If you’re having a hard time getting the attention of your prospects and customers, perhaps this goldfish can help you understand?
When I first started marketing my businesses and services, the general rule of thumb was “you only had a few minutes” to capture the attention of your target market. I forget the exact amount of time, but the important fact to note here is we had “a few minutes”. Minutes.
What has changed is, today, you have about 4 seconds – or less. 4 seconds. It takes almost four seconds just to say the words 4 seconds.
A recent study done by Microsoft concluded the attention span of people is 8.25 seconds, slightly more than my note of 4 seconds, but none the less, scientists say a goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds.
Be it 4 seconds or 8.25 seconds, or anywhere in between, you have very little time to capture the attention of your prospects.
Additionally, the way in which people communicate today has changed and continues to change. The vast majority of your target market now prefers, and responds best to, information in very tiny bits and pieces.
This communication challenge has probably come about as a side effect to the way we communicate in text messages, comment in social media, etc. If you think about how that stuff is done, it’s all done how? In very short, very to the point, small pieces at a time, right? So the way your market has been conditioned to process information is in very short, concise segments.
I doubt it is a mere coincident that communicating in short little segments like this also seems to sync up with 4 second attention spans.
Thus, the way you must communicate with your target market has changed. Your market will absorb your message – in other words your advertising, your emails, your blog posts, your website content, everything you communicate to them – when you deliver it in very short, very to the point, and very specific little pieces.
What’s more, your target market wants only information specific to them and/or what they are seeking out. They will not wade through piles of fluff to find what they are looking for. They will simply bounce to the next source and find it there. They tend to hit the “exit door” quickly.
If you want to be the authority and go to source for your prospects and customers, you must align your marketing, advertising, and presence within your marketplace or niche with these new realities or you can expect to be largely ignored. And that’s a lonely place to be.
BLOG Posted by
Chris Moran
Inc 500 CEO & Founder
EvergreenAutomation.com
eCommCo.com
Author of Amazon #1 Best Seller “Customer Getting”
Press Release by Marketers Media for Amazon
