Strangers > Brands

This is a profound statement about perception of a brand to a customer or client. If your audience can tell that you’re selling to them, you will come off as disingenuous and thus your customers would value a stranger’s opinion over your own. Combat this by always being authentic and always being human. Have a voice and stick to it.

Pay Attention To your Customer/Reader

Many times businesses are all too consumed with how their competitors are acting or what they are doing online. It’s great to be aware of your surroundings but don’t let that dictate your actions. Customers should be your priority at all times and when you have this in mind, ultimately your competitors matter less and less.

The Golden Rule Of Sales & Marketing?

Treating others how you wish to be treated can definitely be applied to selling and marketing. If you don’t want a pushy salesman like you might get at a car dealership, don’t be that pushy salesman or saleswoman when selling or marketing your products. It may be a good idea to re-evaluate your tactics and approaches on a regular basis so make sure that you’re adhering to this policy.

Too Many Choices

The key to this statement is understanding that customers have a multitude of options when it comes to basically any industry. If your business solves a specific problem that others do not, play that up and make it known. It’s incredibly some way to differentiate your business from others and use that to make your business stand out for consumers.

Readers Want Real Content

Content with depth doesn’t always happen easily. If you’re an expert on a topic or have a close relationship to a topic it may be easier to create great content. To avoid “fluff”, infuse your content with data, expert insight from others, and link to relevant content that your readers may also be interested in. These are just a few, quick ways to add value to your content and to satisfy your deserving readers.

Call To Actions & Data Are Important

Creating great content doesn’t just happen, there are a few key components that make decent content into FANTASTIC content. Two of the most important items to have in any content is Data and a Call To Action. Data is necessary if you’re writing a persuasive article or post and it’s absolutely necessary in news-oriented content. Without a Call To Action somewhere in your content any readers that you excited and now want to engage with have nothing to do. Keep it simple, only one or maybe two Call To Actions in a piece of content (depending on how long it is and what type of content it is) and make sure it’s something straightforward and enticing.

The Reader Is Most Important

Instead of focusing on what you’ve done or what you think, try to center thoughts around what will work for the reader or what they need to hear. They don’t want to just hear all about you you you, they want to know how this information affects them and how they can use it to improve their lives or businesses. If you “put the spotlight on your reader” you are showing them that they are important and they are valued, which can further your relationship.

We’re enjoying all of the discussion coming out of #Inbound15, it seems like lately the focus has been on satisfying your customers and providing valuable content which go hand-in-hand. Stay tuned for our recap of the final day of Inbound 2015 coming to you soon!