This document provides guidance on engaging customers through effective messaging and content creation. It discusses three key steps: having a simple message conveyed in 10 words or less, creating shareable visual content like photos and videos, and targeting the messaging at early adopters who will spread the word. The goal is to develop content that resonates and spreads widely through social sharing.

1. Engaging your customers
Nowadays, our attention is taken up by a lot of different
things all going on at once – you need to fight to keep your
audience paying attention. Now you’ve identified who they
are, this presentation is to help you to talk to and engage
with your potential customers.
Come on, let’s get started.

2. Yesterday
& today
You can’t target everyone
It’s all about how it makes them feel
1 As a customer, it’s all about how it makes you feel. Brands
Not even Nike, McDonalds or Starbucks targets
everyone. Be specific when naming a target audience.
that make an emotional connection have happy customers.
2
Work closely with your 1st customers
Today: How to talk to your customers
3 Today we’ll be looking at messaging and shareability –
Work with your first customers as closely as possible to
make sure you’re getting it right every time.
factors that make your idea spread.
4

3. Three steps of engaging your customers
If you want a message and idea that resonates with the right people, you need these
three things to create an idea that spreads - one that is shareable.
Shareable
content
You need a simple message in
order to have the best chance of
capturing someone’s attention
We live in a visual age of social
media, and in order to impress,
you’ll need good visuals.
Show The
right people
A clear message & shareable content
is a start, but for it to really take off,
you’ll need to target the right people.
Simple
Message

4. Step 1: Simple message
If you can’t say it in
10 words, don’t say it.

5. Map what you’re offering on a piece of paper
Keeping your messages simple is about being completely clear on what you’re offering and why people will use you.
A good way to picture this is by drawing the message map shown below – yes, actually draw it out!
Why
Customers Will
Choose You
Why
Customers Will
Choose You
Why
Customers Will
Choose You
WHAT
You Do In One
Sentence

6. Creating your mini pitch
A Mini-Pitch is a short presentation of your business idea
which you can say to potential customers, potential contacts
or even just to your Nan. Make sure you include these:
Who you are & What you do
E.g. Corkscrew provide training courses in business start-up
1
Why people will choose you
E.g. Improved confidence & initiative, great professional experience
2
A ‘call to action’
A ‘Call To Action’ is somewhere the listener can go to if they’re
interested in what you’re saying. It could be your website, a video
or social media page, or perhaps it’s something offline like an event
or a signup sheet.
3
Who you are and
What you do
Why people will
choose you
Where someone can go
for more information

7. More information on the message map
Creating a message map is the best way of getting your message right. Once you’ve
got your message right, the next best thing to do is to practice saying it!
Message Map: How To Pitch
Anything In 15 Seconds
Forbes Contributor Carmine
Gallo tells you how to pitch
anything in 15 seconds using a
Message Map.
1

8. Step 2: shareable content
Making something people
actually want to look at

9. Make your pictures stand out
Visual content is very important in today’s media culture. However, capturing the attention (and imagination) of your
audience can be quite hard with so many messages around us. Try these tips to give your photos a good start.
Take nice pictures
Use interesting camera angles and clear the background
Add text & tell a story
Pictures should be self explanatory
Keep it relevant
Only post what your followers would want to see

10. There’s an app for that
There are many, many apps out there that will help you take and make
great pictures. These are just a few of our favourites:
Instagram
Take pictures with
a vintage feel
overgram
Write text over
your Instagram
best shots
Afterlight
Lots of filters and
options to make
things look good.
Camera
awesome
Try the ‘Awesomize’
button!
Piclab HD
Add drawings
and doodles to
your images
Photoristic
Pro application with
advanced image
tweaking options

11. Try making a short interesting video
Videos are a great way of explaining what you’re offering and are always very shareable if done well. It doesn’t
1 Viral videos: 007 & coke zero
Viral videos are videos that are
short, usually funny, and always
very shareable. You can’t expect to
hit a home run every time, but you
should be aiming for the same
characteristics in your videos.
have to be long, in fact, the shorter the better - under 2 minutes is ideal.

12. Try making a short interesting video
Videos are a great way of explaining what you’re offering and are always very shareable if done well. It doesn’t
1 Viral videos: 007 & coke zero
Viral videos are videos that are
short, usually funny, and always
very shareable. You can’t expect to
hit a home run every time, but you
should be aiming for the same
characteristics in your videos.
have to be long, in fact, the shorter the better - under 2 minutes is ideal.
Bently makes an ad shot
entirely on iphones
This film, ‘Intelligent Details’, is an
advert shot for Bentley Motors
and filmed entirely using iPhones.
You don’t need expensive
equipment to make good videos.
2

13. Try making a short interesting video
Videos are a great way of explaining what you’re offering and are always very shareable if done well. It doesn’t
3 Stopmotion pizza
This video is a great
demonstration of what you can
achieve with a little creativity.
There are lots of stopmotion
apps which will help you create
a similar effect
have to be long, in fact, the shorter the better - under 2 minutes is ideal.

14. Try making a short interesting video
Videos are a great way of explaining what you’re offering and are always very shareable if done well. It doesn’t
3 Stopmotion pizza
This video is a great
demonstration of what you can
achieve with a little creativity.
There are lots of stopmotion
apps which will help you create
a similar effect
have to be long, in fact, the shorter the better - under 2 minutes is ideal.
4 One second every day
This can be a great way of showing
off what you’re doing – imagine it
in a business context! It’s a very
easy effect to achieve if you’re
willing to put in the time.

15. There are apps for videos, too
There are also a lot of great video making apps out there that can help you create great
videos with little or no camera or editing experience.
Instagram
Instagram can
handle videos too!
vine
Create 6 second
videos with no
editing skill needed
magisto
Great app for
editing videos,
including filters.
Cute cut
A video editor
which feels similar
to iMovie somehow
One second
everyday
Records segments
beautifully
Stop Motion
Recorder
Get started with
stopmotion

16. Supertip: make an emotional connection
Make an emotional connection in what you’re doing. If you can provoke a reaction in people then you are much
more likely to create content which is shareable. Make sure your pictures and videos have the ‘wow’ factor.
Funny
Crazy
scary
Shocking Amazing
Sad

17. Step 3: show the right people
Find the people that care
about what you’re doing

18. This is bob.
He’s a software engineer in London and enjoys lazy weekends and
walks in the park. Bob also loves gadgets. One time he actually waited
in a queue for hours just to get his hands on the new iPhone 5S.
Bob is fanatical about gadgets
Bob loves his gadgets. He loves unwrapping the latest
phone & downloading the newest apps to try them out.
1
He loves telling his mates
2 about new tech and gadgets
Whether it’s online or offline, he likes talking to people
about new interesting technology – and they like it too!
Bob’s opinion matters because
3 He’s an ‘early adopter’
Bob is always the first in line to try new apps, gadgets
and devices. His opinion is going to affect what
his friends do. He’s what we call an Early Adopter!

19. This guy is an early adopter too

20. And so are these people

21. More on early adopters: the lifecycle of a product
It helps to picture the full lifetime of a product and below is a chart of just that. It’s a graph of how many people adopt a product over its
lifetime – it helps to picture it in terms of years, with each chunk being a year. In Year 1, 2.5% of the public will start using it, and so on.
Innovators & early adopters
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
These guys are the first to buy things and love
writing reviews on review sites. They’re the
fanatics of the world!
Early & Late Majority
This represents most people and will buy
something only once it becomes more
commonplace, cheap or popular.
Laggards - the last ones
These are the last people to get something.
Laggards are reluctant, stubborn and
consider your product unnecessary.

22. How To Make Your Ideas Spread
Seth Godin
This is another fantastic TED talk.
Seth Godin is back to tell us about
who early adopters are and what
they truly care about.
1
Find your early adopters
It’s important to find your early adopters, the people that care about what you do enough to be the first to try it, and
hopefully they’ll tell their friends. Here’s Seth Godin to explain the idea in more detail.

23. So Remember these Three steps
Remember, if you want a message and idea that resonates with the right people, you
need these three things to create an idea that spreads - one that is shareable.
Shareable
content
You need a simple message in
order to have the best chance of
capturing someone’s attention
We live in a visual age of social
media, and in order to impress,
you’ll need good visuals.
Show The
right people
A clear message & shareable content
is a start, but for it to really take off,
you’ll need to target the right people.
Simple
Message

24. If you can nail these three steps,
you can hit a home run and go viral
Viral is a term used to describe ultra shareable content – the stuff that flies around the internet all the time. Anything can
go viral from articles and videos to funny pictures of cats.

25. Going viral
Today we’re continuing the work on your movement from last week.
Yesterday we identified exactly who would be interested in your idea
and now it’s time to put the wheels in motion and make it all happen.
Create 4 images to promote
your movement
Create a cool video to explain or
1
2 demonstrate your movement
Try some of the apps
3 mentioned above

26. Things to
takeaway
Can you say it in 10 words or less?
Create yourself a mini pitch
1 Use the Mini Pitch structure to talk to people about your
Keep going until you can. It takes a lot of work to break
down your idea enough that you can explain it easily!
idea and get them interested in what you’re doing.
2
Put effort into your visuals
find your early adopters
3 Find and talk to the people that are going to care
Set aside the time and energy to create awesome
visuals – you don’t need any design experience.
about what you do. Find the fanatics!
4

27. Engaging customers
Done!
www.cork-screw.org