3-Step Hack to Build Credibility With Your Audience

with guest Stefan Georgi #MakingBank S4E30 

On this week’s episode of the podcast, Stefan Georgi talked copywriting and the tricks and tools he has used to create content that has delivered literally hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. One of his most important tidbits is how he leverages Amazon reviews and chat forums in order to not only understand his audience but to understand their lingo and speak to them in their own voice. 

This helps him to establish a connection by mimicking the language his customers are using, and by letting them know that he understands their pain points because he has shared experience. This makes him appear to be one of them, building an instant rapport and level of trust. It also serves to actually give him a window into his customers, think from their perspective, and understand them more clearly. In essence, he talks the talk because he learns to walk the walk. 

The best part of his method is that it’s simple and 100% free. We’ve broken his advice down into 3 simple steps that anyone can follow in order to build a more genuine, lasting connection with your audience that is proven to deliver big-time results! 

Researching Amazon Reviews and Chat Forums 

The first key here is to know who your audience is and figure out where they are most active online. Every target demographic can be found somewhere, and Amazon reviews and chat forums are the best places to start. Once you find your audience, it’s like getting a sneak peek behind the curtain to see how they speak and act naturally. 

For some businesses this is a very straightforward task: find your competitor’s products on Amazon, read their reviews, find some common customer complaints, and figure out how you can 1. Solve this problem and 2. Pitch it to your audience. But not all businesses have it so simple. 

Never fear. For service-based businesses – Stefan uses the example of real estate – there are still plenty of avenues to finding your audience online. You can research the best selling books on buying or selling a home, look up reviews of individual real estate agents online, and find chat forums where people discuss the problems they personally encountered in the process. Even YouTube will deliver results. The internet is a treasure trove of endless resources; you just need to know where to look. 

Understand the Lingo 

One of the key insights you can take from reading your customer’s writing is understanding how they speak and then speak to them in their own language. This instills a level of comfort in your audience and gives you credibility as being ‘one of the group.’ 

Stefan recants having been hired by a client who sold gun holsters. When he began doing his research, he found that almost everyone in gun forums refers to the second amendment as ‘2-A,’ but his client didn’t use that term even once in his marketing materials. Simply by adding that phrase to his client’s copy, he was able to instantly boost his credibility. 

Slang terms are often the most powerful words you can co-opt in order to build rapport. By using these words, you demonstrate that you have intimate knowledge of the group, share their beliefs, and probably use the same products. 

Be thorough in your research, and don’t use these words until you are 110% confident you are using them correctly – if you misuse them, it will have the complete opposite effect, making you look like an outsider. 

Find Their Pain Points and Use Cases 

Maybe the biggest advantage of doing research through product reviews and chat forums is hearing from your customers in their own words what problems they are facing and where their current products are falling short. This type of information can be used in numerous ways. 

You can figure out what advantages you have over your competitors and use targeted ads to address them directly. You can also learn what areas your entire industry is failing in, and then begin problem-solving as to how you can fix those problems. Innovation is pointless unless it is addressing an issue that people are facing, so finding out what people see their own problems are should be the first step to creating a new product or service. 

Finally, you may discover unique habits of your customer base. Stefan recalls working for a home security company and uncovering through product reviews that many of the intended clientele were actually happier about using their security cameras to check on their pets while they were out of the house than they were with preventing break-ins. That was a huge revelation that allowed Stefan to address a completely new area and widen the scope of the brand. 

Now, you can find cameras specifically designed and marketed to keeping an eye on your pets while you’re not home. Understanding this use case allowed an entire industry to expand their customer base by innovating their products and changing the way they are thought of and utilized. 

Your chief objective in creating content is to build credibility as a reliable source not only of information but also solutions. You need to convey to your audience that you understand their problems, have experienced them yourself, and have a novel way to overcome them. 

If you want to do this effectively – and believe me, you do – then researching how your audience speaks and acts in their own natural environments is one of the most powerful tools you can have at your disposal. 

Learning the lingo, finding the pain points, and using them not only to market your products but to enhance or change them will give you a huge leg up on your competitors and build a loyal customer base that will trust and relate to you.