19 Sneaky Ways To Get and Hold Your Audience’s Attention

The following article is for you if you’ve ever wanted to be that really entertaining personality who can bring the audience to their feet for an entire hour. You know the type. They have the people eating out of the palm of their hands.

That’s because what you’re about to discover is the secret recipe for getting and keeping your audience engaged. The good news is that this method works even if you’re one of those introverts (like me) who find the entire process of being entertaining to a crowd stressful.

So, read on…

The most important thing to remember is to be sure to understand the demographic of your audience. If you are doing a presentation in front of a group of Catholic nuns, your presentation is liable to be just a tad different from your speech at the Tony Awards. Your material should resonate with your audience.

Many people who are inexperienced in making presentations don’t realize they need to do this before producing a draft of their presentation. Presenters often fail because they neglect this part.

If you’ve read any of my articles or blog posts in the past, you know that my biggest issue with content marketing is research. Nothing gets done correctly without research. Once you have a handle on who you’re trying to influence, the next step, of course, is creating a draft of your speech or presentation.

Using these tips and tricks will make this step of the process flow much more smoothly:

1. Include an interesting headline.

2. Change the pace throughout the presentation.

3. Make an outrageous statement (but back it up with proof).

4. Highlight an individual.

5. Switch things up.

6. Engage the audience.

7. Don’t stick to the script.

8. Surprise them.

9. Never recite your presentation.

10. Crack a joke.

11. Don’t read over the data.

12. Begin with something personal.

13. Use an example.

14. Use different modes of expression.

15. Infuse your voice with emotion.

16. Bring props into the show.

17. Play with volume and softness.

18. Make use of visual cues.

19. Be aware of the length of your presentation.

Keeping Your Audience Engaged is About Developing Strategies

When writing an article, speech or creating a video presentation, it’s often the case that your audience will lose focus. They may stop scrolling on their social media feed, for example, or they might start skipping paragraphs.

It’s difficult to know how to keep your audience engaged. You might have heard that you need to be funny or mention current events, but what if you’re not funny? What if the events aren’t relevant?

Ask yourself some questions first before deciding on your approach. Is there something in the content that sparks their interest? Do they feel like they are being entertained by the content? How do you think they’ll feel about the content when they are done reading it? These are just some ways to think about how you can keep your audience engaged.

Find The Right Topics for Your Audience

If you want to keep your audience engaged, it’s critical to know what interests them. What topics do they usually talk about? What are their hobbies?

For example, you might have a fitness blog with an audience that likes to talk about health and wellness. This is something that they might like to read more about. It’s information that will apply to them and will keep them interested.

Now, if you had an audience that liked to talk on YouTube channels about the latest celebrity gossip, this would not be something they would care much for. So it’s critical to know who your audience is and what they like.

Use Quizzes and Interactive Quizzes

It’s easy to get bored with reading the same words repeatedly. So if you’re finding that your audience is tiring of your content, try quizzes or interactive quizzes.

Quizzes are a very effective way to keep your audience engaged because it makes them feel like they are playing a game at the same time they are learning. Even if they don’t know the answer, they will still try to figure it out.

They’ll be able to learn while having fun! Interactive quizzes work similarly, but you can make the quiz more interactive by making it possible for readers to answer at their own pace. This will enable them to see what other readers answered, and even change their answers if they want.

Doing this will give your content an element of humor and entertainment value. It may also help people stay focused on what you have to say instead of getting bored halfway through an article or video.

Give Them Choices and Keep Them Thinking

In order to keep your audience engaged, it’s helpful to be mindful of their preferences. You want to make sure they are actually enjoying your content and not just scrolling past because they’ve found something else online.

A simple way to do this is by giving them options. In a blog post, for example, you could include a call-to-action that allows readers to subscribe or unsubscribe from updates. Giving them choices will help them stay engaged because you’re providing them the opportunity to take part in the content — and it lets you know if they were interested in what you had to say.

The same can be said for video content. You have an option of creating videos with different lengths or having different endings so your audience can choose which one they prefer. This way, your message doesn’t get lost in translation and people don’t feel like they wasted their time watching a video that didn’t interest them.

Ask Them to Tell You Their Opinion

One way to keep your audience engaged is by asking for their opinion. This will help them feel like they’re a part of the content and not just reading it. For example, you could ask “What are your thoughts on this?” or “How did you feel when reading this?”

If you want to take it even further with this approach, you can also encourage them to share their opinion in the comments section. Let’s say there’s an article about how people should be more mindful of food choices. You could end the article with something like, “What are your thoughts on this? Share them in the comments!”

Make Them Feel Like They Are Part of the Process

One of the key ways to keep your audience engaged is to make them feel like they are part of the process. You can do this by including interactive content on your website or blog.

A suitable example would be a playlist with music that you think your audience will enjoy. You could also ask questions at the end of an article for readers to answer, or have them vote on which direction you should take it in. There are so many ways you can keep readers engaged!

The key thing is that you are thinking about how they’ll feel when it’s over and asking yourself what they’d like to see more of. Will they want more articles about a particular topic? Will they just need you to follow up on something specifically mentioned in the piece? Try to think about what will leave your audience wanting more.

Now that you know how to get and keep your audience’s attention, there’s just one thing left for you to do: take action. So get to it, and soon you too will find it satisfying to work the crowd.

If this article was helpful, subscribe and follow for more. Looking to get additional information on presentations and content creation? Connect with me at https://contentmarketingmagic.co/blog/.