As a society, we have a new, shorter attention span. The average attention span for many people in 2022 is close to 8 seconds.
That’s shorter than the amount of time that a goldfish can focus.
A goldfish.
So, if you’ve been noticing that your employees seem easily distracted, then you might be onto something.
(Are you still reading or has your attention span shifted? Just checking!)
A shortened attention span seems to be a natural consequence of digitization and constant advertisement.
That brings us to our question:
How can marketers continue to capture attention? (Don’t worry, we’ll keep this short.)
1. Start With a Hook
We know this is a writing foundation. However, a short hook is incredibly hard to write, record, and edit. It may sound simple when we say it, but believe us when we say that writing for a short attention span can take months of work. A catchy hook will appeal to emotion in one sentence or two sentences.
2. Write to Be Heard
Chances are people who watch your ads will be several tabs away while they wait for their YouTube video to start or for their next tab to load. That means that the most crucial part of a hook is your AUDIO. Ensure that you have something unique, funny, or attention-grabbing as your hook. Anything interesting will help you to grab hold of a shortened attention span.
3. Use Social Proof
One of the best ways to appeal to emotion and capture the human attention span is to use social proof.
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4. Keep It Short
Now that you know how to keep your videos short and sweet, it’s important to keep your audience’s attention span in mind. You want to hook them from the beginning and keep them engaged until the end.
Some ways to do this include using creative visuals, keeping your language simple and concise, and avoiding boring or irrelevant topics. If you can manage to do all of these things, you’re sure to keep your viewers entertained and informed! TIP: You need to track how long your content would be, here’s a free online script-timer that you can use anytime and anywhere.
5. Use Different Types of Content
Now that you know how to mix up your content, it’s time to think about attention span. Since people have a shorter attention span than ever before, it’s important to keep your content concise and to the point. You can do this by using short, catchy headlines and keeping your videos and articles under five minutes long.
If you can keep your viewers engaged and entertained, they’ll be more likely to stick around until the end. So make sure you use eye-catching visuals and keep your content fresh and new!
6. Pay Attention to Analytics
Since our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, it’s more important than ever to make sure your videos are engaging and interesting from start to finish. Make sure to keep your videos short and to the point, and always use visuals to keep viewers interested. If you can, try to add interactive elements to your videos as well – this will help keep viewers engaged for the entire length of the video.
7. Re-purpose Your Content
Just because you published a video or blog post doesn’t mean that it has to live in one place forever. You can re-purpose your content by turning a blog post into an infographic or by taking key points from a video and turning them into a social media post.
This is a great way to get more mileage out of the content that you’ve already created, especially if you’re looking to capture attention spans. With shorter attention spans than ever before, it’s more important than ever to present your content in a variety of formats that will appeal to different audiences.
TIP: Repurposing content can be tricky at times. So here’s a quick guide that you can use to convert templated visuals to match your brand voice.
8. Collaborate With Others
If you’re struggling to come up with new ideas or you’re feeling stuck, try collaborating with someone else. This could be another marketer in your company or someone from a completely different field. However, make sure that you focus on keeping their attention.
Some great ways to do this include using multimedia content, breaking up your content into smaller chunks, and using interactive elements. Keep in mind that people have shorter attention spans than ever, so you need to make sure that your content is engaging and holds their interest.
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Turn Attention to Engagement
Now that you know how to capture your viewers’ attention, how do you keep them engaged? Here are a few tips:
- Use interesting visuals: This might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s worth mentioning. Make sure your visuals are interesting and engaging. This could include everything from the video itself to the text and graphics you use in your thumbnail.
- Keep your videos short and sweet: As we mentioned before, keep your videos short and sweet. Our rule of thumb is 1 minute or less. That might seem impossible, but you can do it! There are entire YouTube channels dedicated to one-minute videos like this one. And don’t forget, you can always link to longer-form content in the description box below your video.
- Use Engaging Titles: Your title is the first thing potential viewers will see, so make sure it grabs their attention. Try to be creative and think outside the box.
- Use Call To Actions: A call to action is an instruction urging the viewer to take some specific action. For example, “click here to learn more,” or “subscribe now for more videos like this one.” CTAs are a great way to keep viewers engaged and motivated to take action. Take these 15 best CTA examples that you can use and apply to your marketing campaigns.
Take Advantage of the New, Shorter Attention Span
On the bright side, our collective ability to multitask has improved as our ability to focus continuously has fallen. Allow your audience to multitask while they watch your video for the best information retention.
Make sure that your visuals and audio can work independently from one another. Your audience’s attention span may only be able to handle watching or listening to your ad and not both at the same time.
All Is Not Lost
All this information tells us is that markets are changing and that we need to adapt to meet them. You can learn to tell good stories yourself using our Masterclass on storytelling or reach out to us directly to talk through how your next project can take advantage of the new, shorter attention span. We would love to work with you!
OUR MISSION:
INSPIRE YOUR AUDIENCE
TO TAKE ACTION
