Do you find it hard to engage audiences either online or offline? How can you improve your engagement with a target audience?
Many content marketers and sales representatives struggle with this problem. The primary objective of any marketer is to convince audiences of the feasibility, affordability and importance of a product or service in their lives.
Without engaging audiences productively, especially in this digital age where information and counter-information is extremely fluid, that primary objective becomes extremely hard to achieve.
Online, it is almost impossible to grab the attention, let alone engage, smartphone users who have multi-screen features on their devices, features that allows them to switch between websites in microseconds. This reality shows you why you need to check out these 4 proven strategies that can help you engage more productively with your online or offline audiences.
Make Your Content Relatable
Your audience will relate better with your content if you gear it to their knowledge, experience, and interests. If you must use jargon, acronyms and unfamiliar terms in your speech, define each one of them.
Use as many relatable analogies to illustrate points. Give relevant examples and tell relatable stories. Don’t just state facts and statistics. Make them easy to digest by rounding off big numbers and translating expert analysis into human terms.
On your website, use graphics to clarify numerical data. Use visuals like images and videos to break down static paragraphs. Make your topics immediate, personal, and local so that you can connect with each reader at a personal level. The same goes for listeners in in-person marketing forums. It is okay to refer to your own experiences when making a point, but it is best that you focus more on the audiences’ experience and how your brand can change that experience for the better.
Speaking of localizing your topics, it is appropriate to highlight the culture and traditions of the local people when making your address. You need to access new cultures in order to get through to audiences when operating internationally.
If you are unsure of where to start when going global, you can liaise with a trusted global PEO (A professional employer organization is an outsourcing firm that provides services to small and medium sized businesses), such as NH Global Partners, to access foreign culture and get free flow information that will come in handy the next time you are addressing foreign audiences.
Adapt your message to the platform you intend to post it on
When targeting social media audiences, you need to adapt your message to specific platforms. For example: Twitter audiences are mostly middle-income earners looking for life tips, news regarding politics and economy, and trending topics. You have less than 5 sentences to make your case with this audience, so your tweet must be quick, trendy, witty, and eye-catching if it is to reach your target audience on Twitter.
Facebook, on the other hand, is dominated by audiences who are out to have some fun; people who need entertainment as much as they need valuable information. They look for something to share and debate about. They need provocative topics that spark emotions and interest. They don’t mind lengthy posts for as long as they have some entertainment value.
Instagram audiences want to see stunning visuals. If your visuals aren’t eye-catching, your captions and the message therein will not get the attention it deserves. Use people to humanize your posts. They tend to get far more engagement than product images alone.
Invite valuable contributions
Spark involvement in every message you intend to deliver. Start conversations on social media and pick valuable insights and feedback from your target audiences. Post Twitter polls to see what your target audience thinks about given topics. Encourage attendees to ask questions and share their personal experiences during live marketing events. Bottom line: Make it easy for people to contribute to your message. Ask questions.
For in-person presentations, use simple and clear language
Don’t use vague pronoun references because they are hard to figure out especially for live audiences. Don’t use words like former and latter- they really confuse live audiences. Avoid listing many items and then referencing them with “respectively”.
For example when you say that three products X, Y, and Z costs USD$ P, Q, and R respectively, you will leave behind many listeners who cannot remember certain details in the sequence. If they cannot remember, they sure cannot understand, and they sure will not be interested in anything you say after that. Remember, the goal is engagement.
Conclusion
In summary, there is no single formula for engaging audiences. It is up to you to figure out which of the 4 areas above you need to change depending on your target audiences. What’s more, if you manage to build a strong relationship with your audience, you can bet that they will open up to you whenever your message falls short of their expectations.
Does this blog post help you think about strategies for engagement?
This is a guest post from Rilind Elezaj.
Need help wth strategies for social media engagement?
I can help. You can set up a time chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conversation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com. Let’s explore working together today.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
