Obviously the process of connecting with your audience and converting prospects into customers isn’t so cut and dry (we’ll cover connecting and converting in other posts), but the nuts and bolts of the follow through is as simple as you make it.

More often brands that shoot themselves in the proverbial foot with their ongoing marketing efforts, do so after disappearing once the excitement of engaging their audience and selling a few products wears off.

So if you’ve engaged your target audience, sold a few products/services and are not sure what to do next, here are three crucial tips for turning that same audience into rabid fans and not just a bottom line:

1. Don’t underestimate the power of creating a human connection

Don’t be afraid to put your brand’s unique story and personality front and center. Leverage individuality and create a seamless relationship between it and your brand (after all, your story is not just an extension of your business). Put a face front and center so that you can not only engage with your customers on a more personal and intimate level, but listen to them and gain more insight into their needs as well.

You’ll have a story to share, a brand star and an understanding of your audience’s needs and how your business and products can fulfill.

2. Establish Consistency!

A key component to providing for your audience and keeping them happy is to establish a clear and consistent strategy for how you will provide and when. Whether it’s your monthly email newsletter, ongoing content on your site or blog, or how you respond to customer service inquiries, it’s essential that you communicate your intention and what your audience should expect.

Examples would include creating a content best practice guide that sets clear quality and formatting guidelines for every new piece of content you post on your site, or clearly establishing how often you will be updating your blog or sending the latest promotions to your email list.

It is crucial to not only establish consistency, but to reinforce it through action. Simply stating the intention to update your blog once per week means nothing without follow through … and no follow through can jeopardize the trust you’re actively building with your audience.

3. Sticky Content = Rabid Fans

Sticky content is exactly what it sounds like. Engaging headlines that prompt your audience to read past the first sentence. Valuable information that provides insight into how your products and services solve a problem or fulfill a need.  Strong call to actions that provide a clear process for engaging with your brand, whatever the end goal may be.

Best of all, sticky content can create a snowball affect that delivers VALUE  far exceeding the cost of services/products you provide, strongly reinforces your relationship with your audience and has them begging for more.

The tips provided actually would work equally as well for blogging, or even website copy… So be sure to check it out!

Have a look for yourself at the link below:

Writing E-mail Marketing Copy That Sells

Here are 3 strategies you can start using today to get more listening to what you have to say.

1. Give away information – If there’s one thing everyone loves, it’s free stuff. While you can’t give your product or service away for free (or can you?), you can give some information away for free.

Dan Miller is a successful career coach and author. Having multiple nationally published books, Dan isn’t afraid to give information away on his blog, website, or podcast. In fact if you listen and read his content long enough, you can basically figure out the content of his books before ever turning a page.

He’s very open about this and routinely mentions it to his audience. But that hasn’t stopped his success. In fact, he’ll be the first to tell you it has actually fueled his success.

2. Be controversial – This may not be for everyone, but if your goal is to get people talking there’s no better way than to say something controversial.

John C. Dvorak is a tech-journalist who makes his career out of being controversial. Whether he’s raising doubts about the aptitude of the U.S. CIO, or claiming Apple should’ve pulled the plug on the iPhone before it was released, John will say anything to get people talking… And it works. Millions read his blog every month and he’s a highly sought-after author and news-correspondent.

If you’re brave, get out there and speak your mind. Whether good or bad, people will be talking about you.

3. Make Mistakes – There’s a widely-held misconception that you have to be perfect in the eyes of your audience. While true in some arenas,in the arena of digital marketing this simply isn’t the case. The goal is to create dialogue. If you’re providing all of the answers, what is left for your audience to say?

ProBlogger has a great take on this subject:

Play dumb or make mistakes. If you write a fabulous, seamless post, you will likely get comments like “great post.” If you demonstrate that your knowledge is slightly lacking or ask a question of your readers directly or fumble around a bit, you will have people (women especially) clambering to help a poor soul out. There’s a reason women talk a lot… we like to give advice. Open yourself up to be the receiver of some advice, and you’ll get more comments.

Your audience won’t view your humility as a sign of ineptitude or weakness, but rather will see it as a strength that you’re willing to listen to what your customers have to save.

Keep these tips in mind and you’ll have more eyeballs viewing your marketing. Keep in mind, these strategies aren’t the end of your marketing, but only the beginning. Attracting an audience means nothing if you can’t turn them into happy customers. Stick with us and we’ll explore the rest of the marketing process in the coming months!