Audience engagement is the number one thing you should be thinking about as you embark on the journey of entrepreneurship or organizational leadership. I think that Caroline Cooke said it best when she defined audience engagement as “the degree of emotional intensity we feel when we connect with someone, something, or some held belief, and then [we] act on that feeling.”

This definition leads me to my most deeply held belief about leading a business: before you can ever attempt to make a sale, land a client, or recruit sponsors or investors, you must build trust and engagement with your target audience. If I can teach an aspiring leader anything, this is it.

As you’re building and preparing to launch your business or nonprofit, (or if you’re already leading an organization that isn’t generating the outcomes you’d hoped for), you should be asking yourself: Have I built an appropriate level of trust and engagement with the people I’m here to serve? If your answer is “no,” fear not! I’m here to help.

How do I create engagement?

There are four basic things you need to do in order to set yourself up for successful audience engagement.

1: Understand who the members of your audience are and what they want or need from you.

Hint: this goes so much further than demographics. Find out what your target audience likes, dislikes, values, enjoys doing in their free time, struggles with on a daily basis, etc.

I prefer to get really, really specific about the people I’m serving. Check out Seth Godin’s minimum viable audience theory to learn more about targeting your niche.

2: Begin serving them immediately.

As soon as you’ve identified your target audience (or your minimum viable audience), start serving them! Start your email list. Create engagement with your subscribers by asking them questions – what do they want to learn from you? What are they struggling with? Which problem(s) are they trying to solve? Then offer up content that addresses those things!

If you’re not sure where to begin with email marketing, I’d highly recommend Jenna Kutcher’s free course, ZERO-250 List Building Challenge.

3: Be exceptionally clear about what you can offer them.

If you already have a website or an email list, make sure your copy is clear, concise, and positions you as an expert in what you do. I could teach an entire course on this! But one really simple trick to ensure your copy is clear and concise? Use readability statistics when proofing!

4: Interact with them

You’ve captured their attention, and they like what you’re offering. Your followers are responding to your emails and surveys, and they’re commenting on your social media posts. Now it’s your turn to engage! This is your chance to create meaningful connections (and make sure your audience knows there is a person behind the screen). Especially as your following grows, this can feel like a full-time job, in and of itself. But I promise you, this will be time well spent. This is a critical piece of the puzzle to create a thriving organization.

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Creating deep and meaningful connections with the audience you’re looking to serve is the most important thing you can do for the success of your business. If you have any questions or need any help getting there, drop me a line!