You may be using a variety of techniques to communicate and keep in touch with your audience, but what does it take to REALLY engage your audience, ensuring that your efforts bring great results — leads, sales, referrals, etc.?
- Get Your Timing Right.
- What are the best times to engage your audience for each platform chosen?
- Ensure consistency by scheduling dedicated time to the creation and delivery of content, as well as time needed on the channels interacting with the audience.
- Commit to a minimum time to respond to any questions, enquiries, etc. If more than 24 hours, ensure that you have and communicate a good reason for this.
- Offer content that is focused on the needs of your audience as relevant to your business.
- If you are using the words “We” or “I” at the start of your message, look at reframing to make the focus on “You”, the audience for better engagement.
- Ensure there is value in the eyes of the audience.
- Ask yourself, “Why would a person want to take the time to listen to my message?”
- Listen to what your audience is saying and interact accordingly to show that you have heard and, if appropriate, how you will respond to what is said.
- Don’t be afraid of negative feedback. We all know that sometimes things go wrong or aren’t suited to everyone. How you respond will show that you listen and respond to concerns that come up and can still build engagement, trust and loyalty.
- Offer surveys, questionnaires, etc. as a way to get valuable feedback from your audience and show that you are listening and value their input.
- Include a Q&A section at the end of a live webinar.
- Ask questions in your social media posts and have users respond in the comments.
- Give your audience an “inside advantage” with exclusive access to:
- new products/services – maybe with a free sample or trial
- branded merchandise
- “breaking” news relevant to the business and to the audience
- special offers
- make them feel like part of the team/family but, as noted above, as it meets their needs
- Include insights into your business that are relevant to the audience’s needs:
- profiles of staff, suppliers
- behind the scenes videos, “virtual tour”, etc.
- how you have changed the way to do business to better meet your customers’ needs
- ways to use, or get the most out of, your products or services that a customer may not have realized before
- Make it entertaining, as is relevant and appropriate to your audience and your business.
- Tell a story, rather than give a lecture.
- Use humor, satire and sarcasm – just keep it inline with the taste of your audience.
- Ensure the look and message you are conveying is consistent with your brand.
- To make this easier, create templates for each type of content you generate with all of your branding elements.
- Personalize your message as much as possible and in a way that doesn’t appear like you are stalking or infringing on privacy.
- When you gather emails, also obtain at least the first name so that you can personally address your messages, even include in the subject line. This is known to increase open rates.
- If you gather more relevant data, you can include recent products/services viewed/purchased, location, etc. that will convey relevancy and more likely to engage the reader.
- Team up with relevant businesses to offer your audience more value, but also expand your reach.
- Identify individuals from outside your business that can provide content that is complementary to yours and provide value to your audience.
- Interview an “influencer”, someone high profile that is followed by your audience, and build your own influence.
- Don’t be afraid to try something new, as long as you can maintain a level of professionalism.
- Videos are a great way to increase audience engagement, yet many are reluctant to use them. You don’t need a professionally shot video, but make sure that the quality is good enough to be seen, heard and won’t put off customers.
Use these techniques to ensure that time spent communicating and interacting is not wasted, but will REALLY engage your audience to bring great results.
