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How to Boost Engagement by Asking Your Audience What They Want to See

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Have you ever wondered why restaurants have menus?

A little history, shall we?

Long long ago (long before the French revolution of 1779), restaurants only served dishes selected by the chef. I can imagine how frustrating it must have been. You walk into a restaurant craving a particular meal, only to have your hopes shattered because the chef decided to serve something else. Sadly, you had no choice in those days but to keep eating whatever the chef’s heart desired. Sigh.

Thankfully, during the first half of the 18th century, menus were starting to pop up in restaurants here and there. And have become a thing ever since. Oh, the joy of having a variety of meals to choose from. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with a restaurant having specials that people love. A menu is just there to help them serve their customers what they want.

Now let’s talk about your website.

Now that I have gotten you thinking of your favorite restaurant, it’s time to talk about the content on your website. 

What does your website content have to do with restaurants and menus? 

I want you to see it this way. The content you regularly dish out to your audience is akin to the specials served in a restaurant. Your audience may love it and gain some value from it. But how about offering them menus from time to time?

You want to make sure your audience is engaging with your content as much as possible. Remember, engagement makes all the difference. In the words of Chris Lema

“I’m convinced that content that doesn’t drive engagement will never be the mark of success. In that world, we’re publishing just to say we published. Instead, the way we define success has to be by the engagement we see as a result.”

One of the best ways to boost engagement is by asking your audience what types of content they want to see. Hand them a menu. And this is important because it gives your audience the feeling like they are a part of your community. Also, it is a great tool for sparking conversations.

Tips for finding out what your audience wants

  1. Ask your audience

One of the easiest ways to find out what your audience wants is to simply ask. You can utilize your social media channels to do that—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Alternatively, you can send emails to your subscribers asking them what they would like to see from you. 

A simple post on your social media channels that says,  “What content do you want us to share?” can generate several topics for your blog. 

Choose to use an open-ended question. That way, you allow your audience to state their preferences. You can also create polls and give your audience options to choose from. Can you see how this resembles a menu showing want your audience wants? 

Asking your audience what they want is a conversation starter that boosts engagement with your audience. You will be giving your audience a voice and showing that you care about what they want. 

  1. Take advantage of frequently asked questions (FAQs)

I am sure your website and social media platforms have generated a pile of frequently asked questions. If you observe, some of those questions may be recurring. If you want to find out what your audience wants, well, there you go! What your audience will most likely want to know/see is lying right there in plain sight.

Don’t get me wrong. FAQs pages do a great job of providing succinct answers to questions that your audience may have. But some people may want to know more, and in my opinion, a well-detailed blog post does the trick. Quicksprout describes FAQs as blogging gold in any age

Five team members looking at a board

  1. Pay attention to trends

We live in a fast-paced world. New trends are popping up around us every day. And guess what? Your audience most likely wants to keep up. These new trends reflect what your audience wants to see.

Thankfully, you can leverage their need to stay up to date with trends by creating tailored content that satisfies that need. This is where tools like Google trends become your pal. This tool gives you insights into your audience’s interests. 

This is not to say that you should create content about every trend that pops up simply because you want to boost your engagement. Your best bet is to stick to your industry-related trends and create content that aligns with them.  

  1. Review your old content

Remember that one blog post that got the most engagement, comments, likes, and shares? The emails with the highest click-through rate? Well, it’s time to go back and review them. Something about those topics also struck a chord with your audience. 

And most times, they are topics that you didn’t think would gain such traction. Remember our illustration about specials in a restaurant and menus? Sometimes, the meals that a chef thinks are the least favorite on the menu can get the most orders from customers.

Now back to your review. The goal is to discover the topics that stood out to your audience and create more content out of them. You can go a step further by reviewing the comments under those specific topics. You can also try reformatting the content into different formats as well—listicles, how-to’s- reviews, case studies, you name it. 

Here on out, you can play these different topics and formats by ear and adjust accordingly.

A happier audience

Give your audience what they want, and you would have given them a reason to be a happy audience. You will surely get rewarded with increased engagement, loyalty, and conversions. So take your time and study your audience. Find out what makes them respond, and align your content strategy with what you discover. 

Author

Jennifer Alimasunya

Jennifer Alimasunya

Jennifer is a dedicated copywriter for GoWP, a company that provides exceptional outsourced Wordpress services to help agencies grow. She lives in Lagos, Nigeria. In her spare time, she writes and records music.

You’ll be joining a community of highly-vetted digital agencies and web professionals with one common goal — growth! Learn more. 

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