branded-contentWe live in a world where we want things, and we want them as fast as possible. Whether it’s your morning coffee or your online order with next day delivery, we have become impatient customers who no longer feel obliged to wait. The same can be said with the way that we expect brands to communicate with us. Customers won’t put up with slow responses and a lack of online presence anymore when the internet is full of other options and alternatives to what you have to offer.
Customers are far more savvy about researching your business now, from TripAdvisor to Google reviews and Twitter to Instagram posts, your business is at their fingertips and here’s the catch … they’re willing to spend the time researching you online.
As nice as it is to see websites with gorgeous images on, customers do appreciate content which can give them the information they’re looking for. I’m not saying that every customer is going to read every word on your website start to finish, but you might be surprised as to which pages receive the most footfall. What you deem as ‘boring’, might be valuable information and the missing stepping stone which converts them from browser to customer.
So if any of these statements apply to you, snap out of it!

What we sell is really boring, our customers won’t want to spend time reading about it

How can you expect your customers to be passionate about your product/service if you don’t give them a reason to be? Educating your customers is a fantastic way to build trust and position your company as the thought leader in your sector. If you can provide your customer with long form, interesting content which is relatable to them, they will read it.

Customers only care about the here and now, they won’t want to know the ins and outs of our business

Want to give your customers another reason to pick you over your competitors? This is the page to do it on. The ‘About Us’ page on the website is usually one of the first pages a new customer will navigate to, so you need to make sure you’ve got all the key details on there. Are you a family business? Make sure you say it. We live in an age where customers are consciously taking a step away from big corporates and turning to the local shop down the road – being local is the new trendy thing so take advantage of being smaller than your competitors and highlight the benefits to the customer in terms of quality and service.

There’s no point in trying to capture data from our website

Having forms on your website giving customers the choice to sign up to receive occasional newsletters is an easy way to grow your database organically. It might surprise you how many customers want to hear more from you on a regular basis, and these are people who have high conversion rates. Sending out a monthly newsletter is a handy way to remind old customers that you’re still around, and to introduce products and services to them that they might not know you offer. Better to send out useful, high quality story-style content to a small, quality database of people that want to hear from you than to bombard a mass audience of ‘bought contacts’ with sales messages.

Our customers don’t care about our employees, so there’s no point in having a ‘Team’ page

It’s important to remember that people buy from people, whatever sector you’re in. Your employees are the face of your company so put the spotlight on them and let them shine. This also positions you as an employer of choice making recruiting the best talent in the industry so much easier. Everyone wants to work somewhere they feel valued, and by showcasing your team you’re giving them the credit they deserve.