In my last blog post, I spoke about dating your audience before you start creating content for them.
You can read it here.
This week, I’ll be sharing how you can take that relationship from #dating to #engaged using my top 4 tips!
Courtesy of Giphy on Wix
Let’s dig in!
Like with training your dog, there is a recommended framework to achieve your goal that, oddly enough, isn’t too dissimilar from what I'm about to share.
Communication is communication after all, be it human to dog or business 2 business.
The framework revolves around three themes,
· Clear communication
· Compelling content
· Consistency
By now, I’m sure you’re starting to have more appreciation for putting in the effort during the dating phase! Especially because the first step in the framework is;
1. KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.
By knowing who they are, what’s important to them (like privacy), what motivates them, and where they spend their digital time, you’ll find step two (2) much easier to discern.
2. PICK YOUR CHANNEL(S).
Better yet, know your channel(s). It will be a waste of everyone’s time (and a month slower in business than a dog moving from your spot on the couch) if your target audience is cat owners on Wikipedia and you pick dog park groups on Facebook to connect with your audience.
3. BE CONSISTENT.
Just like when you bring a new puppy home, you must keep the rules and expectations consistent if you want to set both your experience up for success.
Telling your puppy she can be on the couch one day and growling at her for being on the couch the next is confusing. You’re giving her two conflicting pieces of content, which makes you harder to trust in consumer (and puppy) eyes.
What you communicate needs to be consistent and not contradictory. From the colours you use in your content to the recurring topics you discuss and the keywords you use. Be clear and consistent. This will also make your brand more recognisable and easier for your target audience to find through time.
4. INCORPORATE INTERACTIVITY.
If you want your dog to want to interact with you, you have to give her a worthwhile reason. Welcome to the feedback loop!
Giving your audience an opportunity to participate in your brand is a “key driver of success” because “we don’t just enjoy now, we participate”.
Think interactivity through creating a poll, having commenting turned on your blog (wink, wink), running a branding or design competition, and even using the power of stories to influence and shape discussions.
Summing up, avoid your content looking like a dog's breakfast by using clear communication that is compelling to your target audience while keeping your theme consistent.
Knowing your brand's messaging and marketing plan is also a key factor here, so “STAY” tuned as we dig into that soon!
Did you learn something interesting?
- Sure did!
- Nope.
If you enjoyed this as much as a wet dog enjoys shaking next to you (or as much as a trip to the vet) let me know in the comments.
Hi Vicki
I found this post particularly engaging because all paragraphs were short and directly to the point. Offering four short, simple steps made it easy to stay focused throughout reading the blog. Your post actually demonstrated the values you were talking about by being clear and concise. Adding in the dog theme and thinking of our target audience as puppies hooked me in as well. Its interesting to see just how many similarities there can be when considering audience members this way. What else could we potentially implement using this thinking? Loyal dogs will often be quite overprotective of their owners. Maybe this could be compared to followers defending or supporting content creators online. We could look at …
Hi Vicki,
Thanks for the fantastic read!
Key stand outs for me was your use of multimedia (pictures, gifs, and a hyperlink to a TED talk!). As a dog person, it was a treat to see their faces scattered throughout. I also liked your use of puns and humour to help the content be more digestible and fun to read. You displayed a great blog post layout, and I appreciated the summary sentence at the end. Also the poll was super unique!
In terms of content, I liked your '3. Be consistent' section where you likened consistency to training your dog. It created imagery that strengthened my understanding of your point. An area to improve could be to include tips…
Really enjoyed reading your blog Vicki. The way you referenced your first blog in the intro made me want to ready your other blog as well (and I did!).
Also, your metaphor and the blog’s theme definitely lured in my dog lover-side.
Nice inclusion of the question at the end too. It helped seal my reading and made me ponder what I had just read.