In this article, we’ll discuss key outstanding ways to win over your audience.
Whether you are attempting a win over a radio audience, television audience, online audience or in-person audience, the tactics and strategies remain the same.
Before you begin to win over your audience, you must understand who your key target audience actually is.
Generation Z, those members of the youngest generation born between the years of 1997 and 2012?
Or are you trying to speak to Millennials, born between the years 1981 and 1996?
According to Beresford Research, an authority on data and statistics, here are the age ranges for each generation below.
| Generations | Born | Current Ages |
| Gen Z | 1997 – 2012 | 11 – 26 |
| Millennials | 1981 – 1996 | 27 – 42 |
| Gen X | 1965 – 1980 | 43 – 58 |
| Boomers II (a/k/a Generation Jones)* | 1955 – 1964 | 59 – 68 |
| Boomers I* | 1946 – 1954 | 69 – 77 |
| Post War | 1928 – 1945 | 78 – 95 |
| WWII | 1922 – 1927 | 96 – 101 |
You can’t be everything to everyone.
Moreover, if you try to appeal to everyone, you will not win over your key target audience.
Your key target audience are those listeners, viewers, streamers and in-person people who your message resonates most with.
In summary, step one, choose your target audience.
Which of the above generations matches up best with what you have to say or do?
Once you’ve chosen your target audience then it’s onto step number two.
Understand What Your Target Audience Cares About
If you want to win over your audience, you must first learn and understand what is most important to them.
For example, Generation Z’s are known for being resourceful, independent learners.
This means they’d much rather learn on their own, whether it be online or some specialized class, as opposed to attending a traditional four year institution for higher learning.
Gen Z’s value diversity and an inclusive culture. They place a high priority on well-being and mental health in the workplace.
Moreover, recent evidence shows that Gen Z’s are finding their well-being and mental health balance in the workplace by being employing a polyworking strategy where they now have several jobs as opposed to just one.
Millennials care about some of the same things Gen Z’s do, though Happiness and Freedom rank high on what they care about most.
Baby Boomers most care about the cost of healthcare, living and rising inflation, getting the most bang for their buck.
The Great Generation, the Post War people, care most about fairness, traditional values, loyalty, hard work and living on the essentials they need to enjoy their twilight days here on God’s earth.
Let your audience know why they should care and what they will gain by listening or watching you and this will go a long way in helping you win over your audience!
Be Yourself
As someone who has spent over 35 years in broadcast media, the one word I’d love to see retired is the word “announcer.”
I’ve witnessed “over the top announcer disease” in radio, television and on podcasts.
Over the top announcer disease is where a personality or host, forgets who they are both in the way they sound and the words they say.
What the listeners and viewers hear is a phony sounding voice, words that don’t relate to your audience, in essence the host or personality is talking at or talking down to their audience as opposed to talking to their audience.
Most every host or personality goes through it.
The key is to find your voice, your sound, how you will converse with your audience as soon as you can.
Over the top announcer disease is a detour that will delay you in trying to win over your audience.
The key to being yourself is to imagine yourself in a room with other people.
You are the one telling those other people a story.
You’ll speak to them in a conversational tone and delivery with your voice.
Like you do when you’re hanging out with your friends and family.
You wouldn’t speak to your friends and family in an official type tone, or stiff voice, so don’t speak to your audience that way.
Imagine they are your friends and over time this will help you win over your audience.
Get To The Point
The average attention span of most humans today is just over 8 seconds.
Three seconds to tell them who you are and five seconds to convince them why they should care about what you have to say.
That’s all the time you have to win over your audience.
Back in 1983, while getting my start in the radio industry I asked one of the industry’s legends who was the lead host of the morning show this question.
What do I need to do to become great?
His response was, “You need to be able to connect, inform and entertain in less than 10 seconds.”
That first 8 to 10 seconds is where you convince them to stick around so that you can dive deeper into the content you want to deliver to them.
Having well targeted content, something they will care about is the key to keeping them glued to their radio or television while you journey into storytelling mode.
Storytelling is another outstanding way to win over your audience.
You Make Them Feel – You Win Over Your Audience
Great radio, television, movies, podcasting all are about great moments.
These memorable events that occur during a radio show, a television program, a movie, or a podcast will always make the audience feel something.
When you know who you’re speaking to and what they care about, you can win over your audience by making them feel, by establishing an emotional connection with them.
Emotionally connecting with your audience means that they will come back for more of the same feeling they experienced with you before!
Most Baby Boomers remember where they were and how they felt back in 1980 when the Miracle On Ice happened.
One of the most inspirational events in our nation’s history was heard on the radio back in August of 1963.
With each day, radio, television, streaming and podcasting hosts have the opportunity to create great moments of all shapes and sizes, moments with feeling to be heard and seen by listeners and viewers across the world!
Walk Your Talk and Win Over Your Audience
Facts carefully placed inside your storytelling will enable you to build credibility and authority with your audience.
The key is to create a unique mix that works for you and your audience.
For example, sports-talk radio and television shows all discuss the story of the day.
How the shows and the hosts differ is that each of them have their own unique take on the story of the day and they back up their take with facts.
Which leads to the next outstanding way to win over your audience.
Your Take Is What Makes You Unique And Appealing
The broadcast media, online and podcasting playing fields are crowded.
You’ve prepared, you know your audience, what they care about and why and you’re speaking to them in a conversational manner.
What will help you stand out among the rest is your unique take, your unique spin on the content and messaging you’re delivering.
Every topic, every segment, every show must be filled with your unique takes on the content you’re delivering.
Do this and you will win over your audience!
Food For Thought
Great teachers and mentors have this in common with great media personalities and hosts.
They have a unique way of provoking thought, injecting thought provoking content and questions into the segments that establish a genuine connection with the audience 24/7.
You win over your audience when you give them a reason to think.
When they do, they will return to you to experience more of the same.
Why?
You’re adding value to their lives by challenging them and being their guide to a better life.
Here at the Optimal Edge Network, we will help you win over your audience.
We help radio, television and online streaming shows connect with the people their messaging and content will resonate the most with.
Connecting advertisers with their target customers by placing their messaging on radio, television, and online streaming shows where their ideal customers go for information and entertainment.
Moreover, providing all of this programming free of charge to people all across the country with the hope they will be inspired to live the life they’ve always dreamed of.
This is where Information and Entertainment Come Together to Inspire and Help People All Across the World!
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