5 Ways To Get Your Readers To Know, Like And Trust You

We’d all love to have our readers not look at us like we’re in this for a quick buck, and be a name they’d recommend to a friend. But how can you do that in a virtual world where we may never come into contact with each other, and where there are pretenders everywhere. – Twenty year old life coaches I’m taking to you. 

But how do you do it?

How do you make readers feel like you’re the type of person they should be following and buying from? These five tips should help you out with that.

Show Your Expertise – Depending on what you’re selling, be it fiction or non-fiction writing, showing your latest reader that you know what you’re talking about can go a long way to getting them to trust you.  

Whether it’s directing them to a blog post on a third-party blog, a glowing review from a well-known fiction author, or information about writing courses or coaching you offer, all of this can be used to show off your expertise with very little effort.

For example, if after reading my book I direct you to a blog with a hundred articles on the same subject as my book, an article I submitted to Medium.com/Huffingpost.com, or a thousand dollar training course I teach on the topic, I’m sure you’d come away looking at me as more than just another author in my niche.   

Will everyone visit that third-party blog, read every article on your site, or purchase that thousand dollar course? Probably not. But by having those things in place you gain a halo effect that other authors don’t have, and can’t copy.

Survey Them To Get To Know Them Better – When was the last time a fiction/non fiction author surveyed you about the books you read, what you’d like to see them write next, or how they could make their books or business better? – I’d say never.

But by asking those questions you set yourself apart from everyone else. To me, you come across as someone that’s looking to improve, wants to give better service, and cares what I think.

On your side, this information gives you an idea on whose work your audience is reading, which is very helpful when it comes to your next Facebook ad campaign. – If I know my audience reads Jack Reacher books, come Facebook ad time, I can use that information to create an audience of Jack Reacher, Lee Child fans.

If my survey tells me that my readers would like to see a follow up to the book I’ve just wrote, then I know where my writing effort should go to next. – Not only are you not wasting time writing books no one wants, but you’ll get book ideas you may have never known before.

Same goes with business ideas. If after reading my survey I find that readers want to know more on a topic, want it explained better, or need coaching, there’s nothing stopping me going back to my book and adding another chapter, making an online video training course (either hosting it on my own site or going to Udemy), or creating a 3, 6, or 12 month coaching program to help them get better results.

Create Content Just For Them – There’s nothing stopping a fiction writer from creating a short story solely for readers of a particular book, or a non fiction author from creating a video training that’s not available outside the book the readers just read.

Not only is creating content solely for your audience going to win them over, but it gives them skills and bragging rights that buyers ‘outside the circle’ don’t get, and makes a good first impression.

This content if you want, could be given away freely, or locked behind an opt-in page to make it more secure. Or if you’d rather not, but still want to keep it secret, you can password protect the page. But I recommend, if you have the knowledge, to have the Facebook pixel installed on your page so when it comes to new book releases or promotions you’re still able to keep in contact with your audience.

Apart from short stories and video courses you could also consider creating a 7 or 30 day email campaign which reinforces the content of your book. Not only is it a good way to keep in contact with your reader but the daily action plans means they’r more inclined to follow through on your book.  – You could also consider offering a free planner, workbook, or printable that’ll  add much more to your reader’s purchase.  

Get Them On Your Email List – An author without an email list of readers is a business built on a foundation of sand. Any change in the market, an over-saturated book category, or a mouse click by Amazon and your writing career is on the ropes. Because of that, you really need to consider building your email list and building it today.

Not only is writing a regular email to your audience a tried and trusted method of bonding with your readers, but like in the earlier points, once you have their ‘digital eyes and ears’ you can send them to all those places that build on your likeability and trust factor.

You can send them to that glowing review, that article on Huffington Post, or an article on your blog that’ll knock their socks off. – Don’t have an email and you miss out.

Is collecting emails and writing to your list on a regular basis hard? In the beginning, yes. But once you get to know your audience you’ll soon learn the things that they like to read by the replies you receive,  and click thrus you get on your emails hyper-links.

Writing a regular email also reinforces the idea that you’re always there for your reader. Compare two authors where one makes a book sale and disappears into the ether. The other one, sends a regular email with tips, the latest article on their blog, a podcast the reader might enjoy, and writes about their life outside of writing. – Which one seems like they’re only in it for the money? It’s the first, right?

And all by writing a regular email.

Get Social On Social Media – For some authors, social media is a pain in the butt and never adds anything to their sales. But why look at it just as a sales tool – why not just be social for the sake of being social. Some of the best people I follow on Instagram and on Facebook, use it as a way to get their personality across that plain text on a page doesn’t do.

Take for example, how you’re reading this post right now. You get very little from the couple of hundred words I’m typing here, but go to the WriteCome podcast and listen to an episode and you’ve got a better picture of me. Go to YouTube and watch a video of mine and you’ve just added another layer to that. So when you read the next blog post or email, you’ll probably picturing me typing this out or hear me saying the words that you’re reading.

By being more social and offering content in various formats you appeal to more aspects of your reader’s brain. So they may come away from a podcast episode feeling like they had a discussion at the local coffee shop, or if they follow you on Instagram and watch your posts they come away sharing that holiday experience you had.

Not only does being yourself on social media help bond people to you, but it repels the people that aren’t your audience. They mightn’t like your accent, the language you use, or your views on politics and life, and that’s what you want.

As a friend once said to me, ‘Everyone’s friend, is no one’s friend.’

And when you think about it, wouldn’t you want your reader to know in the first few days whether they should follow rather than in six months when there’s no connection between you both? Or would you rather build a close community that would follow you anywhere and buy everything you’ve got?

I know which one I’d rather.

So put these tips into action, some your expertise, show them content they couldn’t get elsewhere and show they you. Once you do, you’ve got something that no other author out there can copy.

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