You can have the best content, the fanciest equipment, and the best team, but it will not matter if you do not build rapport with your target audience.

Despite advancing technology, people make purchase decisions based on who they like and trust. This makes building relationships ever more critical.

Take the time into understanding the needs of your potential customers. The next step is to build and nurture that relationship.

Building Rapport with Your Target Market

First, what is “rapport”? It is the “connection”, the “understanding”, the “camaraderie” between two people. It is what bonds us as human beings to one another.

Rapport is when two people feel that they have things in common and they feel comfortable with each other as if they have known each other for a long time.

Haven’t you ever met someone that you did not know before but within just a few minutes you found yourself liking them, and feeling like you have known them for a long time?

People like to do business with people they know, like, and trust – this is a well-known fact. In this crazy world we live in, where we are “friends” with people literally across the globe – thanks to technology – how do we develop that rapport over a computer screen?

How do we use the 3+ seconds we have of someone’s attention to GRAB it even to get a CHANCE to establish rapport? It is NOT easy, but it is doable!

Don’t Underestimate The Importance of Relationships

Remember, Your Target is Thinking About Their Needs Not You

You have about three seconds to engage a website visitor before they move onto another site. Use your time wisely.

Be different, be creative, be remembered. Once you GRAB their attention, then you can start building that relationship and building that “rapport”.

Business relationships are not that different than personal ones in the sense that if it is “all about YOU”, you will not have many friends or effective business relationships.

Relationships, in general, are a two-way street – or at least they should be. Business relationships are about “them”, not you.

Most people do not care about you (until they get to know you) except in what you can do for them.

Gear Your Marketing to Answering These Two Most Important Questions

1) Who are you?

2) Why should I care?

Period! That is it. If you have the solution to a problem someone has, you will get their attention. If not, they are off to the next website, very possibly your competition.

How Do We Do This Online?

The process begins with:

• • Capturing leads: grabbing attention with effective, compelling, valuable, and relevant information so that someone will give you their contact information
  • Following-up via auto-responders: use the auto-responders to tell a little about yourself (so they will get to “know” you), tell a LOT about what your opt-in offer is about – in other words, deliver what you say you are going to provide. After all, that IS why someone opts-in.
  • Pick up the phone at some point and CONNECT personally with your lead.
  • Continue building that rapport and relationship.
  • Even if the person is not ready at that time to make a purchase, they will remember you BECAUSE of your relationship with them, when the time comes that they ARE ready to make a purchase.

I Almost Forgot! Who Am I?

With over ten years of Corporate Marketing Management Experience, I now help small business owners identify their target marketing and come up with creative ways to get their marketing message across to their target at the right time.

Based in New York, but with an International target market, I also help business owners learn how to use video as part of their overall marketing mix.

I have a passion for creating videos to help business owners strategically plan how to use videos online, increase their web presence, and promote their brand.

Video branding/marketing is the way of the future as video is such a powerful marketing tool. I also work with automated marketing systems from the Power Lead System (PLS). It is a video-centric powerful and valuable suite of marketing tools.

Creativity is in my blood. I love coming up with unique and memorable ways to make anything stand out.

I also manage HubSpot CRM, blog management, email marketing, marketing automation, and social media for clients.