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How to create content that appeals to short attention spans

For all small and medium-sized businesses, a good content marketing strategy can play a significant role in your website’s effectiveness in remaining competitive. However, thanks to developments in technology such as smartphones, social media and live streaming, there’s never been more content for people to consume. It should come as little surprise, then, to learn that the average human has an attention span of just eight seconds.

That’s not all. More than half of all page views are less than a minute long, suggesting that people are spending less time than ever before reading and consuming a single piece of content in depth. Instead, with so much choice and variety, consumers look for content that offers something genuinely valuable, and something they can consume quickly. But how do you create content that appeals to short attention spans? Below, we’ve put together some of our top tips.

 

Write high-quality content

It can be tempting to rehash an existing blog post or outsource your copywriting, but this is not the most sensible option. Content marketing is an increasingly competitive field, so you need to ensure that the content you are promoting on your website stands out and offers something truly unique and valuable. Do your research, take the time to write your blog posts and don’t be afraid of missing a week from your blogging schedule to produce something you’re proud of.

 

Use visual content

Not all content marketing has to centre around your blog. Your audience wants to see more visual content, and videos, GIFs and infographics can be much more engaging than a blog post. One of the most efficient methods of using visual content is to pair it with other forms of content marketing – you could, for example, use a data visualisation piece alongside a long-form article and a video, all covering different angles of the same topic.

Not only does this provide you with more content to distribute and promote, but it ensures that you have covered a topic comprehensively and that your audience will be catered for in whichever way they choose to consume your content.

 

Be flexible with your presentation 

It’s easy to get bogged down in a blog post and forget about what’s important, so when it comes to presentation, take the time to see what works. Break up sections using headers, add bullet points and lists to display information quickly and clearly, and include round-ups, summaries and downloadable sheets that your users can look through if they don’t have time to peruse everything on the page.

 

Publish on more than one channel 

Deciding where to place your content can be challenging – on top of social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, platforms such as Medium and industry-specific communities should also be taken into consideration. By publishing your content on more than one platform, and optimising your content for each of these platforms, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and appeal to a range of attention spans.

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