The year of nurturing relationships

We’ve all heard about creating relationships with our audience. But too often we pay lip service to it. We do the bare minimum. We see nurturing as a waste of time and we only have conversations to sell. 

That might work in the short term, but in the long term, it’s doing your business a disservice. 

Committing to creating genuine conversations with your audience, that aren’t focused on selling, is the key to building a loyal base who chooses you over a competitor when the time’s right for them.

The time is now

I’m not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions. But I am a big believer in using the new year to refocus and reprioritise. This year for me is all about conversations. It’s about getting out there, meeting more people, talking to them and listening. 

So many businesses fall into the trap of talking at their audience. But if you don’t listen to what they’re saying then you’re just broadcasting, you’re not communicating. 

Or they assume they don’t need to talk to their audience because the business knows best. 

Neither approach is great.

Instead what I want to do is put myself out there. Go to networking events, attend online workshops, use my content platforms to spark conversations and then follow up on them. Because content can be the best way to nurture a relationship…if we use it the right way.

Content for conversations not conversions

When we think about content for our business most of the time our head jumps to sales content. Lead magnets, sales pages, promo posts, websites. 

But while those outputs are essential to a business, they aren’t how you’re going to generate conversations. And it’s those precious conversations we need to build a loyal audience base. After all, not everyone is ready to buy right now. If all you’re doing is badgering people to buy from you and they aren’t ready, you’re going to lose them.

How then do we use content to create conversations? To nurture relationships? 

Questions

When you’re talking to a friend, do you just talk? Or do you pause for them to reply, do you ask them their opinion? 

That’s how we need to think about content when it comes to nurturing relationships. We need to give opportunities for them to engage with us. The easiest way to do that is to ask questions. 

In your social media posts start with a question, then finish by repeating it. When someone comments, reply back. Stimulate the conversation. 

Finish your newsletters by asking a simple, direct question and encourage them to send you the answer.

In the closing sentence of your blog ask them to leave a comment with their opinion.

Purposefully be divisive in your content to give your audience a nudge to reply. 

Questions are powerful. They show you care, they ask for direct action, but they also give you insight into how your audience feels or what they think. If you want to create genuine relationships then start with a question.

Talk around your topic

Yes, this might sound strange coming from me. I know that I advocate being an expert in your topic and diving deep into it. You absolutely should do that, but from time to time we need to step back and talk around it. 

Let’s say you work in recruitment and you’re passionate about great recruitment practices but also sharing industry knowledge for the sectors you work in. That’s the main thing you talk about. Occasionally take a breath and ask about interview disasters, or share a meme about recruitment, dig up some statistics on gender inequality in the workplace. 

All of those things are related to your core topics but from a slightly different angle. Easing off on the hard-hitting, deep content allows more people to join in the conversation. 

If you went on a first date you wouldn’t jump straight into the deep and meaningful questions. No, you’d start with some lighter topics.

It’s exactly the same when it comes to content. By all means, go deep but occasionally, go wide. 

Emotions

Let’s face it - people aren’t going to go out of their way to reply to a white paper. But if something makes them laugh, or excites them then they’re far more likely to share.

As businesses get bigger, they get more reserved. They get scared of posting something funny because what if not everyone finds it funny and there’s a backlash? But there’s a difference between gentle humour and being inappropriate - common sense can normally differentiate between the 2.

The best way to nurture relationships is by using emotions. If you want more advice on how to do that then check out this blog.

Don’t be scared of emotions. They’re just as essential in business relationships as they are in personal ones.

Educate, inform, share

It’s only through varying the type, style and format of your content that you’re going to find out what resonates with your audience.

It might be that offering educational opportunities such as webinars or AMA sessions on social that your audience come alive.

Or what gets them going might be real-world updates shared across your feeds.

Or maybe it’s sharing best practices, what your audience are up to, resources and tools.

In short, you’ve got to try different things. Mix it up, track the results and then review them. Over time you’ll begin to see a pattern of what content gets the best engagement and what’s ignored.

If you haven’t made a New Year’s resolution then make it this. To have more conversations. Not to talk more, not to broadcast, not to grow your network. But to have genuine conversations with genuine people. If you do that then you’ll do the other things and you’ll end up with strong relationships with your audience.

Whether you choose to do it through networking or you decide to use your content as a tool for good, that’s up to you. But just remember that content shouldn’t just be about conversions. It should also be about conversations and relationships.