The number one thing you need to build trust with your audience
Build trust by being consistent.
Consistency is a key element in a brand’s success. Of course, there are other important factors but consistency is what will create name recognition. Consistency is what will build your tribe so you can develop a trusting relationship.
Consistency is what will showcase your expertise to your followers.
If you want to build trust with your audience, which is essential, then it’s time to get consistent!
I’ll be honest that I struggle with this sometimes. Let’s first look at why consistency is so important. Then I’ll share my key tips for creating consistency.
Consistent with Your Marketing
Here’s an example: You go out to dinner at your favorite restaurant and you fall in love with your entrée. A few weeks later you take a friend to the same restaurant, order the same meal, but it tastes different and you send it back to the kitchen. Their lack of consistency in how your meal was prepared will now leave doubt in your head about that particular dish and possibly about the whole restaurant in general.
Doubt in a customer’s mind generally means you have to rebuild that trust again to show that they should continue doing business with you.
It’s not impossible to earn their trust again but you’re basically starting from square one. Just like when your weight loss efforts are halted during the holiday season and you have to lose those same 5 pounds multiple times.
Working your business consistently and focusing on excellent content and amazing customer service will help to keep your clients happy and trusting in you.
Have you ever had this occur: You opt-in to an email list that has great potential. You receive a few weekly emails and then nothing. Crickets.
Then a month or two later you receive an email from that person again, making an offer to purchase their product. How does that lack of consistency make you feel? I’m guessing your first reaction would be, “Who the heck is this person?”
Lack of consistency will cause you to forget who they are and why you signed up for their list in the first place. Lack of name recognition generally leads to, “I don’t know who you are so why would I give you my money?”
Again, this business owner just made themselves a much harder task to win you over again.
Consistency with Your Brand Image
Have you noticed how many gurus there are, each claiming to have the answers to earning 6- or 7-figure incomes?
If you tried implementing all of their different strategies, you’d be exhausted from keeping up with it all and your audience would be very confused about your overall message.
When it comes to branding, consistency and repetition will help develop name recognition.
Find visual ways to brand yourself so that people will make the connection. For example this can be achieved by sticking to 3-5 colors is your designs in print and online, and even wearing those colors in all your marketing and social media posts.
Be consistent with your brand image, colors, and message, both online and offline so you’re always recognized.
Engaged audiences are those who already trust you, like what you have to say, and are eager to have a conversation with you. These are the people who will sing your praises to others, thereby growing your business. And being consistent is a simple way to keep that audience engaged.
key tips for creating consistency
Put these tips in place to create consistency in your business and build trust with your audience.
Take Ownership
You have choosing power. Staying consistent is about making choices. This is a very important mindset to adopt.
There’s a lot of power and freedom in recognizing that your choices truly can get you to where you want to go. No one is stopping you, but you. Set parameters to follow every day, throughout the week and each month that will allow you to successfully meet your goals.
So our first key step in being consistent is to adopt a mindset that we have choosing power.
Build Strong Habits
40-45 % of what we do in a day is habit. They say it takes at minimum 21 days to form a new habit.
While we form new habits we create new neural pathways in the brain. Each day we repeat the habit we strengthen the pathway! Pretty cool, right?
Establishing strong habits will naturally lead up to meeting your overarching goals. No matter what you want to accomplish, from eating healthy, to learning a new skill, or to breaking a bad habit.
To create consistency identify the daly action or actions you need to take. Then commit to taking those actions every day.
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Schedule It
Now that you’ve determined the daily action steps you need to take schedule them. When first forming habits I recommend putting lots of reminders in place for yourself.
Put it on all your calendars, set reminders in your phone, put sticky notes on your bathroom mirror… the point is get that action step in front of you.
I love using Sunsama to create daily routines and keep myself on track.
Sunsama is a daily task manager and calendar that organizes everything you need to do in one place.
It’s super sleek and minimalist design makes it super easy to use. Each morning you review your day, check off items and add new ones if needed.
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It also integrates with tools you are already using like google, outlook, asana, trello and more.
You can create one time or ongoing tasks. Whatever you don’t finish automatically rolls over to the next day so you don’t forget about it!
Recognize It’s A Process
Creating consistency is a process.
Remember to have grace for yourself.
Then keep going!
If you fail or mess up, forgive yourself, and then try again.
Create check points throughout the process. Ask yourself what’s working, what’s not working. Evaluate as you go and feel free to make adjustments.
Following up allows us to make adjustments as we go. If something isn’t working for you, reevaluate it, modify it, change it to work better for you.
Stop Procrastination
My last key tip to create consistency is to stop procrastinating.
We want to be productive, but other things become mental blocks for us. It’s easy to blow it off as momentary laziness and not address the root issue.
I don’t think it’s laziness. The primary reason I procrastinate is because I am unsure of my ability to complete a task well. I also procrastinate when the task overwhelms me or because the task seems unpleasant to me.
This is the time to ask yourself what’s holding you back. We can put off getting stuff done for all sorts of reasons. Knowing why you are putting is off will help you overcome it.
The hard truth is that consistency comes from taking action even when we don’t feel like it. In fact especially when we don’t feel like it.
Which circles back to our first key step: choosing power!
Consistency is important as business owners and bloggers because it’s how we build trust with our audience. We are here to serve them and provide value. But they have to know they can trust and depend on us!
Ready to build trust with your audience?!
What steps can you take today to create consistency and build trust?
xoxo Naomi
