At its core, marketing is about informing potential customers about your business and what you can offer them. While the best marketers mix in persuasion and other appealing rhetorical tactics, it would all be useless if the customer has no idea what they’re buying. Likewise, the information must be true to build credibility for your brand and avoid getting a bad reputation. Here, we outline three other reasons you should keep customers in the loop.
It Could be the Key to Driving Traffic
Engagement often hinges on the customer being informed, especially if you’re selling a service or an experience. That way, they can build proper expectations and make the best effort they can to enjoy the content.
For example, take a look at online gaming. There are two kinds of customers click on that content – those that know what they’re doing and those that want to learn. If you have a space to teach them, then they can become that first kind of customer. Even many sites that host online card games offer a poker cheat sheet that gives people a quick and easy way to learn the basics of the game. Things like playing card values, game-specific jargon, and how the game progresses from round to round.
This can extend a lot further than just online games, to other kinds of technical or creative software. If you’re selling a product, then being informed helps customers make a good buying decision, but it’s still possible for someone to make an impulse purchase to test the product out. If it’s an experience, then being informed about your purchase often becomes the bare minimum.
Informational Content Supports SEO
Somewhat related to our first point, but in more technical terms, is the fact that informational content often forms the backbone of an SEO strategy. Keeping your customers informed doesn’t just drive traffic; it can also improve a brand’s visibility in Google’s search algorithm.
Theoretically, a website could find success if it’s just a landing page, a buy button, and a payment processor. However, a small site with no written content won’t drive natural engagement from curious clickers, and that in turn won’t satisfy search algorithms. All else being equal, the larger, more popular site wins over the smaller site, which will also find SEO harder. This is why so many product or service-based sites have a blog section that discusses their business in more detail, along with other topical events from their industry.
Builds a Community of Trusting Customers
Repeat customers are some of the best that you can get, but it can be hard to guarantee that someone comes back for more business. Online entrepreneurs have noticed that customers will flock to communities oriented around their favorite products/services. They want to share experiences and learn more about the product/service, and the culture of users behind it. Often, these communities are set up by fans on social media or other forum sites like Reddit.
Seeing this, many businesses go one step further by starting their own subreddit or in-house forum on their website. That way, they have an easily accessible audience that will help share information with newcomers in a very organic way.
This is also great for market research, since you know exactly where to find your ideal buying customers. They can inform you in return, giving feedback and criticisms to help guide your future business ventures. Together, these three reasons show that acquiring, keeping, and learning from new customers can all depend on how well you inform them about your brand.