How to show respect for your audience's time and attention
You’re likely already aware of the importance of showing up across a few key platforms and regularly creating content.
Content marketing helps people become aware of your company, what you offer, and specifically how you can help your ideal clients.
And if you’re showing up authentically and consistently (regardless of what platforms you choose to prioritize), your follower or subscriber count is likely to go up.
Your work isn’t done when someone joins your audience though. In fact, maybe even more important than the initial follow, is how users are responding to and interacting with the content you’re producing.
Shift your focus from growth to nurturing, so that your audience feels there is value in continuing to follow you, and will ultimately see the need to purchase your product or service.
People are busy and the amount of content online is overwhelming. So, there needs to be a compelling reason for people to continue to read your posts, open your emails, and watch your videos.
Rather than simply creating content for the sake of creating content, do so in a way that’s respectful of your audience’s time and attention.
Here are 5 ways to show your audience that you genuinely care about them.
1) Share valuable content
In order to share valuable content you first need to understand your audience and what they’re searching for.
Common content pillars include educational content, shareable content (aka content with viral potential), entertaining content, inspirational content, interactive content, and promotional content.
Each of these serves a different purpose, but the common thread is that they help deliver a specific outcome to your audience. And each outcome is valuable.
Start to brainstorm how you could incorporate each of these pillars into your content strategy. What makes your content unique? What perspective and expertise can you bring to the content you’re sharing?
If you’re unsure what content your audience will truly find valuable, you may need to do some more work getting clear on your ideal client by:
Conducting market research
Looking at what competitor content is performing well
Polling your audience
Reading your captions and DMs and engaging with those that are taking the time to chat with you, taking into account what they’re asking about
Looking at your insights (email open rates, post engagement, etc.),
Creating a focus group, and/or
Setting up market research calls where you chat with clients 1:1 to ask for feedback
Remember that your content strategy should be fluid to an extent, so don’t feel like this needs to be set in stone. Continue to test and retest to find what works, and be open to changing things when it’s no longer working.
2) Show up consistently
When you have a clearer picture of what your content should look like, come up with a relatively consistent schedule that you can stick to.
Another component of creating valuable content is committing to showing up regularly, so that your audience can start to trust and rely on you.
Think about it: if you signed up for an email list where the company said they would be sending you weekly emails and then you didn’t hear from them for a couple of months, would you trust and want to purchase their actual products?
Probably not. Set a schedule you can stick to, and then if some weeks you want to show up even more frequently, your audience will see it as you over-delivering.
Now, this doesn’t mean bombarding your audience’s inbox with spam or filling their Instagram feed with post after post. I’ll revert back to point number one, in that if the content isn’t valuable it probably shouldn’t be shared at all.
Staying consistent with valuable content helps to reinforce your expertise and your position in the industry, as well as keeping your brand front of mind.
3) Don't be focused on the sale
While promotional content can be valuable (I mean, I hope you truly believe in the value of what you’re selling), it should not be your primary form of content.
If you’re always selling you’re going to drain your audience’s energy and they’re likely going to get frustrated and unfollow/ unsubscribe.
Think about when you go to search for an answer to something.
If you were looking for a recipe to make for dinner and landed on a site where all their content was promoting buying their cookbook, how would you feel? You’ve just discovered them, you don’t know if you enjoy their style of cooking or if their recipes fit in with your lifestyle, and they haven’t even given you the opportunity to figure out either of those questions! How long would you stick around on that site before searching out a different food blogger? Would you buy their cookbook?
Instead, there’s a balance that can be found between producing valuable content that helps your audience solve the issues they’re facing, and suggesting your product or program as the solution.
You can weave mentions of your paid solutions into your content strategy regularly so that people are aware of what you offer, but it should always be accompanied with valuable content that shows your solution is actually what they’re looking for.
Consumers want to maintain a sense of autonomy, and if you’re always forcing your specific paid solution on them, they’re likely going to go elsewhere for content.
Plus, if someone loves your free content, they will likely start to proactively search out how they can work with you further when they’re ready. As long as your offerings are easy to find and their next steps are clear, you’re not going to have trouble selling.
4) Show you understand the problem
What are your audience’s pain points? What are the problems they’re dealing with that resulted in them wanting to join your mailing list or follow you on social media?
You need to show that you understand their problem(s) so that you can speak directly to the solution. People need to resonate with the content you’re sharing in order for there to be an incentive to continue engaging with you.
You can do this through educational content sharing tips and tricks as to how to start improving X area of their life, through sharing your story (often times we create solutions around problems we faced in the past, so consider diving into how you felt when you were experiencing X problem and really getting vulnerable in sharing how you began to shift), and through testimonials of other people who have shifted their lives based on the principles you share or the products you sell.
Regardless, your audience should feel seen and heard when your content lands in front of them.
5) Solve your audience's problems
Beyond simply showing that you understand their problem, you also need to begin to solve it for them.
Going back to the food blogger example, if you’re a busy mom looking for meals to feed your picky kids, you’ll likely want to try out a few recipes from a food blogger first to ensure that:
The meals can really be prepared in less than 20 minutes
Your kids like the meals
You like the meals
There’s enough food to go around
The ingredients are accessible to you
There are enough nutrients that you feel confident feeding your kids the recipe
So, it’s the food bloggers job to give you enough of the resources (i.e. free recipes) to begin to find these answers out and explore what life could look like if you weren’t always so stressed about what you were going to cook for dinner.
When you start to see some small wins (happy kids, getting to soccer practise on time instead of always being late because dinner took too long, actually using the groceries in your fridge rather than relying on take-out), you’ll begin to trust that this person can actually improve your life in the ways that you want it most.
And when people can see that you’re able to solve their problems (regardless of your industry), they’re going to be more likely to trust you to help them even more when they invest in your further support (via a program, 1:1 coaching, or a product).
You probably need to give more than you think
A common concern I hear from clients is they’re worried that if they give away too much for free, no one will want to pay for their services.
While there will always be people who don’t buy from you, if you’re providing valuable content that helps people with the problems they’re dealing with, most people will want more from you than you can offer in an email or over social media.
This isn’t about giving your entire program away (you need to know your worth!), but it is about giving away enough valuable content and advice that people can make an informed decision on if you’re the right person for them to hire or not.
Sharing your expertise will never replace working with you.
When you do this, you’re clearly respecting your audience, because you’re saving them the time researching if you’re the right fit, and the time suck that it is (on both ends) working with someone who isn’t aligned.
People are busy, and as much as they want to believe they can DIY everything through free content, most people end up wanting to hire things out to someone else (with more expertise and experience) who will simply do it for them.
Make it the easy choice for you to be that person.