A nifty trick from the 6 o’clock news
“Welcome to the WXYZ Evening Eyewitness News.”
“We have a lot to cover: A Newtown baby drives her family car to get an oil change. Elderly women finds her old handbag with 10,000 dollars in it. And you won’t believe what these squirrels did to the inside of this garage.”
“So, let’s get right to it…”
The consultants at WXYZ invented clickbait long before the Inter Web. They knew their job, the job of the news, was to keep eyeballs glued to the set so their viewers would see each and every commercial.
They use these little incomplete teasers at the beginning of the newscast and before every commercial.
They will often figure out what the most teaseable story is and re-tease it before every break knowing or hoping you will stay locked into the TV.
It is pretty shameless and almost as bad as the clickbait we all see on just about every website.
These days, especially online, people are so easily distracted. As online presenters, we can use this technique, without being quite so sleazy or manipulative, to keep our audience focused on our message.
It might sound like this:
“Blah, blah, blah. By the way, if you stick with me through this presentation, I have a special downloadable gift for you at the end. More blah, blah, blah.”
Or you could format your content to accomplish a similar objective.
“Today, I will show you the top five ways you can use the common banana to decorate your favorite hat.”
Everyone, of course, will want to stick around to hear all five valuable ways to accomplish this critical task.
You don’t have to be quite so slimy as Joe TV-Boy when you promise something valuable at the end of your presentation. Just be honest, tell your audience you have a reward for them and make sure it was worth their kind attention.
Now stay tuned for my next email: 10 Ways to Have Perfect Strangers Paint Your House.
To your success,
Tom, Ready2Speak.com
P.S. Let’s get really good at this online presentation thing and smoke our competition. OK?
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It will be available starting Monday, June 15th. I will give you 50% off for pre-registration, this week only.
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Your online success is waiting…
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