Written By Danielle Fauteaux
Building audience loyalty should be the battle cry for our agencies. Subsequently, building clients’ audience loyalty should be the value proposition to our clients.
Trust Is Greater Than Reach
Now-a-days, the typical digital marketing reach is driving lower conversion rates.
Whereas in 2012, the benchmark digital conversion rate across B2B industries was 6.1%, now in 2022, that benchmark is nearly three times lower at 2.23%.
The decline in trust among consumers at large has driven that change. Whereas in 2012, 73% of internet searchers trusted the top search results given to them, only 44.5% of internet searchers reported the top search results as being “semi-trustworthy,” as of 2019 findings. That figure may actually be lower now 3 years later in 2022.
In a Flat Marketplace, Audience Trumps All
When the location of your office and of your team no longer matters to get the work done for clients, what then matters most is that you are recognized at the top problem solver in their eyes. This looks like being an esteemed expert among a specific audience as a go-to source for credible and timely information.
The not-so-secret path is to go deep, rather than wide.
Niche Picking Workbook [How to Niche Down]
Simply submit the form below to access a Google Slides Deck that will allow you to brainstorm, refine options, and assess the viability of niche options. The riches ARE in the niches, as they say.
This is why there are so many advisors out there with the message that you have to build your authority, your expertise, your audience, within a vertical niche.
It’s not a secret, but it IS hard and takes sustained effort over a sustained period of time to achieve.
Why Specialty Trumps Reach
When you have an audience that has already built your presence into their routine, you do not have to fight as hard for their attention. They will choose to come to you. You will be genuinely top of mind such that they seek out whether you have any solutions or information on the topic they have at hand.
This is the power of the “subscribe” feature on YouTube.
This is the force behind brands building their own web applications.
This is the reality of the siloed and fragmented digital reality we find ourselves wandering.
Anecdotally Speaking
Allow me to share some examples.
My husband and I like to garden. We will regularly decide that instead of watching a movie for date night that we want to watch gardening videos from our favorite YouTube creator. I have never once seen an ad to drive me to this fellow’s YouTube channel to get me back to his content. Instead, we choose to go because we trust his content, enjoy his infamous dad-jokes, and are interested in the topics he talked about.
He’s built an audience that trusts him on a specific topic, rather than trying to reach the world about anything and everything.
You all have your own examples of this same reality.
There’s No Need to Shout
Answer me this; if you had to seek answers to a query about search engine optimization, as an example, WITHOUT being able to type the query into a search engine, but rather had to go directly to a source, where would you go? Search Engine Land? Moz? aHrefs? SEMRush? Google’s “Help” Section?
That kind of brand recognition is what your marketing and sales efforts should be achieving for your agency’s specialty.
Especially as 17% of searchers, potentially more, are looking specifically for content from brands they already trust, you should be working towards creating trust and repetition with your target audience and existing audience such that when they wonder about a problem, they focus on going directly to your content first before even giving other sources that appear in search engines their time of day.
In the flat marketplace, there’s less impact when you shout aiming to increase reach. But there is a strong impact when you dig deep to resonate with your audience.
The Outflows of Audience Loyalty
What are some signals that your audience loyalty is increasing (and hopefully not decreasing):
- Higher Returning Visitor Sessions
- Higher Reconversion Rates
- Higher Customer/Client Retention Rates
- Higher Customer Lifetime Values (CLV)
- More Successful New Offer Launches
- More Speaking Gigs
- More Referrals from Word-of-Mouth
So, have you leveraged this buyer behavior in the ways that you position your agency offerings? Have you really focused intentionally on building a loyal audience rather than trying to shout louder in a sea of noise?
Building a successful marketing agency takes grit, a focus on your value, and sometimes a *loving* kick in the pants.
Needing an ally as you achieve your long-term goals?
I’d be happy to help.
