If you want to ensure that your next proposal, presentation and event are successful you need to address three fundamental questions; what do you want the audience to think, feel and do as a result.
By considering the answers to these questions you will ensure that you develop a powerful communication that engages the audience at different levels and obtains the end result you desire.
Let’s explore the three levels.
Think
This level is concerned with informing and educating, taking the audience from a current level of knowledge to a desired level of knowledge.
This level uses logic and facts to engage the audience and typically covers both the problem and the solution, for example:
- the extent of homelessness in a country and what your organisation is doing to address it
- product features and benefits (e.g. saving 10% in time).
Feel
This level is about emotion and how you want the audience to feel, for example, inspired, motivated or confident in you. This level typically uses images, stories and music to engage the audience, for example:
- an emotive video of people sharing their own experiences of homelessness and how they overcame it with the help of your funding
- the emotional benefit of saving time; more time to spend doing the things you love.
Do
This is the call to action, what you want the audience to do right now and in the future e.g. sign up, nominate, donate, purchase or participate.
It’s at this level that people are often not explicit enough. There is a tendency to whip the audience up into a ‘buying’ state and then fail to make the call to action with clarity or strength of command in terms of, for example:
- asking people to donate now
- asking for the business directly.
By developing communication that addresses these three questions you will ensure that your communication is tailored efficiently and effectively to achieve the outcome you want.