Content strategy lessons from Steve Job’s presentations.
The excitement for the long-awaited Apple product launch was not only about the new products; people were also excited about how Steve Jobs would present the product to them. His presentations were both informative and entertaining, as well as educational.
Mr. Jobs was a fantastic marketer. He was a firm believer in minimalism and simplicity. He understood psychology and how human brains respond to advertisements. And he applied that knowledge to the presentations he gave at his product launches. Hs presentations served as the content to be delivered to people, allowing them to not only better understand the products, but also leave a lasting impression on them. The results as we know was the Apple being the number one amongst its competitors.
There are many takeaways that we can get from his presentations and apply it to our content strategy to make a lasting and effective impact on our target audience and bond with them on an emotional level. Let us get more into it,
1) Non verbal >>>> verbal communication
He was very visual in his presentations. He barely used paragraphs and long texts unless necessary.
Take a look at how he introduced Apple Macbook Air as the world’s thinnest laptop without adding any dimensions or details. He kept it visual and impactful. Our brains do not need to process all of its width, height, weight. Just a comparison picture says it all.
Lesson one- Try to communicate visually rather than adding too many details and explanations. Our brains process it easily and also remember it for a longer duration. Humans tend to react faster to nonverbal communication than verbal.
2) Put numbers into context
He mentioned data and statistics which were relatable to audience. Infographics, data numbers, statistics are useful if we hold them with a perspective. You won’t be able to measure something if you have no frame of reference for it. Take for example when he introduced the first Ipod. It had a storage worth of 5 GB songs. Unless you are a techie, an average person won’t be able to tell how huge 5 GB of songs are. However he launched Ipod with a tagline “1000 songs right in your pocket”. Now, that put those numbers into a little perspective ,isn’t it?
Lesson 2: If you want to use data and numbers to convey your message in your content use some context that your target audience can relate to. It will be easier for them to understand.
3) Be passionate and strive to make an emotional connection with your audience
Steve jobs was very passionate about his work and products. He was genuine, authentic & creative, and wanted the same for his customers. His tone and voice of communication was very authentic and genuine, which resonated perfectly with his target audience. He wanted to provide people with tools who dare to think different and be creative with the help of his products. This created an emotional and trustworthy connection with his audience.
Lesson 3 - Use a passionate and authentic tone and voice in your content. Always strive to make an emotional connection. Most of all, be genuine.
4) Create surprise
Surprise as a form of emotion has the strongest response from our mind. Just as he was introducing Ipod, people were expecting it to be an mp3 CD player. After building the suspense finally he revealed that the Ipod was actually portable and stylish as to fit in your right pocket! This shook people. Nobody was expecting this. And the rest is history.
Lesson 4- Building suspense and surprising your audience will anticipate amazing reactions from your audience. Try to embed some suspense or surprise factor n your content. Keep your target audience n the edge and make them long for more.
5) Communicate simple. Always.
He was cautious of not using too many jargons or lingos and tried to speak the language of common people. The use of any complex sentences and paragraphs was at minimum or next to nothing. Our brains go for the easiest path to understand something. The easier the information the easier we process it and remember.
Lesson 5- Avoid using to many words,too complex sentences and quit putting too much information together. With the decrease in human attention span, it is necessary for us to take the easiest path to get their attention and make them stay for more. Communicate simply.
