How to Create Engaging Content that gets your Audience to take Action

Today I’m sharing a video that I recorded several years ago while in snowy Toronto for attending a Mastermind with one of my business mentors Stu McLaren. It’s a summary of the important steps to creating content that actually gets your audience to take action. Not just “oh, that’s interesting” then they move on by.

Every time I come to these kinds of business events and conferences I like to bring back some practical tips and strategies that I share with the members of my community – and this is really a relevant reminder that I thought would be useful for all of you when you come to creating content.

Sometimes with these things, people are looking for the NEW shiny strategy, but because I have been running my business for over 11 years there are not a lot of genuinely new things I learn these days –  instead I tend to hear the same information in different ways depending on where I’m at in my business.

Often what I get is a reminder of something I learned previously that I was not ready to implement at the time I first heard it.
I also often get a reminder of something that I already know but that I really could be doing better.  This video is about one of those!

Since it was such a useful reminder to me I’ve decided to share with you again too –  how to create engaging content that encourages your audience to take action.

By content that could be a Facebook Live, a video, a podcast, a social media post, a blog post.

So here is a reminder of how to create content designed to get your audience to take action.

1. Have a Catchy, Compelling Hook

This is your Headline or Title.  Unless someone is a “super-fan” who will consume abolustely anything you put out, you need to be capturing your audience’s attention with a compelling headline, and hooking them in so they can hear what you have to share.

The title of this video & blog is a an example of that.

2. Tell a Story

Stories really engage people’s attention on a deeper emotional level than if you were just sharing information alone.  So if you can start by telling a story – this could be your own story (with this video I started by telling you about my Mastermind, and showed you where it took place).  Or it could be a story about a client or someone else you know.   When you bring your teaching to life with a story it will be more likely that people will engage with and also remember what you have taught.  The more specific the details in the story are, the more effective it will be.

3. Teaching point or Lesson (Maximum 3 teaching points)

You want to share between 1-3 pieces of teaching content maximum. 1 lesson or 3 pieces of content. If you share too much you’ll find people don’t take any of it in.  If you want to have an impact then less is usually more.

4. Summarise

Once you have taught your content, go back and summarize. This will embed the teaching you have just taught and it gives your audience time to absorb what they have heard.  Remember this catchphrase:

“Tell ’em what you’re going to tell them.   Tell them.  Then tell them what you’ve just told them”.

5. Call to Action

Make sure you finish by telling your audience exactly what you want them to do next and be very specific about it.   Most of the time the action you want people to take will be to sign up for your “Free Giveaway”.   But you could have other calls to action like, sign up for a webinar, join my Facebook Group, book in for a Discovery call.  Or even just a call to action to share it or Like or comment if they find it useful.

Make sure the summary comes before the Call to Action so that there is nothing distracting them from taking that action!

So get creating that compelling content and thoroughly enjoy sharing your stories and your expertise, and as always, please do share your thoughts in the comments below.

And with all that in mind, here is MY call to action today:

Create a Business you Love – Free PDF Guide

And, if you’d like to learn more from me about how to create a business you can truly love (without imposing arbitrary rules or other people’s “shoulds” on yourself) you can sign up for my free guide Create a Business you can Fall in Love — and Stay in Love with. Find out more and sign up here.