how many sales you gained through that email campaign… every little thing should be tested and analysed so that you can make the best campaigns for your audience and pull people in.

5. Content is key

Content is at the heart of any marketing strategy, it is the glue which holds everything else together. Creating content can be varied and it must always be engaging. Think about guided digital commerce, images for social media, blog posts, social posts and everything else in between. Every piece of content you share with your audience should be well thought through and checked out. For example if you look at images for social media and your website: you could just use stock images, or you could go out and about and take photos of your own. They might not be as perfect as stock images but they will show your individuality and show your audience that you are making the effort for them. The same applies to blog posts. Writing informative and helpful posts will give you a much more loyal following than simply posting to say that a new product is on sale.

6. Design

Most of what will attract people to your website in the first place is your design. Humans are visual creatures: whether it be a person, a cute puppy or a stunning landscape- everyone loves to look at clean, clear and bright things. Think about your design and create a color scheme which fits the type of business you are. Add lots of images to your website because images are known to drive twice as much traffic.

7. Consistency

The most important thing to bear in mind if you are thinking of starting your business  and building a loyal audience is to stay consistent. You need to make sure that you are posting on social media every day, engaging with your audience, replying to comments, creating blog posts, promoting your products and updating your website. It is an on-going job which you need to take the time to work on and get better at each and every day. If you stay in the forefront of your customer’s minds, you will be the first one they think of when they need something. You will have a loyal, recurring audience in no time.