6 Things That Your Online Audience Want
The most straightforward answer to the question of what your online audience wants is really quite simple. They want value from you. They want to be assured that the information you provide to them is accurate, honest, and most importantly that it works for them.
But how can you be sure you have it right on your website? The best thing to do is ask them. But in the meantime, let’s look in a little more detail of what your online audience probably wants from you right now.
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Value
They want you to provide value to them. That means the time they spend engaging with your content should mean something to them. For example, if they read your 10 tips blog post, they’re going to get actionable tips that solve a problem. This keeps them happy, and they grow to like and respect you, since you are regularly giving them answers to the questions that nag them. You reliably and routinely solve big problems in the lives of your prospects, and they reward you with loyalty, traffic, sales and profits.
Information
Depending on where your customer is in their buying journey, they will need information. From the start of their research to the actual purchase of the product they want data from you that they can use and understand that explains who, what, when, why and finally how. Be crystal clear on what you expect from each piece of content before you spend time, energy and possibly money on creating it.
Transparency
People purchase things from other people they know, like and trust. Your customers don’t want to be treated as if they’re ignorant. Keep them informed if there are issues, problems, or concerns. Also, keep them informed of positive news too. Don’t hide when something happens such as pricing changes, technology glitches, and other humanness that happens. If you’re honest and are striving for excellence that’s all they can ask.
Responsiveness
Anytime a customer engages with your business they want to feel as if they’re heard and understood. You must be able to put yourself in your customer’s shoes to serve them well and give them what they want. If they contact you, and you don’t respond in a way that serves them they may not even feel heard.
Control
Today’s customers prefer to oversee how they get in touch with you. There are many target audience tools that you can use to make it easy for them to contact you, from email, to telephone, to chat and more. Whatever you can offer to ease their minds and to give them back control over the process will help them trust you more.
Solutions
Whatever you’re selling, they want solutions to their problems. If you have a solution to their problem, then that’s what they’ll buy from you. Of course, you also need to know how to present that solution in a way that they understand and that they feel gives them the options and choices they want. For example, you can provide several product formats as well as various payment options.
Naturally, you want to offer your target audience what they need. To accomplish this the best way to do it is to ask them. Once you build a community, from day one, you can start sending surveys to them. You can also interview them, start discussions, and even follow them on social media and provide your social media target audience with the information they are looking for.
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Is it possible to succeed online without having plans, systems and schedules in place? Maybe, but it certainly doesn’t make life easy for you. If the creation and delivery of content related interactions with your online audience isn’t planned you’ll never have any way to know from one day to the next what to expect from your business. You’ll also lose readers and viewers. This happens because your audience is hungry for information, and after several days or
even weeks in a row of not hearing from you, they will go somewhere else to get the information and help they seek.
Download my Free Checklist, Creating A 5 Step Content Strategy to discover the best practices used by the most successful bloggers and online entrepreneurs to plan, create and update website content.