The saying has always gone, “Your average consumer has the attention of a goldfish”.
The truth? Studies reveal that consumers have an attention span of eight seconds (or less). Which means that we officially have shorter attention spans than goldfish. Which is why you need to ensure that your marketing efforts capture a reader’s attention right off the bat.
When it comes to advertising, every second counts. Which is why you need to be able to entice the consumer within seven seconds. Which is still shaving it close to them moving on to the next “top 10 hilarious cats YouTube video.”
The good news…
We have some tried and tested tips that you can implement to capture the attention of your customers, that you can implement into your marketing efforts today.
Visuals Are Your Go Getters When It Comes To Attention Grabbers
Here is a fun fact. Did you know that visual content has a 850-percent higher engagement rating then text-only content?
The average consumer skims through posts, gets the gist, and moves on. That is why more often than not visuals have a ton of impact in terms of engagement, and even conversions. Selling has always been about painting a picture of a problem you are solving for a consumer. With the dropped attention rates, and leaps in technology, the saying is quite literal. Use custom pictures, or GIFs that your ideal customers will find humorous, educational, or useful to know.
5 Ways To Not Bore Your Prospects
Okay, so we lied. This section does not contain 5 ways to not be boring. But it is an example of a great subject line. As soon as you saw that, your eyes darted down to consume what was coming next, right?
Customers, or even prospects receive tons of emails a day. Most of which are routed straight into the junk mail. If your marketing campaign is based solely on email newsletters, then you need to produce eye-grabbing subject lines that entices an open from your subscribers.
From adding high-quality entertaining videos into your emails to catching your readers attention with a great subject line, there are tons of ways email marketing can help you retain leads, and improve conversions.
Relate To The Problems That They Are Facing
We all know those companies that go on, and on about everything they can do for you. But there seems to be no knowledge of problems that you are actually facing. Which leaves you unimpressed, and ready to move on to the next big fish, right?
That is why it is important to focus on your customers. Bring in some humour, make them enjoy reading your content, listening to your podcasts, or seeing your advertising campaigns. Relate more to the problems that they are facing, while briefly tying in solutions you provide.
If Your Trying To Capture Attention – But Asking For Favours – You’re Doing Something Wrong
When it comes to building trust in prospects, and general marketing for SMBs, sales should be your last concern.
Wait… what?
That’s completely absurd!
We know how you feel. But imagine the connection you would build. When you first communicate with prospects, focus on their needs. Don’t try a clever sales pitch to capture their attention. Rather provide a genius solution to a problem that they are facing.
Through doing this not only will you capture their attention today, but you will also have their attention, and trust when you tell them to check out your services, or buy your latest product. Pretty nifty way of doing things, right?
Double Punch Through Your Social Media Platforms
Regardless of your industry, social media should always be a priority for your business. This is the one spot where consumers love spending their free time. Which also means a great market penetration tool to retain leads, and open up more doors.
When your about to release a new email with a sales pitch… or even a new blog post to provide value to your target customer base, use social media to draw attention to that sales pitch. Make it witty, short, sweet, and to the point. This is proven to improve open rates, and ultimately conversion rates.
Keep The Fishes On The Hook
Great so, you implemented one or two of these techniques. Perhaps even all of them. You readers are hooked, but their attention span is constantly struggling against the slack of the line. Now you need to reel them in and tie the noose.
Make the content easy to skim through, make the sales letter short and sweet. If it’s a video, keep it conversational and enjoyable to watch. The trick is to provide crazy facts, or impressive solutions to keep your average customers brain engaged with the ideas you are trying to convey.
