78% of buyers want more connection with your brand

Hey, Paige here!

Before we get into today’s best marketing research…

In today’s release: 

• 78% of consumers say they want more brand connection

• 72% reveal exactly how to achieve connection

• Connection strategies proven to work for your socials, podcast, and newsletter

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DEEP DIVE

Is your organic social content paying off? Even if you’re posting every day, you could be missing a huge opportunity to grow trust (and conversion) if you’re missing one thing: 

Interaction. 

And we’re not talking about blanket auto-responses or generic AI interaction. People want genuine opportunities to interact with their favorite brands and creators. 

➡️ 78% of consumers want brands to connect with them on socials
➡️ 73% of podcast listeners want more opportunities to interact with their favorite podcasters

Best of all, when brands succeed in building interaction and connection, their ROI multiplies. 

➡️ 57% of consumers increase their spending when they feel connected to brands
➡️ 76% will buy from a brand over their competitors
➡️ Listeners who engage with Q&As consume 2.35x more hours of content per month

But where do you start? Let’s jump into content!

Personality-led is the future of B2B content

We won’t go too deep here, but people connect with people… not brands. 

And brands are winning bigger with micro-influencers and in-house thought leaders. Want the data? Check out last week’s deep dive. 

Once you have your personalities front and center (good riddance, faceless brand content 👋), here are some specific strategies you can start using: 

👉️ Interactive features

Live streams are fantastic for interaction. Whether you’re live streaming or creating scripted content, Q&As can be leveraged to boost connection.

Customized Q&As (that really dig into what your audience cares about) are 8.7x more likely to spark responses than default questions. 

Brands that publish questions with audience responses have a 2.3x higher response rate — people want to engage with brands and feel seen for it. 

In podcasting, this can look like highlighting submitted questions on your next recording. On social, this can look like posts featuring audience members’ responses.

In the email marketing game? Create an audience segment where you respond to submissions every week. 

👉️ Social media

Did you know, 65% of consumers feel more connected to brands who post regularly on social platforms? Specifically, they connect more deeply with content featuring real humans, not logos. 

Try creating opportunities for real-time engagement through live videos, stories, and polls or collaborate with industry creators. 

👉️ Talk to your audience

Don’t have a community yet? Chat with your existing fans. Ask them what they want to see. 

A common thread: 70% of consumers feel more connected to a brand when their CEO and leadership are active online. 72% feel more connected when employees are actively engaged. 

Hear that? Sounds like it’s time to revamp your employee advocacy program 🔔

👉️ Don’t post and ghost… learn and earn

Once you can foster a sense of community and open up those engagement lines, don’t stop. 

Continuously seek feedback and input from your audience. The sky is the limit. Ask them their take on: 

• Content

• Topics

• Format

• Segments

• Timing

• Anything, really

Continue to measure analytics on engagement, growth and consumption time. Double down on what works, and cut what doesn’t. Without consistent assessment and content tailoring, your engagement could fall short. 

But when you get it right, you tap into the 97% and start creating a self-sustaining bottom line. 

The takeaway: Too many brands are underinvesting in the interaction needed for genuine connection. 

That’s it, ya’ll! Happy creating. 

Paige Peterson
Newsletter Aficionado, Sweet Fish