WOW #017: When A Dog Spots A Squirrel

Quote of the Week:
"Attention is a limited resource, so pay attention to where you pay attention.”
- Howard Rheingold

My friend and I were talking about shrinking attention spans the other day.

When the average adult attention span is about 8 seconds, how do Business owners a) break through the clutter, and b) continue meaningful interactions with customers.

It's not easy, and it's only getting harder. 

I used to tell Clients to craft marketing messages as if they were trying to grab the attention of shoppers in line at the grocery store.

Shoppers at checkout are captive audiences with nowhere to go. There's gum, candy, and magazines dead center. I’m a sucker for magazine subtitles.

You’ve probably seen some of these before:

“Drop 10 lbs in 1 Week with this Secret.”
“Inside Elon’s House of Horrors.”
“Suicidal Twin Kills Brother By Mistake.”

Chances are you never buy the magazine, but the headlines catch your attention. In a sense, they work. 

Your Website, Emails, Social Media, and Video all need to work harder than ever. 

Are your marketing messages grabbing attention? How are your audience views, open rates and click thru rates performing month over month? 

If you're unsure of how successful your current metrics are, research industry benchmarks and standards for your business and see how you’re tracking against others in your field.

If you’re satisfied with the first part (grabbing attention), how do you rank yourself on the next all-important piece, closing sales. Are you and your current marketing assets better at one vs. the other? (Opening vs Closing)

I'll save the closing question for another week while we focus on attention spans.

By the way, I hope you're still with me and have made it this far.

2 Takeaways:

1. Responsive Design. Responsive design is simply a fancy way of describing how your digital presence displays across screens (desktop, mobile, tablets, etc). Is it consistent, and is the experience for viewers similar on an iPhone vs a Dell Laptop? While Internet consumption skews mobile, a consistent, predictable experience is really important.

2. How You Say Anything Is How You Say Everything. Digital assets on the Web aren't written in pencil, it's more like permanent ink from a Sharpie. And, as a one-person business/small business this point hits home even harder. It's so easy to post and publish these days. Too easy. Meanwhile, the art of strategy, proofreading, and marketing context seem to represent relics of a time gone by. You may be a better Closer (sales) than Opener (marketing). Play your strengths.

1 Action:

This week check your website load speed and responsive design. There are a lot of free sites out there that you can reference.

For website load speed, PageSpeed Insights is a good one.
For responsive design, check out Responsive Test Tool.

8 seconds isn’t a lot of time, and so much is riding on your website. A little end of the year tune-up never hurts.

See you next week, 

Hubert