In the first article in this series I talked about the importance of having a powerful voice in business to connect with your audience.

Once you have started conversations with your audience, the next stage is showing them value so you can encourage them to want to know more about you and your business.

What is adding value?

Adding value is enriching the lives of your audience without expecting anything in return.It is important to add value, before, during and even after the purchase. You always want to give your audience other reasons to buy your product other than for the product alone. This can be done by offering maybe free products, free advice and information they find valuable.

But isn’t that giving too much away for free?

Absolutely not! One of the biggest misconceptions in business is that you shouldn’t give anything away for free because you are losing money.

But you’re actually leaving a lot of business on the table by not showing how awesome you are in advance of asking for the sale.

The more you give the more you get.

How can you add value to your audience?

A good way to add value to your audience is to answer the specific questions they have. You can include these answers in your content. A good place to start to find the kind of questions your audience may have can be found on answerthepublic.com.

It’s important to reply to comments, messages and emails sent by your audience. This will build trust and show them what kind of company you are. Replying personally to your audience will make them feel special. They have your attention, which will differentiate yourself from other businesses. If Gary Vaynerchuk can do it with millions of followers then anyone can.

Here’s some examples of ways you can add value to your audience.

-Focus on solving people’s problems with your content

-Share resources

-Deliver information webinars

-Create valuable conversations

-Valuable downloads

The possibilities are endless. All you really need to do is put your customers first consistently.

Look out for the next blog in this series, in which I will be revealing the missing piece of the puzzle – increasing your visibility online.