I Have 8 Seconds to Capture Your Attention

According to a recent study by Microsoft Corp., you can pay attention for eight seconds. Goldfish can pay attention for nine seconds. Too bad we can’t market to goldfish.

The waning attention span throughout the world is a challenge for marketers. How do you rise above the noise and capture your audience’s attention?

3 Tactics to Capture your Audience’s Attention

1. Youtility: Be useful to your audience. As Jay Baer points out in his bestselling marketing book, provide self-serve information, radical transparency and real-time relevancy to attract, but more importantly, retain customers. I’m always checking the apps that give me information I need to make better decisions throughout my day. Doesn’t matter if it’s only eight seconds—at least they got that amount of my time.
2. Gestalt communications: I was going to say storytelling, but it made me almost want to throw up. I’m so sick of that term. However, I do think there is value to thinking about gestalt communications. When we speak from gestalt, we only speak from our own experiences. This means we are not passing judgement or giving advice—we are simply telling our version of what happened to us. Build this type of tale telling into your content and you will gain much more than eight seconds. You will gain lifetime followers and fans.
3. Authenticity: Part of our scattered attention is our cynicism and doubt. No one wants to pay attention because they don’t want to be disappointed. When you tell the truth in your marketing and are honest with your customers, you’re going to gain attention and loyalty. That’s why our tagline is ‘Be Brave in your Communications.’

Ok, that probably took about three minutes to read—I hope I didn’t lose you.