Your product doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re selling luxury goods or high-quality fashion accessories, people will still compare you to the competition.
It’s a problem because, for the most part, they’re right. In an effort to establish credibility on the market, you’ll often find brands and businesses competing over prices, attempting to outdo each other with extravagant marketing campaigns.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. You’re smarter than you think you are, and you have a better chance of establishing trust with your customers than you think you do.
The key to a successful marketing strategy is to empathize with your target audience
Let’s take a look at how to get people to empathize with you so you can better understand them and establish trust when selling your product.
Consider Their Perspective
The first step towards establishing trust is to consider your customer’s point of view. What do they want? What are their needs?
This is a question you have to ask yourself, but more importantly, you have to ask your customers. You’ll find that the more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your strategy to appeal to them.
The best way to get people to empathize with you is by putting yourself in their shoes. This means considering what you’d want if you were purchasing the product or service you’re marketing. Would you want a high-ranking company that you’ve never heard of, or would you rather go for a more established brand that you know and trust?
The answer will affect your entire strategy, from the products you choose to promote and how you promote them, to the pricing and terms of the deal.
The better you get to know your target audience, the better you’ll be able to answer this question. You want to choose a niche and go for an established brand in that niche. The downside to this is that it usually takes more time to build credibility when starting from scratch.
Understand Their Level of Experience
Another way of establishing trust is by demonstrating that you understand their level of experience. Do they need help? Do they understand what you’re saying?
An experienced customer is a customer who has had previous experience with your product or service and can therefore extrapolate how it will perform, or has performed, for them. If you want to get people to empathize with you, simply assure them that you understand exactly what they’re going through and that you’re there to help. Of course, you have to deliver on this promise.
By establishing experience, you’re demonstrating that you’ve been there and that you know what you’re doing. This gives your customers the confidence that you’re thinking ahead of them and that you know what will make them happy. It’s simple: treat your customers with respect and they’ll repay you by continuing to do business with you.
Embrace Change
Last but not least, we have embrace change. The main point here is to be adaptable, which is something you have to be, especially in this day and age. Marketers are always experimenting with new ways to connect with consumers and establish credibility, and what better way to do this than by embracing change. Think about all the digital marketing tools that exist today. Think about all the different ways you can reach your audience.
If you want to get people to empathize with you, you have to be able to change with the times. You can’t expect to have the same success with the same strategy, regardless of the industry or product you’re marketing. Your strategy needs to match the methods of the day, and you have to be prepared to tweak and adjust as you go along.
If you want to be successful in marketing, you have to put in the effort to establish trust with your customers. The only way to achieve this is by demonstrating that you understand their needs, by considering their point of view, by establishing experience, and by embracing change.