Amazon has come a long way from its humble beginnings as an online bookseller. Since its launch in 1994, Amazon has grown to become an ecommerce behemoth. These days, it’s one of the first places shoppers turn to buy anything from cleaning products to the latest tech gadgets.

And with $470 billion in sales globally, Amazon is the uncontested ecommerce leader and continues to grow and innovate.

This success took years to achieve and is due in part to Amazon’s strategic approach to growth. Although Amazon has now expanded into other avenues like streaming and food delivery services, any ecommerce business, regardless of where they start, can learn from Amazon’s example to grow their business and attract and retain more customers.

Here are six lessons that are at the center of why Amazon is so successful. Use them to make your ecommerce business more popular and profitable.

1. Highlight what other customers love

Long-term growth requires a customer-focused approach. When every aspect of the business prioritizes and anticipates the customer’s needs, your company is set to increase customer satisfaction and retention.

One way Amazon meets the needs of its customers is by tapping into the power of social proof through reviews and recommended products. On each product page, Amazon includes a section of recommended products based on what other customers who viewed that product have also viewed.

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Amazon gives its consumers the evidence and options they need in order to make a purchasing decision. Providing users with a “customers also bought/viewed” section taps into the consumer’s fear of missing out on the best or trendiest options. These sections also work to keep Amazon users engaged and continuously browsing.

Providing social proof pays off for brands. According to a Brightlocal consumer survey, 79% of people trust online reviews as much as word of mouth. Moreover, 94% said they are more likely to purchase from a business with positive reviews, and 92% said they are less likely to purchase from those with negative reviews.

What you can do

We live in an age where people share their experiences online, and reviews hold more weight than brand marketing.

Use this audience preference to your advantage by focusing on ways to make your customers happy. If you do a good job, your customers are more likely to share their experiences, which will help grow your customer base and increase your revenue — by lowering customer acquisition cost (CAC) and potentially boosting lifetime value (LTV).

2. Incorporate data analysis into your decision making

Amazon prides itself on its commitment to innovation and testing. They test every aspect of their business — from pricing to product selection — so decisions are based on customer needs and not what Amazon thinks customers might want.

As Bezos puts it, “Our customers are loyal to us right up until the second somebody offers them a better service. And I love that. It’s super-motivating for us.”

In part, it’s this constant threat of customers switching to the competition that drives Amazon’s innovation. Even though it’s the largest ecommerce retailer, with a worldwide revenue of $469.82 billion, Amazon is constantly in competition with other businesses.

Improving the products they already sell also helps Amazon achieve success. For example, as more customers choose to equip their homes with devices that make modern-day living more interactive and seamless, smart home devices increase in popularity. To compete with a smart speaker like Google Home, Amazon continues to upgrade its Echo to include more distinctive features. As a result, the Amazon Echo dominates the global smart speaker market.

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When it comes to features, Alexa on Amazon Echo was one of the first versions of voice-controlled tech. Amazon has gone further with its smart speaker tech to release the Amazon Echo Dot, a smaller, more affordable version, as well as the Echo Show to further cater to customers’ need to be connected.

What you can do

Be strategic about testing your products regularly and coming up with new ideas to meet evolving customer needs. For example, run A/B tests by selling limited edition products to test customer interest, send customer surveys, or use a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey to find who your promoters are and how many, so you can cater to their specific needs. Combine these efforts so it’s easier to make decisions and create innovative products, features and services based on data.

3. Get to know your customers

Amazon is constantly tracking and learning about its customers. As customers search and add products to their cart, Amazon uses this behavioral data to make product recommendations. The online marketplace shows customers products related to items they’ve recently browsed and based on their search habits:

At the bottom of the homepage, customers can also see more recommendations based on recent purchases and a history of products they’ve recently viewed. All of this information guides customers to buy more.

This personalization pays off. According to Evergage research, 78% of marketing professionals believe that personalization has a strong or extremely strong impact on advancing the customer relationship. Moreover, 92% say that customers or prospects expect a personalized experience. Whether it’s through email, website, or in person, successful marketers use data to provide better customer experiences and increase loyalty.

What you can do

Personalize your customer’s shopping experience based on their past behavior, location, and interest list of the customer’s recently searched items at the bottom of your product pages. This makes it easy for them to find the items and add them to their cart.

On your homepage, list products customers might be interested in based on what they’ve purchased or browsed in the past. If you let customers set up accounts on your store, consider setting up a past orders menu option. This feature makes it quick and easy for customers to find what they need and buy it again.

4. Build a community of trust through reviews and Q&As

When it comes to purchase decision-making, people often look to one another for guidance. Online reviews and question-and-answer sections can help increase trust and purchases. Research shows the most important aspect of a customer’s purchasing decision is high ratings and reviews. Consumers even prefer positive product feedback over discounts, coupons, or loyalty program offers.

Amazon taps into this trait of human nature by offering user reviews and a question-and-answer section. Through these features, the online marketplace builds a community where consumers can educate each other and move along the customer journey.

Amazon proactively asks recent customers to rate and review their experience. This feedback appears on the product page with a “verified purchase” flag, which adds to the trustworthiness of the review.

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Amazon also offers a customer question-and-answer section at the bottom of its product pages to give shoppers the option to ask specific questions before they buy something. Past customers provide answers:

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Both of these options make it possible for shoppers to rely on other customers for information and not solely on Amazon. Shoppers can read about honest experiences from other customers and base their purchasing decisions on feedback from those with similar needs.

What you can do

Send follow-up emails to customers to request a review of your product. You can also post requests for reviews in each customer’s personal dashboard, so when they log in, they’re reminded to submit a review directly on your site. Like Amazon, you should flag reviews to make it clear they’re submitted by people who actually bought the products they’re reviewing.

5. Build a loyalty program to incentivize customers

Loyalty programs increase engagement and profitability for companies. 79% of consumers stated that loyalty programs make them more likely to continue doing business with brands.

Amazon launched their loyalty program, Amazon Prime, in 2005 as a membership service that offered two-day free shipping and other benefits, like no minimum purchases or consolidating orders. In 2015, the service gained even more attention when Amazon Prime Day was launched. For one day only, Amazon Prime members have access to deep discounts and exclusive offers.

Prime has evolved since then to also include exclusive offers at Whole Foods grocery stores, access to their streaming platform and music service, and much more. As of 2021, Prime Day continues to be extremely popular with its members, bringing in $11.19 billion in global sales.

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Prime isn’t a loyalty program where customers automatically qualify — they have to pay an annual fee to join. But for many consumers, this fee is worthwhile as long as the program offers decent benefits. According to ClarusCommerce, over 70% of customers are even willing to pay a premium to join a loyalty program.

Shoppers are willing to pay for a Prime membership to gain access to all the benefits—special discounts, free shipping, entertainment, and more. The program taps into customers’ classic desires of saving money, fast deliveries, and easy returns.

What you can do

Create a program that offers incentives that get customers to come back to the store regularly and take advantage of special offers. For example, include access to free shipping, limited-time discounts, and other membership perks.

You can also personalize your membership benefits by offering timely gifts. Studies show that, in addition to saving money, 79% of customers want loyalty programs that care about them. Offer customers special rewards and bonuses during important occasions — like a membership anniversary or birthday — to show customers your brand values them.

6. Think of new ways to evolve

Amazon continues to grow as a result of its dedication to trying new things. If you maintain a mindset focused on evolution, you can foster more opportunities for growth. Amazon continues to grow as a result of its dedication to research and development, from scientific discoveries to improving its inventory planning system to developing the Amazon Fire Stick. The marketplace’s commitment to innovation keeps their business running smoothly and continuously growing.

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In the U.S., Amazon has made returns as simple as bringing your items (sometimes even unboxed) to locations like UPS, Whole Foods, or Kohls. They’ve partnered with these companies and introduced a QR code each place can scan to process your returns.

Source: Kohls/Amazon via Apartment therapy

Amazon’s focus on producing new ways to make the customer experience simple, seamless and entertaining keeps their shoppers engaged. Whether it’s by introducing new TV and movie programming as part of Prime membership or access to new audio content, Amazon is always looking for new opportunities to capture its audience.

What you can do

To innovate, look at what your competitors offer and find gaps you can fill. Listen to what customers are saying on social media, and ask your customer support representatives to log insights they get when customers call in.

Use any avenue where customers share information as an opportunity to learn from them and improve your business and product offerings.

Leveraging examples of what makes Amazon so successful

Since launching in 1994, Amazon has experimented and learned lessons to become the ecommerce giant it is today. Follow in the marketplace’s footsteps by tackling your growth strategically. Start with small changes, test and adjust. Pay attention to your customers and the changing landscape of ecommerce. Be persistent and dedicated with your innovation. If you have patience with the process, over time, you’ll see results.

Products mentioned

For many entrepreneurs, bloggers and ecommerce website owners, buying a domain is an exciting first step to entering the online marketing world. For some people though, it can be an overwhelming time when faced with the question of what to do next: Figure out how to get traffic to your new domain.

Unfortunately, the name alone will not get you much in the form of traffic.

As I’ve joked here on the blog in the past — building a website isn’t like “Field of Dreams.” Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come.

In fact, most people will not know your domain name, let alone that you’ve launched a website. Therefore, you’ll have to find a way to get in front of them and make them aware of it.

Having traffic makes it more likely for someone to become a customer or take other actions from your site. But what is the best way to get those critical eyeballs to your new domain?

The good news is there are many methods for how to get traffic quickly, and some are easier than others. If that sounds good to you, keep reading and hopefully, you’ll glean some ideas to get traffic to your new domain name fast!

Why does your domain need traffic?

People buy domains for various reasons, but most do so with the hope of building a website that converts visitors into paying customers. In some instances, a site may get a lot of traffic without much work or effort on the owner’s part. Other sites will find it more challenging and it will require more work to attract people.

Still, getting traffic to a new domain is usually the starting point for any business owner hoping to make money online. Here are some reasons you might want to get traffic to your new domain.

1. Conversion data

Whether you’re just starting or have been doing business for years, you may not have had the chance to get conversion data. Knowing how many people come to your site and how they navigate the pages can help you make future marketing decisions.

2. Offers on your site

Offers are one way of getting money from people visiting your site. Whether you’re offering affiliate products or something else, having a site that people see and ultimately buy from can provide income.

However, it’s important to note that not everyone who comes through your site will buy something. Even if someone doesn’t make a purchase now, they might do so in the future.

3. Raising your domain authority

Getting traffic to a new domain name is helpful because it can help you build up domain authority.

If you find yourself getting more of the right kind of backlinks or social media shares, this could all help with increasing your overall authority on the internet.

You also might see an increase in search engine rankings as a result.

4. Building your brand

Getting traffic to a new domain could also be used to help grow your brand online. People are likely to remember sites they visit regularly. Even if you don’t get direct conversions from the site, getting people there for other reasons could be an effective way of consistently staying top-of-mind with your audience.

How to get traffic to a new domain

Now that you understand the merits of why driving traffic to a new domain is essential, it’s time to talk about how to get traffic quickly. Here are some of them:

1. Buying established domains to build your domain portfolio

When trying to get traffic to a new domain name, some companies may choose to purchase multiple established domains as part of an overall plan to build their portfolio. This includes both purchasing generic keywords and brandable names for later use.

Having a network of domains can allow someone to send traffic to lower authority domains (new ones like your website) from one high-authority domain with the hope of gaining a higher ROI from it. This can be a way for someone without high domain authority to compete with more established websites.

While this method can require time, energy and significant resources, it can sometimes yield the results you’re looking for.

2. Paying for traffic with advertising

Paying for advertising can be a great way to get people to visit your new domain. This can be done through paid ads on social media sites or even more targeted campaigns on search engines like Google Adwords.

Marketing with advertisements is often one of the best ways to quickly generate high volumes of traffic, but it can also be one of the more expensive options. This strategy can be complicated for beginners who may not have the experience or know-how to implement it properly.

3. Linking out to other sites

You often can drive traffic to your new site by getting other people to link to you. You can do this by putting up valuable content on other websites that link to yours.

One of the more popular approaches is known as guest posting, where you contribute an article to another site on a topic related to yours in some way. This can help direct readers to check out your new domain name.

4. Social media reach

Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or another social media site, getting attention on social media platforms can help you promote your domain.

Social media is a great way to generate traffic because it doesn’t require too much effort to get started.

It’s also great for beginners because it’s less expensive than other types of marketing.

Many entrepreneurs I have spoken with feel that paying for advertising on social media will yield the fastest results. Though admittedly, most have said Facebook is dying out in terms of click conversions. Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok are still driving traffic, however.

5. Email advertising

If you have access to an email list (yours or someone else’s), you can use it to promote your domain. Emails featuring links to important pages on your site, like the homepage or a contact page, can help generate interest and bring people to your site.

What do I mean by someone else’s email list? You could guest post for an established blog or website, and if they send the post via email, there is the potential to drive traffic. Another idea is to pay for advertising in their newsletter. A third option is perhaps the riskiest, and that is to buy the list.

You always want to use caution when buying email lists to drive traffic as it could get you blacklisted for spam. Still, it sometimes can work depending on their website’s niche and their introductory email.

6. Influencers and partnerships

In some cases, people who have a big social media following or email list may be willing to partner with you.

Sending free products or a trial of your service and encouraging them to share with their audience is one way to collaborate with others.

This can be a compelling strategy for getting traffic to your new domain.

Of course, it’s worth noting that the higher the level of influence, the more likely it is that you’ll need to pay for access to an influencer’s audience.

7. Guest posting and guest podcasting

I alluded to this in the email advertising tip, but hijacking, er, I mean borrowing other people’s audiences is a great way to get traffic to a new domain name quickly. Writing guest posts on established websites and getting featured as a guest on well-known podcasts will often result in backlinks that can drive people to your website.

The most important thing you can do if this is the method you choose is to deliver maximum value to the audience of the podcast or website you hope to be featured on. The truth is that website owners and podcast hosts know most people are fishing for backlinks, and as a result, they are becoming much pickier about who they feature. Therefore, it’s critical you give a decent pitch and give them more than just a watered-down version of content they are already sharing.

And, the more places you are featured, the more likely you are to get featured somewhere else. Read this post on how to start guest posting for a step-by-step guide to establishing your authority.

Note: Many of these tips can be repurposed for guest podcasting too!

8. Get lucky and go viral

This is the hardest method on the list, but I’ve seen websites crash from the amount of traffic they got from going viral. If you have a funny, scary, gross or otherwise wildly engaging idea for social media or YouTube, it could yield untold amounts of interest in your website.

For this method to work best, you’ll want to add your website link to the bio of all of your social media profiles, YouTube description boxes, about pages, etc. After all, if you go viral and no one knows how to find your domain, all that effort would have been for naught.

9. Organic traffic through SEO

I saved this one for last because although it’s not the fastest way to drive traffic, it’s a tried-and-true method for how to get traffic to a new domain. Plus, it doesn’t cost anything directly and will have the longest staying power.

SEO strategies often take content creation into account, so you will need original written content on your website. This content should be helpful to consumers and past the point of being self-promotional. It should focus on providing value and driving people to take action, such as visiting your FAQ page or contacting you for more information.

As with any marketing strategy, traffic-driving tactics need to be tailored to fit your audience and your niche.

What works for someone else may not work for you, so experimentation is often the best way to know if something will be helpful or not.

Conclusion and next steps

If you have been searching for how to get traffic quickly to your new domain, this post may have burst your bubble. That’s not to say that you can’t get traffic to a new domain name fast. It will take effort, and if speed is the primary goal it might take advertising funds, but it can happen.

Getting traffic to your new domain can be a manageable task if you know the right way to go about doing it. With these tips, you should have no trouble getting people to visit your site — though it may take longer than you would like. Your best bet if you plan to make money online is to focus on the long game and start by putting out really good content.

Try to blend these traffic-driving strategies with your content marketing plan so you can attract the right kind of visitors. And, as I often say on my podcast May your page views be high, and your bounce rate be low!

People have to trust your brand enough to buy it and become loyal customers.

The pandemic has forced brands to re-strategize, with more people shopping online. However, most will only shop from brands they trust. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer Special report in 2020, 70% of consumers believe that brand trust is more important today than ever before. This belief cuts across all genders, age groups, and income levels.

What is brand trust?

Brand trust means how much confidence customers have in your products, services, or business as a whole. It reflects on your brand and whether it delivers consistently and stays loyal to its values. The way customers feel about your business is essential. It plays a significant role in building your reputation and your bottom lines.

Most people prefer shopping from a store they know and have built trust.

Advancement in technology means customers have more choices on where they shop. Shopping in an online store across the globe is not an issue. The question is, can they trust that business to deliver their items? How can they be sure that their problem will be solved and that their goods will not be delayed?

This is where you look to build brand trust. If the customers trust your brand, you have proven over time to be reliable and trustworthy.

Why is brand trust more important than ever?

There are millions of online stores. When you start an online store, you are not selling anything new under the sun, and your competitive edge can only come from building brand trust. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer says that people now trust businesses more than they trust the government, NGOs, and the media.

Brand trust has several benefits to your business:

Impacts customer buying decisions

Trust keeps bringing customers back to your brand. Customers who trust your brand will always choose you over other brands. Once you build brand trust, they become loyal and recurring customers, which increases their lifetime value.

Brand advocacy

Customers who trust your brand are more likely to tell others about it. Word-of-mouth advertisement is a powerful tool that drives more business. Satisfied customers will go out of their way to tell others about your brand and their experience. This type of marketing is a simple yet powerful reputation builder that will attract new business. In the Edelman Report, 78% said they would most likely repost or share content from their trusted brand, recommend it to others and defend it from critics.

Brand loyalty

Satisfied customers will keep coming back. They will remain loyal, and no matter the types of storms your business faces, they will keep it afloat by coming back time and again. 75% in the Edelman report said they would buy from the brand, even if their products were not cheap. 46% said that they trusted most of the brands they purchased.

In the aftermath of the global pandemic, people expect brands to take a stance and inspire hope for the future, advocate for more change and use their brand to better society. Brands have to steer clear of rapid responses and think long-term. Brand trust sustenance is a conversation that needs to be had every quarter for at least the next five years.

Build brand trust through digital marketing

Once upon a time, all a business needed for it to thrive was an easily recognizable brand. Today’s consumer demands trust before they can buy. The internet has changed consumers’ outlook on things. They can easily search for brand information online before they purchase, and most do. They have to look for reasons why they should trust your brand before investing their cash in your products or services.

You can build trust via digital marketing in several ways, including:

Evaluate brand sentiment

Brand sentiment is a critical metric you need to watch. When you focus on the numbers, you only get a shallow perspective of things. Just because your brand gets many mentions online does not mean it is doing well. These mentions could be, in reality, bad reviews from customers.

Evaluating your brand sentiment determines the attitude or feeling toward your product, brand, or services.

Analyzing brand sentiment is made easy via media monitoring tools. With these tools, people tend to express their opinions via social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It’s impossible to search for all mentions manually and evaluate them, making media monitoring tools the best way to assess brand sentiment.

These tools analyze all your online brand mentions. This gives you valuable insights into how potential customers perceive your brand. The tools determine whether the mention’s sentiment is negative, neutral, or positive. However, a computer cannot detect nuances in a language such as sarcasm, so the tool cannot give you 100% analysis. It gives you a general overview of the sentiment.

Make your company mission clear

Your mission statement should define your brand’s business, objectives, and how you intend to reach the set goals. Your brand’s mission is the business’s foundation. This mission sets you apart from your competitors and defines how you value your clients. Other than stating what you do, you need a well-written and concise mission statement.

This goes a long way in making your brand more authentic and gives it a human face.

Consumers are already bogged down with online adverts. It becomes a challenge to connect with potential customers organically. Your mission statement should guide your marketing strategies. Build a brand voice that customers can relate to.

Understand customer behavior

Knowing your customers better allows you to get more business. When you understand your customer, you know how to give them better service. As a result, you forge good customer relationships. When you understand customer behavior, you can identify their purchase patterns or preferences, which allows you to anticipate their expectations and needs. You can do this by:

Tracking the customers’ behavior In real-time

You can only track the customers’ behaviors with tools that can give you a glimpse into their behavior in real-time. You can invest in a CRM (customer relationship management) tool that allows you to view and analyze their activities in depth.

Categorize your customers

Tagging the customers in one general group leads to cross-selling campaigns with no tangible results. Understand how to separate the customers and on what parameters. Group them in purchase frequency, type of products they buy, geographical location, etc.

Once you have the categories, it is now easier to create precise cross-selling and marketing campaigns. The messages in the campaigns are targeted at specific categories and drive value for your brand and the customers.

Encourage user-generated content or reviews

Today, most customers are millennials, and they are on social media discussing their favorite brands. This is crucial for any company trying to build brand trust. User-generated content is an excellent opportunity for your brand to show how real-life people use your products and build brand confidence.

Ensure you share the customer endorsements on your social media handles. You can also have the content featured on your website’s testimonials page. Other than your regular customers, allow other trusted sources to vouch for you. You can showcase your collaboration with other brands, share photos and videos from reputable sources, and use influencers in your industry to push your agenda.

Provide valuable content

In digital marketing, content is everything. Quality content on your blog, social media, or company website can do a lot by setting you up as a thought leader and authority in your industry. Before you write any content, do due diligence and check what your competitors are posting. Find gaps in their content and write content that will fill these gaps. Your content should be engaging, more detailed, and generally better than your competitors.

Stick to the 80/20 rule of content creation. 80% of the content should be non-promotional and impart valuable information, and 20% talk about your brand. This engages the customer and tells them they come first. Remember this when creating a video, writing a blog post, or posting on social media.

Have a solid, active presence on social media to engage with customers

When customers have an issue and raise it on your social media page or website, you have to be at hand to respond. Chatbots can be a part of the solution, and customers like to get prompt replies. A social media presence is beneficial for projecting your brand voice. Clients will be happy that someone listens to their problems and works on a solution as fast as possible.

Respond to your reviews

When you encourage reviews, you demonstrate that you value your customers’ opinions. You cannot please everyone, and there will be negative reviews. Responding with transparency can turn a potentially ugly situation around into a favorable one. If you mess up, do not hesitate to own up and apologize. Customers will be happy with your honesty and your willingness to rectify the mistake.

Initiate and participate in industry conversations

When you initiate and participate in industry conversations, you will be recognized as an authority in your field. You will also be recognized as an industry thought leader. Ensure you are knowledgeable and have done your research to impart useful and accurate information.

Take advantage of customer testimonials

As mentioned, customer testimonials can act as proof of your trustworthiness. Post the testimonials on your website testimonials page. Most customers read testimonials before they can fully trust a brand. If they find unbiased feedback on your website, all the more is why they should trust your brand.

Share trustworthy links

Links are a crucial asset. They connect your business with the online community. The links you share should always lead to reputable sites. Your content posts should refer to sources that provide curated content. Branded links will serve you well on social media as they give your followers a clue of what they are about to click.

Branded links have a custom domain name with a keyword in its slash tag. When you associate reputable links with your brand, your followers know you will never lead them to phishing sites or spam. This trust can boost your click-through rates by a huge margin.

Be transparent and keep promises

Customers need brands to be honest and transparent in their actions. You can show your customers how truthful you are by turning away potential clients that are not a good fit for your brand. This demonstrates your integrity and shows you are not only after money but service-oriented. Honesty creates a good impression on customers.

Keep your promises to clients — they will remember it and keep coming back because they already know they can trust you to keep your word.

Partner with authoritative brands

Partnering with authoritative brands has significant value in building brand trust. It sends a powerful message to your customers that they can also trust your brand. A brand partnership is an agreement between two brands to use both brand names in an alliance.

This tells your customers that you are an authority in your field, and they can trust you to deliver what you promise. Your brand also gets a more extensive customer base from the alliance partner, who will trust you because a brand they trust believes in you.

Own up to your mistakes

No brand is perfect. When your brand makes a mistake, own the mistake and apologize to your customers. Your loyal customers will not run. Instead, they will empathize with you and appreciate that you have owned up to your mistake. Trying to defend your brand when an error has happened only serves to make things worse.

Ensure your site is secure

Website security is crucial in building brand trust. In this era of cyber-attacks, the first thing you need to do is ensure your website is HTTPS (hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure). An HTTP URL sends a signal that it is not safe. Remember customers submit sensitive data over your site, especially when they make purchases. If they realize your site is not secure, they will not trust you

Use trust badges on your site to make it more trustworthy. Trust badges are symbols on your site that tell visitors that your site is legitimate. It also assures them that all there is collected data via secure and reputable third-party providers. Having the PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, etc., badges as payment options on your site can increase trust levels in visitors.

Allow your team some time in the spotlight

In the attempt to make your brand more human, it pays to allow your team to shine. Let the consumers know your team members and enable them to put faces to the names. This fosters a good relationship. Include a “Meet the Team” page and allow the team to shine in the spotlight. Post the good reviews left by clients about each team member. It builds trust and boosts morale among your team.

Use social proof on your website

Social proof comes in the form of testimonials and positive client reviews. This goes a long way in attracting new business to your brand. As mentioned earlier, customers trust reviews and opinions from other customers than they do your content.

Most consumers read at least ten reviews before trusting a brand. About 70% of consumers research by looking at several review sites, so it pays to use multiple sites for your brand as social proof.

Keep your brand consistent

Never go off-message. It will destroy the brand you are working hard to build. Keep your brand colors, log, personality, and tone consistent from day one. Consistency is significant in building brand recognition and awareness.

People should recognize your brand immediately they see it. For example, the Apple signature of a bitten apple is recognizable everywhere you go. When you go to any country globally, you will get the same product quality as the origin country. This is consistency. They have never changed anything about their brand, and it is easily recognizable anywhere.

Conclusion

In an increasingly technological world, building brand trust has become a crucial part of online businesses. A consumer has to trust your brand before they part with their money, and it is up to you to build their trust in you. Your brand is not what you declare it is. Instead, it is what consumers say it is.

If all you get are negative reviews, your business will fail.

Come up with strategies that will cultivate brand trust. Positive customer experiences ensure that your clients become loyal and recurring customers that refer you to others. Foster relationships by creating an authentic and human face that customers can relate to. Once you build that trust, ensure you maintain it by being honest and owning up when you make mistakes.

Your content usually appears in one of three forms: things you read, things you hear and things you see. That can be blog articles, web pages, whitepapers, ebooks, special reports, tweets,and so on. Email campaigns (87%) and educational content (77%) are the two of the most popular content marketing methods that B2B marketers use.

You also might use videos, photos, infographics and navigation schemes as 84% of people have decided to buy a product or service after watching a video. Or it could be podcasts, music, presentations or (again) videos. More than half of podcast listeners say they are more likely to consider brands advertised on podcasts.

When customers show up in your sales funnel, they’re already pre-qualified and just need to be shown how and why yours is the best possible product or service they need.

That doesn’t mean you can be boring and create mediocre content and just expect people to show up.

There are a lot of people out there who are creating interesting content and winning people over by being clever, humorous, and informative. They’re writing interesting copy, taking gorgeous photos, and producing high-quality video and audio content.

Improve your content marketing with a basic strategy

If you wanted to create a basic content strategy, you can follow these steps:

1. Pick three to four frequent problems your product or service solves. Dedicate one topic per week for each month. You’ll cover all four topics in a month for blog articles and social media updates.
2. Pick three to four themes for your strategy. Pick one theme per week of the month. For example, 1) how-to, 2) client case study, 3) typical client problem, 4) industry news analysis.
3. Write one blog article per week about each theme. Post it to your blog as a way to boost your website’s SEO, but to also show your audience that you’re an expert in this field. (If you’d rather do videos or podcasts, do that too, but try to stick to the same schedule.)
4. Build your social media audience. Do a search for people who are likely to buy from you and then follow them on Twitter and connect with them on LinkedIn and Instagram. Engage with them in regular conversations, don’t push out sales messages.
5. Share industry news stories on your social channels. A great way to remind people of their pain points is to share news stories about them. If you sell a device that helps fleet drivers reduce fuel costs, share news stories about gas prices going up. And write blog articles that analyze the issue.
6. Do NOT build a day-to-day or week-to-week calendar. I’ve known agencies that scripted out an entire year’s worth of tweets and social updates, plus blog articles, only to have the entire script collapse when something in the industry or company changed. Think guidelines, not schedules.
7. Incorporate holidays and events. Be sure to take holidays or special events into consideration. Hotels should have themes for Valentine’s Day, conference schedules and so on. Accountants should talk about tax day a month in advance. And retailers should make plans for the major shopping holidays several months in advance.

I’m leaving out the basic, it-goes-without-saying elementary “secrets” to improve your content marketing that every other expert tells you, but they’re still things you should do anyway:

• Understand your unique value proposition.
• Define your audience and create personas.
• Know your keywords.

Or my most-detested “secret.”

Write good stuff.

(Seriously? That’s not optional! And it’s certainly not a secret. That’s like your family telling you “Drive safely” when you drive to work. Boy, I’m sure glad you said something because I was just going to swerve all over the place. Basically, if being told “write good stuff” makes you decide to write good stuff, then you need to re-examine your life choices.)

But assuming you already plan on putting forth your best effort as the very foundation of your business’ existence, here are the other 12 steps to improve your content marketing.

1. Optimize your website’s SEO

Depending on how you’re doing your SEO, your website and blog may need a tune-up.

Run your site through tools like SEObility or Moz’s free SEO tools to check the overall SEO health of your website, and then make the necessary updates.

But it doesn’t stop there, because it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it process. This is an ongoing task that you will have to perform until you shut your business forever.

If you have WordPress, install the Yoast SEO plugin and you’ll be able to optimize every page and blog post on your website. Just follow the instructions to earn a “green light” for every page or post and you’ll know that you have covered the SEO basics for your site.

Finally, keep in mind that your blog is going to play a critical part in your SEO efforts. A site with a great blog that is only partly keyword optimized will outperform a site that is greatly optimized but doesn’t have a blog. That’s because Google wants to see lots of written content, and a blog is an excellent way to provide that.

2. Think about your searcher’s intent

Very often, people will optimize their sites with Google’s search bots in mind. Make the bots happy, give the bots what they want and you’ll rank high for your keywords.

The problem is, the bots don’t buy from you. Also, you may not actually care about the keywords you rank for. And eventually, a bot-first strategy will fail because you forgot the people.

Some unscrupulous SEO pros will tell website owners they can get them a No. 1 ranking. The problem is, they’re ranking for really esoteric long-tail keywords — “finger exercises for big data practitioners with degrees from Big 10 universities” — that don’t actually do anything.

Think of why people come to you in the first place. Do they have a problem? What kinds of problems? People even ask their phones or Google that question:

“How can I redesign my house on a budget?” “What should I do after a car accident?” “How do I stop my faucet from dripping?”

Write blog posts and rewrite your web pages to answer those exact questions. You can also do comparisons and reviews of specific products or services, comparing yours to your competition. Or review products that your customers might use, but you would provide for them, such as a heating/AC company reviewing different AC units.

3. Optimize your website for mobile devices

Google now ranks websites based on how well they perform on mobile devices. It doesn’t matter whether your visitors are using mobile devices or not. Even someone looking at your site on a laptop and 30″ monitor will only find your website if it’s mobile-friendly.

Use WPTouch Mobile Plugin if you have WordPress, or better yet, make sure your website is designed with HTML5 elements. If you don’t have WordPress, you still need HTML5. As long as your website looks great on a mobile phone, you’ll improve your rankings.

That also means adding small file-size photos that are roughly 900 pixels wide and 100 dpi resolution. Those load faster on a phone, which also helps your mobile rating.

4. Create INTERESTING content

Think twice before you publish that how-to article or explainer video, said the guy writing a how-to article. They’re usually boring, lack emotion and cover the same material as 1,000 other articles. (Said the guy whose article has 12 WHOLE STEPS!)

• If you really want to interest people, write cool stuff about cool topics.
• Write the in-depth, advanced, 401-level material super-secret knowledge instead of that 101-level stuff everyone else does.
• Tell us how to use the Hero’s Journey storytelling model in our case studies. Do an interview with a notable leader in your field.
• Do a Q&A session with your staff and ask them things like, “What’s your favorite non-business book?” or “When did you first decide to get into this field?
• Have everyone answer the Proust Questionnaire.
• Or develop your own Proust-like questionnaire and ask your staff and partners to answer it.

5. Post photos and videos to your Google My Business listing

When people do searches for products or services, oftentimes, Google will often show several business listings. One way to make sure your listing appears near the top (which puts your website at the top) is to add photo and video content to your Google My Business (GMB) listing.

After you’ve claimed and optimized your GMB listing — you <em>have</em> done that, haven’t you? — you can start adding photo and video content to it to help your Google rank but to also show your customers, followers and fans that you’re keeping the listing up to date.

Post videos of commonly asked questions.

If anyone ever emails you with a “How do I …?” question, turn that into a two- to three-minute video, as well as a blog post.

Post the video to YouTube and then embed it on your GMB listing.

6. Develop a voice and a personality

Most people write in a very serious, business-like tone. It’s rather dry and uninspiring, and it doesn’t convey any emotion or pull people in. But if you adopt a distinct voice and personality for your content marketing, you’re more likely to win people over because you’ll touch them.

Emotionally. I mean touch them emotionally.

See, my voice/personality is often humorous and lighthearted. Other times, I’ll adopt a personality or teacher voice, or put some Dad energy into my writing.* And in a lot of cases, I’ll use first person so you feel more connected to me as a writer.

* Be sure to get your car serviced before winter sets in.

Your voice can be serious, proper, fun, friendly, confident, admiring or inspirational. Think about how you normally speak to your friends and customers and then start dictating your writing. If you need some help, dictate a possible blog article into your phone’s recorder as if you were explaining a concept to your friend, and then upload the audio file to Otter.ai  to transcribe that into text.

Clean it up, get rid of the “umms” and “uhhs,” and make that your article. The tone of voice you used there is your website —and company’s — voice and personality.

7. Answer complex questions

I’ve said it elsewhere, but if you want your content marketing to stand out, avoid that 101-level of information. Stop writing lists about “10 reasons to hire an interior designer” or “5 ways to lower your taxes next year” because it’s the same boring nonsense that everyone else has posted.

Instead, dive deep into the weeds and esoterica of your field. Pick those questions that can’t be answered in just 500 words. If you take 2,000 words to deal with a topic, so be it.

Search marketers are finding that long content is actually performing better than short content.

This article is more than 2,000 words, and if you’ve read this far, then it’s clearly working.

8. Share personal stories and vulnerabilities

People buy from people they like and trust. One way to do that is to share stories about yourself that show you in something other than a heroic, gets-it-right-all-the-time light. Share stories where you learned tough lessons. Share stories of your mistakes. Share stories about your fear.

One of my favorite articles on my work blog deals with how, as a writer with more than 25 years of experience and four books under my belt, I still deal with imposter syndrome on a regular basis. It didn’t get me a lot of business, but I heard from other people with whom that article resonated because they also deal with imposter syndrome. I even had a couple of clients say something about it. It helped them understand me better and deepened the relationship.

You don’t have to uncover buried secrets that you’ve never told anyone. But it’s okay to share your feelings about certain topics if it will, as Simon Sinek says, help people understand your Why.

9. Start using TikTok and other short videos

I’ll confess, I’m not a big fan of TikTok. I see the point, I see why people like it and there are a few TikTokers I subscribe to (@bdylanhollis, @bmotheprince, @cheechandchong). I’ve even toyed with using it myself. But while I may not use it, I believe it will be the “Next Big Thing” in social media and content marketing.

There are already 1 billion people using TikTok worldwide and 100 million users in the United States, which makes it one of the largest social networks out there. TikTok is not an ideal B2B marketing tool.

I can’t imagine many manufacturers saying, “We need a new freight shipper! To the TikTok!”

But if you’re trying to reach Gen Z, you definitely want TikTok: 47.4% of active U.S. users are between 10 and 29, but the over-30 crowd grew 5.5 times from 2020 to 2021.

So if you’re in any kind of B2C market, TikTok and/or Instagram Reels need to be on your content marketing plan for 2022. If you don’t have a knack for video, then consider hiring some college students to produce some videos for you. Hire some kids from the film-making department or the theater department and ask them to produce some TikTok videos about your product.

10. Measure everything

You don’t know what to improve if you don’t know how well you’re doing. So you need to measure everything you do. Even a basic Google Analytics setup can tell you how well your website and blog are performing, and what you should do about it.

Do you receive more web visitors when you publish a blog article? Then publish more articles. Are your how-to articles outperforming your product review articles? Then write more how-to articles.

Similarly, take a look at your Twitter analytics, Instagram analytics (if you have Instagram Business), and even your LinkedIn and Facebook pages’ performance. See what kinds of content are seeing positive engagement from your visitors and fans, and do more of it. The things that are not performing well? Do less of those, or figure out how to make them better.

11. Hone your skills

This is important for anyone doing content marketing themselves. Whether you’re a professional content producer, or you have to write blog articles and shoot videos as a small part of your job, as you get better, you’ll improve your content marketing too.

(Honestly, this step should be No. 1 on the list, but it disrupted the flow of the whole piece.)

That means deliberately practicing new skills and techniques you want to improve.

Photographers and videographers, that means shooting content every day. A professional photographer friend told me that he didn’t get good enough to become a professional until he spent several months shooting photos every single day. He learned about framing, composition and point of focus, but only because he shot photos for two to three hours a day.

It’s the same for us writers. If you want to be a better writer, you need to read books and see what outstanding writers are able to do. Don’t read blog articles, because most of them aren’t that good. Read books from established and well-known authors.

Borrow their techniques and tricks, and then practice them in your normal everyday writing: emails, reports, even your social media updates. If you want to learn how to cut adverbs, do that everywhere. If you want to learn to write short sentences, practice it constantly. Soon, those things will become a habit and you can move on to the next technique.

12. Hire a professional

If you just don’t have the time to improve your content marketing skills, but you want to improve your actual content marketing, then hire a professional. There’s no reason to muddle through it and try to make slow improvements, even while you’re putting out less-than-stellar content. That doesn’t help you in the short or long run.

Think of it this way: If you were to offload all the stuff from your job that isn’t the stuff your business actually does, how much more money could you make?

If you’re an attorney who bills by the hour, how many hours do you lose when you’re doing the books? If you’re a building contractor, how many projects could you do in a week if you didn’t have to do your own estimating or get supplies from the lumber yard? If you have a technology startup, how much time do you want to spend dealing with HR issues or managing payroll?

In these instances, it’s going to save you a lot of time and even make you a lot of money if you outsource those tasks to a trained professional who can do it faster and better than you. That not only frees up some additional time for you, but it can also even give you time to make some extra money to pay for that person’s work.

This is true for content marketing, too. If you hate writing or don’t have the time or expertise to do video editing, then hire someone to do it for you.

Just like every other skill you learned, improving your content marketing is an ongoing process. Some of these things can be done a few times a year, but others need to be done on a constant basis (i.e. practice every day).

Editor’s note: If you need help with SEO, social media,  and more, the experts at GoDaddy are here for you! GoDaddy Social, SEO Services, Website Design Services and Logo Design Services can help save you time so you can do what matters for your business.

Concluding thoughts

Even if you do just a few of these steps in 2022, you’ll see a major difference in the quality of your content marketing, which will lead to increased web traffic, which can only lead to more sales. Pick the two or three that are easiest to tackle and start on those. As you get them under control, pick another one or two and work on them.

And in all cases, if you need help, call in a pro. Don’t spend many hours mucking around with a solution that doesn’t quite do the job for you. This is your company, so make sure you do it right the first time and then reap the benefits that come from it.