How to engage your audience – not as hard as you might think…
Well folks, I try to provide quality tips and marketing information every Tuesday and Thursday to post on our Articles and Posts Page. And, to be perfectly honest, sometimes I struggle with the content. This is because I don’t just want to fill space, but I want to make sure that I am providing you with something that will be beneficial to you in your own business. I like to engage my audience.
I’ve written about many topics over the course of the last several months and it is my intention to ensure that I am providing you with information that is timely, effective, and relevant. I want to provide you with new information and not just rehash the same old messages.
Which brings me to today.
I started the day by reflecting on what I have posted over the past several weeks, and I realized that, although I’ve given many tips and strategies about various elements of the science of marketing, including ideas about how to use video and various other marketing tools, I really haven’t addressed the topic of content in very much detail.
But I didn’t just want to talk about the usual aspects of content marketing. I didn’t want to talk about keyword optimization. I didn’t want to talk about guest blogging. I didn’t want to talk about syndication. All of these are important elements of content marketing, and I likely will address these in future posts. However, to me, the most important element about engaging your clients and prospects through your content is to be compelling.
So, are you ready to learn exactly what the secret sauce is to engaging your audience?
It’s not really that much of a surprise. In fact, it’s actually pretty simple.
It’s called telling a story.
When we are trying to tell our point of view, or teach something, or share something with our clients, our prospects and our readers, we want to capture their imagination. The best way to do this is by telling a story.
Since the early days of man, storytelling has been part of our culture. Look at the cave paintings of our far distant ancestors. Reflect on the history that are taught by archaeologists of how our indigenous people would sit around a campfire and relate the stories of things like hunting and traveling and setting up camp. These were times of celebration; of sharing and of ensuring that the stories would be carried on from generation to generation to generation. Of course, this was before we had invented a way to write an alphabet of some sort, and communicate through the written word. And, although the written word makes it easier to ensure that stories are passed on for generations are not lost over time, we still must ensure that these words are delivered in a way that is compelling, compassionate and interesting to keep our audience engaged.
Let me give you an example of how storytelling can help engage audience rather than just simply relating the facts.
If I was to tell you that I found a way of creating a following on Twitter that would enable you to increase traffic to your website, and capture the attention of more potential business, that tells you a reality of exercising a certain marketing technique.
Now, if I was to tell you that at the beginning of July, I employed a method that enabled me to increase the traffic on my website by 800% through simple technique on Twitter, would that capture your attention? If I was to tell you that I engaged personally with every person who followed me on my Twitter account, responded to direct messages, thanked people for mentions, retweeted information that was relevant to my followers, and made a point of personally engaging with some of these people, not just on Twitter but also on LinkedIn on Facebook, would that paint a bit of a better picture than simply saying that creating a following on Twitter could increase traffic to your website?
Both stories have the same ultimate message. The difference between the two is that the first simply states the facts, while the second speaks more personally about some of the things I did, making it relatable to my audience.
So don’t be afraid to use examples when you’re communicating with your clients and prospects. Everybody has a story to tell, and everybody understands some aspect of everybody else’s story. Telling a story humanizes your article. It helps make your message more relatable, and resonates better with your clients and prospects. It changes your message from that of a clinical approach to a personable, friendly piece of information that helps build trust, familiarity and engagement.
Until next time…
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