We are living in the age of Attention Economy! If you are still measuring your digital marketing success with the number of clicks, you are doing it wrong. Our (human beings) average attention span is about 8 seconds, which is shorter than that of a goldfish. An average page visit lasts less than a minute. On a mobile device, it’s even less. We are being continuously overloaded with information and attention is now a scarce commodity. Simply put, if you can’t keep someone’s attention on your website for more than 8 seconds, you have lost them, possibly to a competitor.
The digital and social media wave has changed the traditional marketing landscape significantly. There is a lot of noise out there. Many businesses are competing for the same audience. Our job is to cut through the noise and grab the audience’s attention.
Just getting attention is not enough though. The problem with Attention is that it’s not a very measurable activity. If someone says they are paying attention, doesn’t actually mean that they are paying a full attention. So, attention can only be measured by the next action taken by a user; which could be as simple as a decision to stay on a webpage and read what it has to offer. This is why attention is only the first step; the second piece of the puzzle is Engagement.
Attention and engagement go hand in hand. After successfully getting someone’s attention, you then need to keep them engaged to really make it worthwhile. Out of the millions of hours of free videos available online, the average length watched is only around 2.7 minutes. How long can you keep your users engaged?
After doing all that work, the battle is not yet won. The third piece in the puzzle is Retention. Once you have grabbed the attention and engaged them with your message, you must repeat this a few times before they buy from you. Traditionally, it use to take a minimum of 7 contacts for someone to buy your product or service. This number is more like 12 or 15 now a days depending upon the market you are in. The problem is most businesses give up after the 2nd or 3rd contact with their prospective audience and then they are back to square one.
Prepare your business to stand out from the crowd. Learn to catch attention of your audience. The more attention you get, the richer your business will get. Good thing is, not many people are doing it. So this is the time. Don’t wait. Be awesome!
Sam Gupta is the managing director of Synapse Worldwide.
Sam would love to hear your thoughts on this advice column.
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