Any business looking to grow or even just maintain its current status, knows they need to engage its target audience. Capturing attention and keeping it is like herding cats or entertaining toddlers in a room full of candy.
The world is full of shiny distractions that want your audience’s attention as well. Engaging with your target audience is essential to keeping or regaining their focus. If you can’t keep their attention, they are less compelled to invest in your product or services. It isn’t always easy to come up with new, fresh ideas for keeping their interest. Here are a few ways to help you engage with your audience.
Captivate Your Audience
Captivating your audience can sound fairly daunting. Not everyone is a talented wordsmith sprouting prose that brings a tear to the eye. Very few people are storytellers that can keep everyone on the edge of their seats. Truth be told, that’s ok. Most people aren’t looking for ground-breaking novelties when they join a community. What they are looking for is authenticity.
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Tell a story
Humans are beings of story. We are surrounded by it, captivated by it, and swayed to action by it. People don’t need fancy tales or action scenes to be drawn in by a story. They just want it to strike a chord with them. Be authentic, address humanity, and it will listen.
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Make it visual
A picture is worth a thousand words. Presenting your information visually will almost always catch attention faster than with text alone.
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Play a game
There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition to get the blood pumping. Teach or reinforce a concept through a game to help reinforce recall.
Audience Engagement Through Humor and Repetition
With a swipe of the finger, countless distractions and notifications fly by on the screen. Standing out from the crowd isn’t always an option. There are other ways to stick in your audience’s brain instead. Humor and repetition are excellent methods for retaining engagement.
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Humor
More and more companies are following the “don’t take yourself too seriously” advice. Brands like Lume and Dr. Squatch create hilariously campy commercials that stick with an audience. Ryan Renolds uses a deadpan sarcasm humor tactic that regularly resonates well with audiences. Learn from these brands- if there is a chance to poke fun at yourself, take it. The laugh makes an emotional connection with your audience.
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Repetition
Whether or not you are making your audience laugh, be sure to repeat the important information regularly. People get distracted or forget details. Repetition keeps people from falling through the cracks or forgetting. Even those that are paying attention will notice that a fact stated more than once is important to remember.
How to Engage a Target Audience Personally
People are more likely to feel connected to a brand when it feels personal. Interacting with them one on one builds a deeper, more trusting relationship. Utilize whatever tools you have to connect with the audience and answer questions and comments. Blogs, social media platforms, websites, and more can be used to engage in personal conversations. Be sure to be responsive – leaving customers on reading is a great way to lose business.
Building trust with your audience makes them far more willing to do business with you. Being personal and relevant to the community creates brand loyalty and a lasting relationship. Make an effort and they will see and respond in kind.
Engage Your Community with StayTouch
StayTouch is an app that combines modern networking and easy relationship management. Build a community with ease, instantly exchange information, and explore scheduling and time management functions. Make notes and create reminders to reach out regularly to your network of contacts, helping you build a stronger community. Contact us to learn more.