It’s time to face facts: Your buyers are suffering from content burnout. Wonder why? Take a look at these stats from SocialPilot, and you’ll understand:
- 3 million pieces of content are shared every minute on Facebook.
- 500 million tweets are sent every day.
- 88% of B2B marketers use Twitter to share content.
- 66% of the content pinned on Pinterest comes from business websites.
- Instagram users upload nearly 85 million videos and photos every day.
- 91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to share content.
Your prospects and customers are so inundated with content, they’ve become numb and stopped paying attention to much of it. But when they get content that’s relevant and engaging, they’ll pay attention.
How can you blast through the content burnout barrier? Try these six tips.
Number 1: Keep it short and sweet. It’s not your imagination. The average human attention span has declined from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds now — shorter than the attention span of a goldfish (9 seconds). This, evidently, was confirmed by a recent Microsoft study that surveyed 2,000 people and monitored brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms (EEGs). To stand out today, you need to grab people’s attention fast and make your message brief, yet powerful. Use short-form content formats like infographics, listicles, short videos and checklists, so your stories are engaging and easy to digest. (This infographic is a great example of easy-to-digest content that tells a powerful story.)
Number 2: Say it with pictures. Growing out of our shortening attention spans is a move toward more visual content. Especially for early stage pieces, focus on content with compelling visuals, vectors, photos, charts, video and other graphics. Check out this two-minute video to see how we used a fun theme to convey our theme of “Make Content Great Again.”
Number 3: Make it interactive. Static content is fine when your prospect has time to really delve into a subject. But when you’re trying to break through the burnout barrier, you have to get your prospect involved — fast. You may enjoy taking short quizzes, clicking on pictures and otherwise engaging with content. Well, so do you prospects. But you don’t have to create content from scratch. You can repurpose existing content and reimagine it for more interactive formats.
Number 4: Get personal. People like to feel they’re understood. The more you can personalize your messages, the better response you’ll get. In the consumer world, 86% of consumers acknowledge that their decision to buy is influenced by personalization. In this age of Big Data, companies have the ability to personalize messages — not just with names but also with content that’s focused on their behaviors. One of the latest trends is personalized video. Look how Vidyard personalized this video as a conference follow-up.
Number 5: Get to the point. People don’t have time for long, convoluted messages. When it comes to content, try to keep it concise. When you tighten up your copy, your pieces are easier to read and help your prospects to get straight to the information they want and need. See how our g-book, 5 Trends Driving the Shift Away from Long-Form Content, dives right into the topic without any slow buildup.
Number 6: Provide value. This is the last tip, but it’s arguably the most important. People will read long-form content, but only when it’s the right message at the right time. Your content needs to:
- Be what they need at a specific point in time, like when they’re seriously considering their purchase options or when they need immediate help with a problem.
- Give them credible, trustworthy information — not sales hype.
- Inform and educate.
This e-book, Modular Content: The Building Blocks of Cost-Effective Content Marketing, is an excellent example of an asset with a bit more copy that is extremely practical and tactical for readers.
Get more details and ideas from our handy checklist, Content Burnout: What It Is and 6 Ways You Can Beat It.
