By Ali Kovash: Client Relations Intern
In a world of 140 character tweets, 10 second Snaps, endless links, pictures, and videos to scroll through, multiple social media and news platforms to check, and a sea of websites, blogs, and apps all at our fingertips, audiences are harder to reach than ever before.
You could say we all have the attention span of a goldfish these days. Seriously, not kidding. A recent study by Microsoft found that consumers’ attention span is approximately 8 seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish who can stay on task for 9 seconds. On web pages, users will read about 20% of the content on average and page visits typically last less than a minute, often 10-20 seconds.
It’s not that people are incapable of concentrating. It’s simply because there are so many factors vying for our attention that people don’t want to focus on one thing for too long. This is largely due to the development and expansion of smartphones and mobile technology.
So what does this mean for content writing?
There is a common myth in this limited-character world that writing is less important or even obsolete. In reality, this cannot be further from the truth. When you have less time and space to get a message across and you’re competing with countless other outlets, writing has to be strategic and efficient enough to be as short as possible and stand out from the crowd while still delivering quality information that people want to read. That’s a tall order. But great writing can make all the difference when it comes to cutting through the noise and clutter and there are three ways you can do that.
Use Your Outdoor Voice
Voice is arguably the most important part of good writing. To begin, ask yourself: is the purpose of your writing to entertain, inform, persuade, or something else entirely? And how can I tie this purpose into the brand of my business? Remember, people don’t want to read something too dry or boring. Keep your audience in mind and use the appropriate voice your audience is going to want to read while accurately portraying your brand. And don’t be afraid to have a little fun with it, especially if you’re trying to reach a younger audience.
Get Their Attention
In order to get your audience’s attention, you need to have something that allows you to stand out from the crowd and pull them in. Clever or attention-grabbing titles are always a good start. Call it “click bait” for lack of a better term, but you need something that is going to make your audience stop and want to read more.
Keep Their Attention
The same study mentioned above found that people are more likely to watch video when given the choice and they will sit through about 2.7 minutes of content. This means accompanying media is your best friend. Images, video, and infographics are far more likely to get your reader’s attention and help them better understand what you want them to.
As a whole, people typically don’t want to read long, drawn out articles or even more than a few paragraphs when they’re online. Keep your message as short as possible and to the point. Less is more. Also, keep it easy to scan so the information the reader is looking for is easily accessible.
While writing in today’s cluttered, mobile, short attention span world poses some challenges, there’s also opportunity. You can really allow your audience to get a feel for your company and brand by the way you write. You can get creative with it and see what works best.
If you need some assistance in the content writing department, please give us a call at 701-478-1111 and ask to speak with a marketing advisor or visit www.absolutemg.com/contact. Our talented creative staff would love to help you out.