Audience Part II: What's in it for me?

Do you know your audience? Some of you may say yes, others no. The most important thing you need to tell your audience is... what's in it for them. They know you want them to buy your product or service or go to your website. The question they are asking you is, "why should I?" Don't make them guess at why you want them to do something. Just come out and straight tell them what they need to do and why they need to do it. If your ad is compelling enough, intriguing enough or just THAT good, they are going to want to check it out!

Sounds easy? Maybe so but easier said than done.

Are you my audience?

I'm sitting at the Rockets game tonight thinking, this audience is great! Before losing to the Boston Celtics and ending the Rockets' 22-0 winning streak, our fans were HOT and excited about being one of the best teams in the league today. We were really pumped like no other game before. But right after the fourth quarter started, the crowd started to drizzle out. Why? Because the team seemingly wasn't trying as hard anymore. The coach pulled all the starters and allowed others some playing time. So why do people leave? They think the content of the game is gone. Why did I stay the whole game? Because I don't truly believe in leaving especially when the team has accomplished a 22-0 winning streak. That's something to be proud of staying til the end of the game to applaud how far they have come (and without Yao Ming I add).

I'm pretty sure I lost some of you already so I'll get to my point. First, content is KING. EVERYONE knows that and if you don't know that by now, well, jot it down and post it on your forehead. Now to my point - KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE! It's quite simple, really, but at the same time it's down right freaking difficult.

This is what has worked for me so far:

• What's in it for me? That's the attitude of your audience and you can win/lose them but telling them what you can offer them with your product or service.
  
• I don't have time!
  Tell me what I need to know quickly or don't tell me at all. That's 2 to 3 seconds you have to capture a person's attention with an ad or promotion or whatever you have. Use that time wisely!
• Be honest
  Your audience wants to know the truth. They will like you and respect you more for it. Don't lose your audience in fancy copy. You can be direct and to the point without being too wordy.
  

That seems pretty easy right? Yes and no. Here's an example:

Sarah Lacy's interview with Mark Zuckerberg at SxSW keynote on 3/8/08:
She knew her interviewer (pretty well I suppose since they had met and talked the night before and maybe a time or two before that). As for the audience, once she opened her mouth, we all knew the interview was going to be long and painful. We were just hoping that she would get to something good and interesting. It's a room full of techys and geeks. Unfortunately, it took a few people from the audience to just tell her straight out what they wanted. Don't just research your content, research your audience too. Find out what they want from you (and no, don't just ask your friends/family).

This doesn't just apply to marketing campaigns, it applies to your work as well. Our whole department took a work personality quiz called, DiSC. I'm 50/50 D and C (yes capital D, capital C) which loosely translates into D=reacts and makes decisions quickly and C=gathers all the information before starting a project. i = social, extroverted personalities and S=supportive personalities. After revealing everyone's results, we all started to understand how each person works. Ah! KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE! When my colleagues interact with me, they know I like it better if they just get to the point because they know I get the work done quickly/efficiently. When I talk to "i" personalities, I know I should let them talk because that's their thing. With "C's" I know I need to get all my data before I even go up to them. To all you "S" personalities... YOU ROCK! It must be that helpful nature. Knowing your audience allows you to understand how you need to communicate with them. You figure out how best to get your message across just by knowing your audience.

What about the Rockets? It just goes back to content. Watching a losing game is not fun. For some reason, we just haven't bred those "die hard" fans yet but they are definitely there. They are definitely trying with the RED ROWDIES. Do they know their audience? Of course! People wouldn't attend if they didn't want to watch the game. In the same sense, how do you make them stay the whole game? That's the hard part.

The world we live is so fast paced and "real time" than it was a year ago. As technology evolves, so does our life and how we live it. Understand what your audience wants from you! YOU will benefit from it. THEY will love you for it.

Thanks, Y'all!

The beginnings but not really

I say this is the beginning of a blog but is it really the beginning for me? Not really. I can't say I'm an expert of anything. I can't say I'm an expert specifically of marketing or promotions or creative thinking. I'd like to say I am "semi-crazy." Maybe one day I will become just "crazy." I look at everything as a way of communicating. I like to watch commercials and look at advertising and get ideas. I love marketing, advertising and promotions. I find it fun and fulfilling as a career and I hope I can make an impact someday. I'm grateful because I found something that I love to do and I earn money doing it. Isn't that the American Dream?

So what am I doing right now? I'm sitting in my hotel room because of a few reasons:

• I'm at SxSW day 3 and had sat through one of the most painful interviews I have ever witnessed of Mark Zuckerberg - founder/CEO of Facebook. If you would like a pretty good recap of what I experienced, check out CrunchGear. My recap? Sarah Lacy was the interviewer and she was HORRIBLE! The most interesting part of the panel was the last 10 minutes when she finally gave up her horrible interview and opened up questions from the audience. THANK GOODNESS!

Did I say I have a few reasons? I guess that was it. So far being a first time SxSWer has been wonderful! Last night, I won an Xbox 360 from the Avenue A Razorfish party. I had a feeling someone in my group would win but I didn't expect it to be me. That's what you call a lucky noob. I met a lot of great people from literally around the world. I definitely would like to continue attending year after year especially since my passion is marketing/promoting technology. I thank David Herrold for inviting me. I thank the COMPETE guys to take lead us to the Avenue A party. I thank Steven Evatt for putting my business card in the drawing.

So that's my first post. I used to keep up my own site but I got really busy so this is much easier. Oh and if you haven't heard of Twitter, check it out! The skinny? It's just a way to communicate with people you know, find out what they are doing right now. If you do Twitter, feel free to add me.