Boosting Your Audience Engagement to the Max

You probably think and read a lot about engaging your target audience members. The idea that you need to do it is an absolute. However, exactly how you accomplish that may be easier said than done sometimes. The fact is that the more you engage your target audience, the more likely they will be to buy what you are selling at some point in the (hopefully near) future.

Engagement is essential to your brand’s success

You may have the most amazing offerings and your content marketing materials may be top-notch when it comes to the quality of the writing. However, if you aren’t able to engage your target audience members so that you can really get them acquainted with what you are offering, you won’t  have a prayer at selling anything to anyone.

Although engagement doesn’t mean direct selling, it is still your ultimate goal in business.

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You may or may not be familiar with exactly what is involved in engagement (or you may have no clue about what it involves). Well, engagement means a lot of things. When it comes to audience engagement, you are going to be examining bounce rates, how many people have visited your particular pages, how many people have clicked on your particular social media channels, how many people have shared your content, and how many people are reaching out and interacting with you. Whether you think about it or not, the reality is that engagement equals return on investment (ROI). 

You are building loyalty

If you are able to achieve loyalty from the other person as a result of your continued interactions, that person will not only engage with you but he or she will also probably be happy to tell other people about your brand and what you can do for them as well.

One thing that you need to understand is that engagement doesn’t usually happen overnight. It takes a lot of time, effort, and careful nurturing. Once you have reached a certain level of engagement, there are some other extremely important aspects to the relationship that go along with it: trust, a consideration from the other person that you are the best choice to solve his or her problem because you are the most knowledgeable about that particular issue (in other words, you are positioned as the subject matter expert), and a relationship that will stand the test of time.

However, the reason that it is not so easy to get your target audience members to engage with you is that there are so many people who are competing for a piece of the pie and each one of them is claiming to be the best at what they do, which is exactly what you do as well.

It is important to remember at this point that the relationship that you are building with the other person is mutually beneficial. It is not just that you are getting something out of it. The other person is going to get a great deal out of it because you are going to give a lot to that person. Through your content, you will be sharing all sorts of exciting ideas about all sorts of things that will benefit the other person and his or her business. 

In order to really engage effectively, you need to wade through all of the noise and all of the volume that is a regular part of the Internet. It is really fierce. Even though you have obstacles in the way of your being able to engage with your target audience members easily, it is still far from impossible to accomplish what you set out to do. You just need to approach it in a sensible way. If you follow the following principles, you will make a lot of progress.

• Make sure that your content is truly scanable: When the other person comes upon your content, you need to make sure that it looks a certain way, a way that is conducive to the other person having the ability to get a lot out of it in a very short amount of time. It is that scanability that will drive them to want to read more and to engage with you.

  The way that you will accomplish that is by using a font that is not too small and by using a font that is easy to read at a glance. The truth is that very few people nowadays will be interested in reading long, small font size content. They probably neither have the time nor the inclination to do that. People are very busy and they don’t have the patience to stick with any content for too long, especially when they first start reading (before they even get a good idea of what the content is all about). In fact, you have exactly three seconds to get them to read on. If you can’t capture their attention in three seconds, they will move on to someone else’s content and it will be over for you. You understand that three seconds is not a long time. The other person will be able to tell in those three seconds if they want to continue. If the physical aspects of your content catch their eye in the right way, they will continue.

  One thing that is very important here is that you make sure that your content looks the same every time. That doesn’t mean that you are writing about the same thing every time. In fact, you should never write exactly the same content twice. It is just that the first glance should have the same feel to it each time. Another important aspect of what makes content scanable is the graphic element. Graphics are so important when it comes to attracting your target audience members. It is the first step on the way to solid engagement.

• Make sure that people can start to interact through your content: If you share interactive content, the other person will feel as though he or she is a part of what you are offering. It gives them a sense of control and power (in a strange way). It also gives them a desire to connect with you. The more you connect with the other person, the better and stronger your engagement with that person will be and that engagement will hopefully last for a very long time.

  The interactivity is essential and it is important for you to remember that as you are writing the content that you intend to share online. If you are not the person who actually writes the content, it is important for you to let the writer know how important that interactive element is to incorporate into the content. It is actually a simple concept but it is one that will bring you very far. Some of the ways that you may be able to achieve the interactivity piece of it is by using contents (with prizes), surveys/polls, quizzes, etc. Those are all effective interactivity tools, if used appropriately.

• Make sure that your content loads easily and quickly: There is almost nothing more annoying than trying to download or upload content only for nothing to happen. Your content must be uploaded or downloaded easily and quickly. Otherwise, you will surely lose the attention of the other person and your relationship and engagement will be over before it has had an opportunity to begin. You can do certain things to avoid that situation, such as minimizing the size of your graphic images. Of course, you will want to make sure that your content delivery system is up to par and up to speed. 

• Make sure that your content can be shared easily: Having other people share your content is the ultimate prize for your brand and for your business. You want to make it as easy as possible on the other person to do just that. Make sure that the other person can share your content with one click. Most people will be more than willing to do that if it is that easy. However, the more important statement that the other person’s willingness to share your content is that they value what you are saying and they value what you represent. You will get a great deal of mileage out of that. 

• Make sure that engagement is seamless: Your engagement with other people should flow easily and if you plan a strategy, that roadmap will help you to achieve your goals. Easy is the essential concept that you need to keep with you. If your engagement is easy and it accomplishes a great deal, the other person will be right there with you. It is that simple. 

Conclusion

Engagement is critical for your business. However, remember that the engagement doesn’t have to be painful or draining. If you remember to make it scanable, interactive, easily loaded, and easily shared, you will successfully engage and your brand will be a booming success. The more you engage, the better you will become at it and the more successful your results will be. As a part of engaging your target audience, it is very important to listen to what the other person is saying, thinking, and feeling. The more you involve the other person, the more valuable that person will feel. That is a sure way to keep him or her engaged.

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