Loyalty is not won by being first!

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

Winston Churchill was once at the BBC office for an interview.

He had to take a taxi for the travel.

And as he got down at the office, he said to the driver, "Can you wait for me for forty minutes until I got back?"

The driver apologized and said, "I can't because I have to go home to listen to Winston Churchill's speech".

Churchill was amazed and delighted with this man's desire to listen to his conversation.

So he took ￡10 and gave it to the taxi driver, without telling the driver who he was.

The driver was shocked to see the ￡10 bill.

He was happy.

With a joyous smile on his face he said, "I'll wait here for you until you come back, sir. Let Churchill go to hell".

This is more than just a story.

It teaches you some basic concepts about loyalty, value and priorities.

Here are a few things that are learnings that I picked up from this story.

Customer Loyalty isn't permanent

This is the age of consumers.

They have choices and many that they can pick from.

Just like the taxi driver, people will shift their loyalty if they find better value elsewhere.

Your competitor might be doing great today. But if your content offers more insight, engagement, or usefulness than others, you can attract their audience and make them yours.

So focus on creating high-quality content.

Dive deeper into topics.

Give unique perspectives and practical tips.

Find gaps in content that already exists out there and try to fill in those gaps.

All you need is a ￡10 to change your choice!

Consumers need value

As consumers, we always look for the best value.

The taxi driver planned to listen to Churchill because it had value for him.

But the ￡10 offered more immediate value which led to him changing his plans.

Your content strategy should always prioritize value.

Understand your audience's needs.

Create content that addresses your audience's pain points and helps them solve those.

Know what their interests are and what offers them value.

This attracts new followers and keeps current ones loyal.

Value in incremental

Value is never absolute.

It is dynamic and it is incremental.

You might be getting x for $1.00. Given no other option, x is the most valuable for you.

But when you see another option that gives you x+y for the same $1.00, you definition of value shifts.

This makes it important that you keep redefining the value that you are providing your audience.

Let me relate this to something of a change that we see in blogging these days.

Bloggers are constantly updating their old posts with new information, new updates and new thoughts.

Why?

Because if they don't do it, there will be another blogger who will publish a better post on the same topic and your audience will soon be their audience.

Engage and Gather Feedback

The only way you can learn more about your audience is by talking to them.

This is where social media has changed the game for businesses.

Social media gives you direct access to your audience. You get to talk to them, learn more about them, ask questions and even hand over that ￡10 (customized discounts) bill to them personally.

And when it comes to creators, it is easier than it is for businesses.

Talk to your audience. Make offers, capture their emails by offering freebies, run surveys and learn more about them.

What better way to create content that talks to your audience.

FUN TRIVIA: - Do you know that some of the most profitable brands on social media are doing it with user-generated content?

That's right.

Consumers are generating content for the brands. And brands are using that content to get even more customers.

Why not use content that you are able to gather directly from your audience to get even more eyeballs?

How you can use it is entirely upto your imagination.

"Loyalty is not won by being first. It is won by being best."

Conclusion

Building an audience is all about offering value.

And the entire competition is about who offers better value.

There is nothing called customer loyalty today.

Building loyal audience for your content is all about offering incremental value to what is already being offered.

If you are struggling to offer better value, all you need to do is find somebody who is already offering value and has an audience, then duplicate what they are doing, add in some spice, oregano, chill flakes and serve it hot to the same audience.

Before you know, you will have won over their audience.

This post was published in my Weekly Newsletter - "The Loudspeaker" on 16th June. To read more articles like these, you can visit https://theloudspeakeronline.com