Thursday, September 9, 2010

How to: Engage Your Audience

Engaging your audience is essential if you have any hope of making a sale. People like to feel like they are cared for when they interact with a business. Here are a few ways to make sure you are connecting with, rather than talking to, your audience.

1. Talk in Their Language
It's very important that you speak to your audience in the language that they use everyday. People want to feel like you understand them. There is no better way to make them feel understood than to speak as they do. It also positions your brand as "one of them," which is great because people like to feel like they are buying from a friend rather than a salesman.


2. Connect With Them on Their Turf
Seek your audience out because you don't want to rely on them to seek you out. Find out which programs they watch, magazines they read, radio stations they listen to, and social media outlets the use. Once you've established where they are, go there. Put your message in front of their face. After all, you do want to make this as easy for them as possible.

3. Show, Don't Tell, Your Benefits
If it all possible, demonstrate what your product or service provides to its consumers rather than describing it. While descriptions can sometimes do a wonderful job of explaining why a purchase is a good idea, it is often considered unappealing and is easily dismissed (who doesn't talk about how great their product is?). A demonstration, on the other hand, is not so easily ignored. Think of the old Timex "takes a licking and keeps on ticking" commercials.While the tagline is catchy, it was the fact that it showed various attempts to destroy the watch thwarted that made it such a successful campaign.

4. Help Don't Sell
People do not like to be persuaded, they like to be helped. Don't talk about how great your product or company is, talk about how much better you can make your audience's lives. They will appreciate this. Though people don't like to advertised to, they do like to receive information. It's our job to blur the line between them.

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