It’s been said that the average human attention span has gone down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to just eight seconds today. With the advent of mobile just-about-everything and the mainstreaming of the internet of things (IoT), this statistic is hardly surprising—these days, it’s all about instant gratification.
But what does this mean for your content marketing efforts? For starters, it means content has to adapt to stay relevant and to even have a chance of being consumed.
Time is of the Essence
Today’s consumers are ultra-connected and always on the go. They have the internet available to them at all times, on screens of all sizes.
When it comes to content, your audience wants it in small, easily digestible portions. Content needs to be concise and easily scanned across all devices…and of course, it needs to be shareable. Consider these tactics to make your content easier to absorb:
- Add open graph (OG) tags to your site. OG tags operate for social media much in the same way that meta tags operate for search engines: they create a compelling, attractive preview when your content is shared on social. These previews make your content more noticeable and marketable to those devouring their news feed as quickly as possible.
Rapid-Fire Website Loading is Essential
According to Kissmetrics, website visitors expect a site to load in less than three seconds. To make matters worse, visitors frustrated with slow-to-load sites typically abandon ship and head for the competition.
Try out these tips to help your customer’s gain access to your content as fast as possible:
Google AMP: Speeds up the mobile rendering experience during web browsing by offering potential visitors a stripped-down version of your site.
Facebook Instant Articles: Loads a lightweight version of your blog when a visitor clicks on your link from the Facebook app. This allows for instant loading of your website to your Facebook following, offering a faster reading experience for your customers.
Personalized Content is the New Normal
Customers expect to get the content they need without much effort—and this includes content that is specifically targeted to their needs and preferences. To help personalize the user experience, consider these tools:
- Google Optimize 360: Free A/B testing is available to all Google Analytics users. For enterprise users, the content personalization tool helps deliver engaging experiences through website variation testing. The testing process is followed by a tailored approach to personalization according to the results that deliver the best experience for the customer.
- Adobe Target: An optimization solution designed to deliver data-driven results through experimentation and testing. The automated platform helps businesses boost conversions through personalization and by optimizing mobile app performance based mobile context and user behavior.
For businesses looking to stay relevant and informative in today’s competitive content world, consumers’ need for instant gratification may seem a daunting prospect. By adapting your content strategy to stay in-line with consumer expectations, you can be sure your content delivers brand messaging that gets noticed and—most importantly—consumed and shared across all channels.
