This is Part 2 of our blog post, “Capture Your Audience with ‘Sticky’ Content”, (Read Part 1). In this post you will learn 3 easy ways to create content that captures your audience’s attention.
#4 Use Authoritative Sources
This principle is used to build immediate credibility with your audience.
Let’s say you’re in the market to buy a book to help strengthen your sales skills. You might have never heard about the book “The Ultimate Sales Machine” – but as soon as you see that sticker that say “NY Times Best Seller” and “Amazon.com Bestseller” you know it’s worth checking out. This is referred to as an “authoritative statement.”
You are more likely to trust that product because an authority on that field says it is worth reading. Other similar examples are “As Seen on TV”, and “Featured in Inc Magazine.”
Celebrity endorsements are the second way to prove credibility. Don’t worry if Oprah didn’t pick your product for her favorites before her show ended. You can still creatively use celebrity endorsements.
For example, if you are a financial planner you could gain credibility by writing a blog post that references Alan Greenspan.
#5 Strike An Emotional Chord
The “emotional” principle focuses on answering the question, “How do we make people care about our message?”
One of the best ways you can implement this principle is to create an association between your topic and something your audience can relate with.
We recently gave a presentation on “What Makes A Website Great?” Our goal was to make the audience understand the downfalls of a bad website and how it reflects poorly on their business. Instead of diving into our morning PowerPoint presentation, we first asked the room full of 30 people “How many of you have ever been into a store, where you can’t find what you’re looking for and the first thing the store employee does is come up to you and try to sell you something?” Every one raised their hands – with a groan, looking at each other, hating that exact situation.
“Well sorry to say it, but that’s how most of you are making people feel when they come to your website.” It struck an emotional chord. People could relate to the feeling, and it was much easier for them to understand the importance of having a website with great navigation and informative content.
#6 Tell A Story
“If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at one, I will” Mother Teresa once said. That is why we recommend creating your content to focus on one person’s specific story and telling their struggle, show their worry & pain, and then highlight what you did to help.
In 2000, Subway first ran their TV ads that went something like this:
“This is Jared,” the announcer said. “He used to weight 425 pounds” – we see a photo of Jared in his old 60-ince waist pants – “but today he weighs 180 thanks to what he calls the Subway diet.” The announcers describes Jared’s meal plan, and how when combined with a lot of walking – overtime it lead to his extreme weight loss.”
Subways sales immediately picked up, and since then Jared has made it easier for all of us to remember where we can go to eat, when we are trying to watch our figure.
Instead of telling you to eat Subway because it’s healthy, they highlighted Jared’s story and showed you an image of him standing in his old big pants that you will never forget.
Remember, you can extract a moral from a story, but you can’t extract a story from a moral.
People will always remember your stories and not the facts in your content. That is because stories ignite feelings. People forget facts, but not how you make them feel.
