imagine there is more to captive audience advertising than publishing a new video or blog post once a week . You need to know how to use content to build a foundation for your long-term consumer relationships .
Notice , would you be more likely to stop and pay attention if someone behind you shouted “ wewe ,” meaning ‘ you ’ in Swahili language or if they addressed you by name , for example “ Hey Joe ”? Firstly , target audience segmentation is your brand ’ s way of making sure that you can create personalized messages that speak to your customers . The more tailored your marketing campaigns and branding strategies are , the more likely they are to captivate your audience . You can start defining your audience by digging down into the demographics of your ideal customer that is , think about the following factors : age , gender , hobbies , location , job title and income .
Remember when you have multiple products or services to offer , then you will probably have a wide selection of different customers . The onus is on you to segment your audience into different groups so you can begin to determine what kind of message , content marketing strategy and campaign will suit each e . g , a social media marketing campaign is more likely to captivate a younger audience than someone over the age of 55 .
Secondly , may I remind you to address the things your customers care about because today ’ s customers are captivated by the idea of solving their problems and improving their lives . If you want to answer the question “ what is a captive audience ,” you can find out for yourself by uncovering your consumers ’ pain points , concerns , and questions . For instance , Safaricom Twende Tukiuke campaign has created a robust twitter engagement platform for their your questions programs . It is evident to them that with C-19 times and Post C-19 epochs , the need for home fiber connections for SOHO ( Small Offices and Home Offices ) have skyrocketed and new as well as connected clients are concerned about the service connectivity , so they found a way to answer those most pressing questions .
Remember thirdly , tell a powerful story to hold your market captive . There are few things more captivating in today ’ s world than a truly incredible story . Fortunately , brands have everything they need to engage their audience with a wide range
Remember marketing in the digital information age is about more than just delivering the right message to the customer . In a time where relationships are the key to any company ’ s success , your brands need to find ways to engage and entertain their target audience .
of unique narratives . The most obvious example of the brand story comes in the ‘ About Us ’ page on your website , but you can also tell stories and build connections with your customers every day through blogs , articles , press releases , videos , and more .
According to a study of New York Times articles conducted by the Wharton Business School , the most compelling content created by the magazine were the pieces that evoked an emotional response . To captivate their audience using emotional story-driven content , the hotel brand ‘ Marriott ’ created an ad campaign for their latest boutique hotel range , ‘ Moxy ’. The campaign featured social influencers sharing their experiences from behind the scenes in Moxy hotel rooms . This content strategy was captivating because it gave people an inside look at what they could expect from the hotels and combined that insight with personality-driven stories from real people .
To create brand communities is another unique way to captivate your audience through emotion , to make them feel like they have an essential connection with your company . As human beings , we all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves and we give great value to the relationships that we maintain . It is evident that you would probably pay more attention to an email from a friend or family member , than a message from a stranger . If you can make your leads feel as though they are invested in your business in some way , then you can begin to reap the benefits of brand advocates and customer referrals .
So , how do you create communities ? Social media is all about community . You can begin to leverage your relationships with customers here by hosting polls , launching competitions , and generating discussions about topics relevant to your audience .
Finally to hold captive the target market , leverage videos and visuals to capture attention . Noticeably this means you need to speak your customer ’ s language . Sometimes this means moving beyond text and exploring other media outlets . After all , 81 % of people only ‘ skim ’ the content they read online . Research at Harvard Business School in 2019 indicates that visuals are incredibly powerful in a time where it is increasingly difficult to capture and hold an audience ’ s attention . It further found out that content with relevant image achieves 94 % more views than textonly content .
Remember leveraging visuals involves creating infographics that provide your audience with valuable information and attractive imagery at the same time , sharing pictures with quotes on social media to encourage community sharing , creating videos packed full of entertaining insights that demonstrate your company ’ s credibility and thought leadership . Your marketing team can even use specific kinds of visual content like live streams to demonstrate your brand ’ s transparency .
Ultimately leverage the fear of missing out ( FOMO ). Fear of missing out is one of the most potent psychological concepts in the advertising world . University Of Carlifonia studies show that ‘ FOMO ’ may be the best way to engage in captive audience advertising because people are compelled to act faster and in different ways when they feel they only have a limited time to decide . According to research , 60 % of millennials admit to making purchases just because of FOMO .
Joe Nyutu is a marketing and strategy consultant who teaches marketing on part-time basis at a local leading university and can be reached via : Josephnyutu @ gmail . com .