How to Fight Against Dwindling Attention Spans

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How to Fight Against Dwindling Attention Spans

It’s no secret that there is more content online now than ever before. And every single article is constantly vying for your attention. The grand irony in this is that even though there is more content than ever before, human attention spans are shrinking. The latest data shows that the average human attention span is only 8 seconds. That’s less than a common goldfish.

So how do you solve this problem? You need content in your marketing to draw customers to you but if your customers’ attention spans are too short to read your content, then is it worth it to write in the first place? Absolutely!

Content marketing is still a valuable way to attract customers to your business. The difference now is that you have to change your writing techniques. You have to write in a way that helps keep your reader’s attention span focused on your article. Here’s how to do that.

Create Quality Content

You’ve heard this before, but that’s because it’s important. Arguably, it is even more so when you are trying to hold someone’s attention span.

Have you ever read an article and then, two paragraphs in, realize the whole thing is just fluff? There’s nothing useful in it so you leave. That’s exactly what you don’t want to happen with your content.

You need to write useful and relevant articles that offer more than just fluff. Go deep and thoroughly cover your topic. Don’t be afraid if it’s long. As long as the information is valuable, the length won’t matter. If someone is interested in the topic, they’ll read the whole thing.

Write for Skimmers

Very few people these days actually read an entire article; instead, most just skim it. They don’t read every word but just enough to understand what’s going on. You have to write in a way that’s friendly for skimmers.

There are multiple ways to do this, but they include these ideas:

– Writing in short paragraphs
– Including a lot of line breaks
– Writing in short sentences
– Using subject headings
– Adding bulleted lists
– Summing up well

Writing for skimmers is important because you’ll keep more people’s attention that way. If you follow the tips above about writing for skimmers, more people will make it all the way through your articles.

Do you see what I did there? I started the section with a section heading, wrote in short paragraphs, used a bulleted list, and I summed it up. This is what writing for skimmers looks like.

Use Visual Content

You can’t expect people to just stare at a wall of text for hours on end, because they simply won’t do it. That’s why you need to use visual content in your content marketing.

According to Business2Community, the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. Readers also remember information from an image better than they do from just plain text. This is why visual marketing elements have become more popular. Infographics, videos, social media images, and picture quotes are just a few examples of visual marketing. Basically, if you want to keep your reader’s attention, start using visuals.

Don’t Give Up

With the knowledge that the average attention span is only 8 seconds, it is tempting to just throw in the towel on content marketing. Don’t do that. It is still a valuable asset to your marketing strategy. Just be aware of how things are changing and adapt your strategy to match it. Create quality content, write for skimmers, and use visual content. All of these tips will help you keep the attention span of your readers.

What other tips do you suggest to keep readers’ attention?