There is one type of boat that can never sink and that is a ‘friendship’.
It would be nice if that were true. Unfortunately, attaining the status of ‘friend’ to your audience is difficult to achieve yet extremely easy to lose. This article will look at what it means to be a friend of your audience, how to achieve this coveted status and why it matters.
Content Marketing Means Treating Your Audience Like a Friend
Obviously being a friend to your audience via Content Marketing is not the same as being a friend in the traditional sense. For example, it’s unlikely that you will regularly meet everyone in your audience for beers nor are you likely to give them advice about their personal issues.
Unfortunately, the friendship between you and your audience is all about what you can do for them. Get used to being used because between you and the majority of your audience, this will be a relatively one-way friendship. This doesn’t mean you’ll never get rewarded for your effort. Quite the opposite. There is the potential to be rewarded rather handsomely. The problem is, if your audience suspects you’re only after a reward, you’ll never become their friend.
So How Does This Friendship Work?
Content Marketing 101: Us content marketers are supposed to give as much as possible and expect very little in return from any one individual. Through doing this our audience will start to trust us and be thankful for what we’ve given them. The more thankfully they are, the more they trust us, and the more they’ll see us (or our businesses) as their friends.
Let’s use an example to illustrate this.
Imagine you’re a computer expert. You release plenty of content that helps people with their personal computers. You explain how to fix common issues, how to build new computers, and you release impartial reviews about new software. Your audience knows that if they have a computer problem, you’ve probably already released a video explaining how to solve it. If you haven’t released a video about that topic, all they need to do is send you a message, and you’ll help them out. Many members of your audience view you as a friend. I mean, you help them out for free, you’ve got their back, they trust you and you’re a heck of a nice guy. You sound like a perfect friend.
Now let’s say you also have a business selling computers and computer parts. There are two ways your audience is going to reward you for your friendship.
- They’re going to buy computers and computer parts from you. After all, they trust you. If you say something is good, it must be good because you’ve earned their trust. It doesn’t matter that you’re not the cheapest shop because they see you as a friend. They trust you, they’re going to buy from you.
- They’re going to tell everyone they know how great you are. After all, you help them, do nice things for them and have their trust. Obviously, they’re going to recommend you to everyone they know! A recommendation from a friend is the most powerful form of marketing in existence. This helps you grow your audience, reach new people and ultimately find new high-quality customers.
The above logic also applies to an example where your content is primarily used for entertainment. If you entertain people, it means that they enjoy spending time with you. If they enjoy spending time with you, they like you. Provided they also trust you, they’re more likely to become customers and tell their friends about you. Someone might tell their friend “check out this guy’s blog, I love the stuff he writes, he’s so funny”.
This isn’t going to be a ground-breaking revelation for those who are experienced in Content Marketing. Most people understand that the basic idea behind Content Marketing is to give as much free value as possible and hope to be rewarded when your audience members become your loyal customers.
This friendship analogy helps you to think about Content Marketing differently. Rather than thinking value equals profit. Think in terms of friendship.
Stop obsessing over the question“what can I give my audience that’ll make them thankful enough to buy from me?” and instead think“how can I be the best friend imaginable to my audience?”. If you’re able to achieve that, the rewards will come in abundance.
Put Your Trust In Me
It’s vitally important to remember that trust underpins it all. To become your audience’s friend, they must trust you completely. They must wholeheartedly believe that you have their best interests at heart.
This doesn’t mean that you give away everything for free and refuse to make any money from your work. You’re allowed to run a business. The majority of people understand that if you’re doing this as a full-time job you need to support yourself and your family.
The important point is that you’re also looking out for them. For example, looking out for your audience means you only endorse or sell products that you legitimately believe will help people. It comes down to your intentions. If you’re just trying to make a quick buck without caring about anyone but yourself, you’ll eventually get found out. This is a fact.
The second your audience suspects your intention is to benefit yourself at the expense of others, you’ll lose their trust forever. One mistake is all it takes. Perhaps they suspect you’re endorsing low-quality goods because you stand to make a large commission or maybe they feel you’re trying to sell an unnecessary product or service. Then boom they’re gone.
Avoiding this problem is as simple as good manners. It means, never lie to your audience. If a product isn’t absolutely necessary, don’t pretend it is. You can still endorse or sell the product, just don’t lie about it. There is nothing wrong with saying “I really like this product, to be honest, you don’t HAVE to buy it, you can still do X without it, but I just think it makes it a lot easier”. If you have the trust of your audience many people will still buy it anyway.
Make An Effort
Friends put effort into their relationships. They see each other regularly and they take the time to be available. Even if circumstances mean that they can’t see each other regularly, there is an understanding that should something important happened, they would be there for each other.
This friendship is similar. You need to put in the effort to be available to your audience. This means being present by releasing regular content. You also show you’re available by engaging with your audience. If something big comes up that affects your audience, you’re present and releasing content that addresses whatever that big event is.
Sorry For Stating The Obvious
When I write about this topic, I often feel like I am explaining the obvious. Probably because much of it is obvious. However, it’s also easy to forget. Thinking of ourselves as a friend to our audience is about changing our perspective so we can be more selfless.
By just focusing on how to be a good friend, we can stop obsessing about unimportant details. Instead, we can focus on the most important part of Content Marketing which is giving something to our audience. This can either be through helping them with their lives or through the gift of entertainment.