Tips for Building a Reputation and Cultivating an Audience

In order for businesses to acquire, maintain and cultivate a customer base, web traffic, digital technologies, and effective tactics should be employed dynamically.

If you want to entrench yourself or your business into the digital landscape, building up a reputation is extremely important, and that involves cultivating an audience of consistent customers. 

The average customer of today, who’s had at least half a decade of experience with the internet, is not the average customer of yesteryears. Customers today are more informed, more engaged, and more discerning when it comes to product consumption and brand patronization. To properly cultivate an audience, the keyword is “organic.” People on the internet are more likely to be cautious if they are directly advertised to, especially if it’s done obviously. 

As such, conventional tactics like mass advertisement don’t get as much reach as they used to; of course, they still work, but there is now a much more diverse and dynamic field and a variety of options to go with. 

The worst thing any online entrepreneur or blogger can be labeled, from a marketing standpoint, is being “disingenuous.” You don’t want that. No one wants that. That means you are basically a swindler, a conman, someone who sells snake oil. So, you have got to lay off on the “trickery” and the “subterfuge.”

Regardless if it’s genuinely true or not, people want to feel respected; they do not want to feel that they are being talked down to.

What a self-respecting marketer/blogger/entrepreneur should do is display a level of sincerity and good faith. Act more like you are a well-meaning stranger suggesting where to take one’s car after a harmless blowout on the interstate rather than a fair hawker browbeating one person to try out their wares. You have to be subtle. “Subtlety.” That’s another keyword to remember.

Building a Reputation and Cultivating an Audience

Reputation is directly tied to the audience you have, and vice versa. One cannot exist without the other. If you have a handle on these two aspects, you will be getting clicks in no time. But first, you will have to get there; in addition to generating web traffic and using digital technologies to increase your reach, here are some tips on how to build a reputation and cultivate an audience.

• Stay Accessible, Be Discovered Easily. Obscurity is the enemy of every business, personality, etc., on the internet. Unlike the physical world, where there are buildings, streets, signs, etc., a digital business only has its URL and its links. So, it’s imperative for a business’s success and survival that it generates adequate buzz or notoriety to keep from getting swamped by the algorithm. This means taking advantage of SEO options and various social media sites to develop a presence and shine a light on your products and services.
  • Making use of influencers who can shout out your products is a good way of getting discovered, as is engaging with your customer base. Posting consistently on social media sites helps create constant traffic by delivering interesting and timely content.
• Know Your Market and Your Niche. Having an informed view of the overall market for your products or services serves as a great boon in marketing because you already have a sense of who your demographics are. This means you can more easily tailor your content and your pitches to those who need or are looking for similar items. Getting an idea of what your niche is, is also helpful. This does not mean doubling down and going all in with your niche, since that would be suicidal, business-wise, only that you make use of your advantages in that regard to better market yourself.
• Establish Other Channels and Expand. As the saying goes, “A craft rabbit has three burrows.” This means that in order to survive the harsh competition, it’s always good to diversify and adapt to whatever conditions and circumstances you find yourself in. In practice, this means making use of whatever business-focused platform you can, in addition to your company’s website. Take advantage of Amazon, Etsy, etc., to widen your reach. As another saying goes, “Do not put all your eggs in one basket.”