How to Engage New Audiences and Build Trust Through Digital Content

Social media has become a crucial tool for small businesses to reach out to their target audience, and increase their brand awareness. However, with the rise of social media, the competition is also increasing, making it challenging for small businesses to stand out. 

Thanks to this competition, it’s essential to always have your finger on the pulse of what is working and what isn’t. How did your audience first engage with you? What has kept them coming back? And most importantly, why have they trusted you with their business? 

In this article, we'll discuss some effective strategies to not only increase your social media engagement, but create more loyal followers for your brand. 

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Create Visuals

Visuals play a crucial role in increasing social media engagement. People are more likely to engage with a post that has an eye-catching image or video than with plain text. While text can communicate a message, visuals can sell a vision, a feeling, and a connection. Therefore, it's essential to create visually appealing content that captures your audience's attention.

In 2022, Hubspot compiled a host of statistics surrounding visual content marketing, you can check out the full list here. One of the most striking results was that visuals help retention and memory by up to 55%! In the study, participants who read text with relevant information were able to remember that text 10% when quizzed three days later. The participants that saw a visual along with the information recalled what they had seen up to 65% of the time!

A composed social media page full of helpful visuals and graphic design are unquestionably effective, but how can you level up your design? To create visuals, you can use tools like Canva or Adobe Spark, which offer pre-designed templates to create graphics or videos. You can also use copyright free stock images to work with your brand's logo, colors, and fonts, creating a professional appearance in a snap. 

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Brand Videos

Brand videos are one of the most effective ways to create lasting memories with your followers. These videos can be used to tell your brand's story, showcase your products or services, and demonstrate your expertise in your industry. They can focus on your company as a whole, individuals making everything possible, or center around a favorite outcome. They can also align with ideals, dreams, and the pursuit of excellence from athletes or celebrities. 

Take this video we created for Blackwood for Men, for example. The video features John Dreiling, a professional wakeboarder, telling his story of chasing his dreams. The dedication and elegance that John commits to his craft are values shared by the brand, making for a natural pairing in a brand video. Although it was authentic for Blackwood to partner with a pro wakeboarder in their brand video, not every company needs to fly across the country to tell a story for their brand. The Courtside Group has worked with tens of companies locally in Dallas, TX, to share a story that can be communicated through a single morning or afternoon spent onsite. 

This type of content helps to humanize your brand and create a deeper connection with your audience by giving them a face, a dream, or an emotion to attach to. 

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Build Trust

Your customers aren’t just looking to buy a product or service, they’re looking to invest in an experience. Because of this demand, businesses are having to shift their approach to marketing and sales. With so many messages and promised experiences vying for the customer’s attention, winning trust and building true relationships has never been more important. 

Trust has become essential for any business to succeed. One of the biggest tools businesses have to use is through creating a trustworthy brand image on social media. There isn’t one magical wand to wave to earn trust, rather it’s by combining multiple efforts - mixing in your brand’s use of graphic design, video storytelling, and stunning photos. Each piece works in collaboration with the next, necessitating a strategy and brand vision to truly produce a coherent product for your audience. 

In addition, engaging with your audience, responding to their comments and questions, and sharing user-generated content are all ways to remove the inherent barrier that exists between a company and the individuals they serve. 

One of the most famous examples of building trust is Dawn’s Saving Wildlife campaign.

Dawn’s message of “tough, yet gentle” reassures customers that they won’t be harming their skin by using their product. The piece also lets consumers know that they are a company who gives back, cares about the environment, and wants to make a substantial impact on the world around them. Not once in the process is there a call to action, a sale, or anything that makes this video feel like a pitch. Instead, the action “I should support Dawn and protect myself/the planet while doing it” is implied. 

Showcasing customer testimonials and reviews on your social media pages is another fantastic way to build trust and pass the social proof test. These testimonials help to establish social proof and increase trust in your brand. They also are incredibly powerful at driving new customers to your brand as they find comfort in other user’s positive experiences. We wrote more about that in our article, Five Star Rating: Why Testimonials Are Your Marketing Silver Bullets.

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Develop a Personality for Your Brand

Developing a brand personality is crucial for any small businesses. Your brand personality is the set of human characteristics that define your brand's identity, and furthermore, helps to create an emotional connection with your audience that can differentiate your brand from your competitors.

To develop your brand personality, you can define your brand's core values, tone of voice, and visual style. You can also create a brand persona, which is a fictional character that represents your brand's personality. Take E*Trade’s famous baby commercials, for example. Light, commercial, and downright silly, E*Trade couches their calls to action behind an unrealistically mature baby who espouses the virtues of using their financial platform. The results (you should really watch this one again) have been viral sensations for years.

At The Courtside Group, we call this Executing With Authenticity. Each brand has a unique voice and a unique personality, so lean into that! Copying other brands can yield short-term success, but long-term, sustainable growth comes from executing your marketing strategy in a way that is authentic to you. If you don’t know where to start, you’re not alone. We’d be happy to help your team brainstorm, evaluate, and execute in line with our Authentic Marketing Framework. Oftentimes, we find that our clients have the answers they need, but they haven’t asked the right questions of themselves or their team. We walk our clients through a simple process with the goal of helping you identify your endgame, know your audience, and execute with authenticity. 

Finding the time and resources to overhaul your social media strategy, content creation, and development can be a daunting task. While it may seem so easy a teenager can do it, the unfortunate reality is that it takes the time, energy, and focus to do it right.

On the flip side, the fortunate reality is that working with a team who does have the experience and resources does not have to cost you a fortune. 

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The Courtside Group delivers high-quality results at a price your budget can smile about. If you’re ready to take the next step to engage your audience and create more loyal customers, drop us a line and let’s chat!