Building Lasting Relationships with Content and Social Media Marketing

People buy great products and services from people they know, like and trust. But, how do you get people to know you if they won’t visit your store or call you for a consultation? You do it by building lasting relationships with content and social media marketing.

The process of building relationships hasn’t changed. You still build them through authentic engagement and conversation, but now your message can get out to many instead of only a few. Think of social media as the new telephone party line and content as the conversation that includes tips, news, jokes, inspiration, education and gossip. The combination of both builds the relationship, which eventually leads to permission to market to the buyer.

Understand Your Buyer

To begin building the relationship, start by understanding your buyer. Don’t try to sell to everyone. Know who you’re talking to and take the time to create the one or two perfect buyer profiles. Be specific and avoid generalities. For example, a day care business might target working women, age 35-50, who live in zip code 85048 and have young children under the age of 5. Knowing exactly who your audience is helps you craft the message you want them to receive.

Engage in the Conversation

Find out where your buyers hang out online and locally. Be present in those places, engage in conversation and help when someone asks for it. When you’re engaging in conversation on social media, pay attention to how the group responds to other posts. If they like inspirational quotes, helpful articles and cute llama pictures, then use them in your responses and posts. Be careful about being too pitchy or only chiming in when you’re trying to push your products.

Be Consistent 

There’s nothing like going to a businesses website or social media site only to find that it’s out of date, not updated and looks like a ghost town. There’s no better way to say you don’t care about your business or your buyers. To mitigate this, make sure you’re scheduling time during the day to focus on creating content and engaging in social media. Hire an expert if you can’t find the time. Consistency is the key to keeping your business in front of buyers until they’re ready to buy.

Tracie Rollins is the founder of The Rollins Advantage, LLC, a Phoenix-based content marketing firm that helps small businesses define and execute content and social media marketing strategies that attract interest, educates customers and delivers an amazing experience throughout the buying process. Tracie applies more than 18 years of experience to marketing strategy, research and development of content that educates, influences and improves the lives of others. She believes that education provides knowledge, knowledge drives actions and actions change.