Memorability is important for us speakers, as it is for anyone building a brand, creating change, inspiring action, or wanting to be rehired.
If you want your audience to remember your message, there are several wonderful ingredients you can add to the mix.
Today let's look at this one
... create an emotional connection.
Maya Angelou is quoted as saying “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
When you make an emotional connection, you open up the pathways in your audience’s brains that facilitate recall. Whatever you associate with that emotion will be retained along with the emotion, in their memories.
If you want to introduce a new way of thinking or doing for your audience to adopt, create an emotional connection. Having already researched your audience, you should have some idea of what excites them, what they cry about, what their problems are. And you can use that information to connect to their emotions. Use examples that will push those buttons, appeal to what matters to them most.
Tell stories that create an emotion.
Use words that heighten emotion.
Use emotive verbs. Rather than “she said” use “she screamed”, rather than “he went” use “he raced”. Give your adjectives and adverbs the same treatment.
You can watch your audience as you go, and get a feel for what moves them.
It is also a fact that while statistics and logic and facts and figures are useful in supporting a point, they will not have the power over your audience that emotion does. People will make decisions (and give you their attention) based on emotions … and justify them afterwards with logic.
So create an emotional connection with your audience and mix it in and around your facts, statistics and testimonials to engage your audience, have them remember your message and be open to making changes in their lives.
