The average attention span of a goldfish is about 9 seconds. Humans in this day and age, on the other hand, hold attention spans of 8.25 seconds. As a content marketer, how will you hold your audience’s attention long enough for you to convince them? Failure to hook them in, in this handful of seconds means lost leads for you and your business. How will you grab your audience’s attention if you don’t even know who they are? But never forget that the real goal of any digital marketing strategy is to create and keep loyal customers. Personalize your content Writing content is one thing. To ensure audience engagement, however, make sure the first 8 seconds are attention-grabbers. Clickbaiting, however, doesn’t mean you can ignore the planning and proofreading that goes into the web copy. Personalize your content.
The average attention span of a goldfish is about 9 seconds. Humans in this day and age, on the other hand, hold attention spans of 8.25 seconds. Quite an astounding and disturbing fact.
This notorious short attention span aptly describes the kind of lifestyle everyone lives. It’s true that we can pay attention to a two-hour lecture if we choose to, but the fact put forward by so many scientists confirms that humans are very easily distracted.
It would be a lie to say otherwise. Because we are, in fact, easily distracted living beings. We’re listening to music one moment, and paying attention to a boarding commuter on the train the next. This is further proven by our tendency to bounce from one site to the next in our quest for needed information.
The attention span plague
Holding concentration in the digital world has grown increasingly difficult. If you’re having a hard time keeping your audience engaged in your site, you’re not alone. Users leave web pages in a span of 10 to 20 seconds. This calls for you to clearly communicate your value proposition within or under 10 seconds.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the span of time available is inadequate to convince them to use your services. This leads us to ask how.
As a content marketer, how will you hold your audience’s attention long enough for you to convince them?
Failure to hook them in, in this handful of seconds means lost leads for you and your business. Your audience will move on and will more likely ignore what you have to say.
Here are 7 tips you need to optimize your content for the eight-second attention-span problem everybody’s having.
1. Know your audience
The most obvious step always comes first. How will you grab your audience’s attention if you don’t even know who they are? It would be a mistake to try and aim for a mass audience. In trying to please everybody, you’ll likely end up pleasing nobody.
Businesses invest money in consumer research for a reason. They know the importance of getting to know the market that you cater to. Doing this will allow you to formulate strategies and tactics that will help you reach your customers on a personal level.
2. Get to the point
When marketing to an attention-deficient crowd, don’t waste time beating around the bush. Avoid throwing an unnecessary word-wall in your audience’s faces, talking around them in circles before you finally make a point. It won’t draw them in. On the contrary, nonsensical word-walls are consumer repellants.
Clarify your intentions immediately – preferably in the first paragraph of the copy. Clear and concise messaging is the way to go.
3. Focus on the person – not the channel
Don’t lose sight of who your writing is for. When writing content for your website, always focus on the human who is on the other side of the screen. Sounds simple enough. But it’s easier said than done, though.
It’s tempting for any digital organization to focus solely…
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