How to Market Your Content to the Hyperactive Consumer
We’re all guilty of it.
Waiting for a page to load, we’ll open a new tab or flip to an open program to finish an article or kick out a few seconds worth of work. Even a moment’s worth of boredom is a dreadful thought, and in an age of lightning fast information, there is no longer any reason to be bored.
And so, in addition to the brutal no-holds-barred race to the top of the search page, content marketers must now contend with consumers who have little patience and even less time. How do you deal with such miniscule attention spans?
With these handy tips, of course!
- Use a catchy title. Perhaps the best way to stand out from the crowd is to use a memorable or distinctive headline that captures attention. Some people call it click bait, but that implies deception. Great headlines lure people into your page and offer an eye-catching take on the consumer’s search query.
- Use bullets to hit your target. There are lots of lists out there—and for good reason: people read them! Lists help break up strings of text that threaten to be either disjointed or dull. Bolding the first line of each bullet point helps readers scan the list quickly to find what they like. This increases the chances of them reading that paragraph, and by extension the rest of your article or post.
- Get in and get out. Whatever you need to say, say it quickly and say it well. This can be trickier than it seems. While a lengthy article or blog post will almost assuredly scare visitors away, your content should still be well researched, well organized and well written. It can be easy to sacrifice quality for the sake of brevity, but try to do both. You may need to elevate your game or hire a professional to accomplish this, but it will be worth it.
- Read and re-read. Nothing distracts a reader more than a glaring error or typo in the opening lines. Remember, you only have a few precious seconds to keep the visitor on your page, so make sure you proofread your content before you publish it. Distracted readers typically do not stick around to find your next error. They will head back to the search page to find the next suitable article matching their query.
- Heed the need for speed. Animations, videos and gif images may be extremely cool to look at, and they may even make it exciting to visit and interact with your page. But dynamic content also may take a longer to load, and this can act as a repellant to visitors who have no idea what they’re about to see. Page-engulfing ads, automated video or embedded animations may also send readers packing out of sheer annoyance. Keep your pages speedy by remembering why you landed those visitors in the first place: the content you promised them on the search page.
Don’t let your readers get caught waiting, and certainly don’t let them get away. If you pay attention to word count, keep a focused theme and make it a fun, easy read, you may have your readers turning into customers.
