Think about your marketing for a moment. Yes, all of it.
The landing pages, the ads, the blog posts, the brochures… all of it.
It’s probably digital—we’ve all made the transition from print to digital by now. But it’s probably little changed from the print communications you published so many years ago. It’s just online, on your Website, optimized and hyperlinked.
In other words, nothing really has changed.
There’s just one problem with that: The world has, in fact, changed. Dramatically.
Consumers today hardly even resemble consumers from 20, 30 or 40 years ago. They’re plugged in and connected 24/7. The first thing they do in the morning and the last thing they do at night is check their email and/or social streams. And because they are following so many conversations at once, they have the attention span of a gnat.
“We’re not in Kansas anymore”
We’re living in one of the biggest changes in communication ever. It’s on the scale of the invention of the printing press, which overturned oral tradition in favor of print.
This change began in approximately 1995 with the Internet, but it didn’t take hold until 2007 or so. By then, most businesses had a website. Email was a standard way of communicating. And social media was attracting people of all ages.
Our analog, print world became digital.
Now, businesses rarely send long-form sales letters in the mail. They don’t buy Yellow Pages ads. They hardly even advertise on billboards. Because everything about the way we consume content has changed.
Yes, people still want information. We get it online, on our terms. We search for information when we want it, consulting with friends on social media, reading blog posts and online reviews, and skipping from one vendor landing page to another to compare features.
But because we consume so much information (remember, we’re texting friends and scanning Facebook almost nonstop), we don’t have time to read long-form anything. Words don’t communicate as they used to.
Readers have become scanners. And time has become one of our most valuable assets.
Don’t waste my time
If your audience could tell you one thing, it would be this: Don’t waste my time.
They don’t want to be interrupted. They don’t want to be sold a lot of malarkey. They don’t want you to beat around the bush. They just don’t have time for it.
What does impress them? Honesty. Transparency. And if they do pay attention to you, getting some inherent value for their time. Which could be translated, entertainment.
Four to five years ago, the “solution” to this was to shorten all communications to the bare minimum. Blog posts were 400 words max. Sales pages were sent back to the copywriter umpteen million times with the comment, “Too many words!”
That always reminded me of Amadeus, in which Mozart’s music was criticized with, “Too many notes!”
Um. Really? As if cutting out random words will consolidate the message and make it more attractive to readers.
The point is, short and boring is not better than long and boring. People don’t want to read your boring content.
If you’re still talking at your audience, you’re doing it wrong. People don’t have time for your content unless it’s…
Fresh, fun, fulfilling
If time is your audience’s most precious commodity, attention is yours. In order to get eyeballs on your content, you first have to get people’s attention.
How do you do that?
By being different. Saying something no one else is saying. Saying it in your own voice instead of business-speak. Delivering your content in a fresh, new way. Taking the time to add engaging elements to your message, so it’s fun to watch or read.
It doesn’t have to be short. It does have to be interesting. And to help your time-strapped audience, make sure it’s also scannable. That way they can tune in to the bits of your message that are relevant to them.
Take off your Marketer hat for a moment
It’s time to put on your Real Person hat.
You are a Real Person, you know. When you quit work and look for something fun to do, or when you’re searching the Web for a product or service, you’re the consumer. If your marketing wouldn’t hold your attention when you’re wearing your Real Person hat, it’s not going to cut it for your audience either.
Are you getting people’s attention? Are you giving content that’s worth their time?
It’s time to step up your marketing, friends. It’s time to engage with today’s consumer and start creating content that actually matters.
