Content Creation

Activate your Audience with intentional content

For years, experts have told us how to create content that activates people to buy. These so-called “rules” have been accepted by large to small businesses alike. Why? Because their agency told them so…the AKA experts. Their rules have become unbreakable for many and mislead others. Rules such as keeping all the important information above the fold on a web page. Making your headlines short and punchy, with four to five words. Or never create video more than Instagram’s :59 seconds, because nobody watches a long video.

All these and other rules about creating content are focused on capturing the attention span of an audience in a few seconds.

Paul Zak is known as the father of neuroeconomics. He studied how narrative stories or experiences drive us to action. In his lab, he could predict up to an 82% accuracy whether people would spend money on something, based on how they reacted to content.

According to Zak, there are two essential elements we can measure that can predict our intent to take action. These two elements are attention and emotion. For attention, he measured a quickened heartbeat and sweat from the eccrine glands in the skin. And his big discovery for emotion was measuring the vagus nerve with an electrocardiogram, as it’s a large regulator of oxytocin.

While most of us don’t have the resources to hook up our customers to machines in Zak’s lab and measure their responses to our content, we can still learn from Zak’s experiments with this simple formula: Attention + Emotion = Action

INTENTIONAL Content Over Snackable Content

In an article by Shaun Buck, a VIP contributing writer for entrepreneur.com, titled “The myth of the 8-second attention span,” we learn that giving attention to a specific task is all about choices and quality of content. We have so many choices today, and so many channels, that we don’t have to settle for boring or lame content. The myth of the short attention span ignores the “quality of content” or the type of task we are asking our brains to perform. The real test of attention is all about content and choice.

If the content is awesome, consumers will give it more attention. Which means, it’s our job as marketers to entertain, educate, and capture customer attention long enough to sell to them. And not to simply focus on creating a bunch of fast content. Here’s where all the truths from “experts” fall apart. Because they are focused on totally different elements — like speed, length, and time. And neuroscience teaches us that it’s about two completely different ingredients. Which means, all that advice about engaging your audience is wrong. It’s not about how quickly you can deliver a message. It’s not about how much time your audience spends on your content. Or how “snackable” it is. Or how long is your video. Not speed. Not length. Not time.

The brain only engages with content that is unique and emotionally charged. Period. Those are the right things to focus on. I’m not saying there isn’t a time and place for short or long content. In a realistic customer journey, you should have all types and lengths of content. What I’m saying is that as content goes we need to focus on the right elements of success at the right stage of the customers journey.

Content is about the value it gives our audience. If we want to get more engagement from our brand platform, or our advertising, or our website, we shouldn’t just focus on what type of content they need to draw them closer from being unaware to product aware. Ultimately, we want more people to buy and buy-in, purchasing again and again. To do this, your content needs to have substance first and foremost. Great content is about value to the audience. It needs to be creative and unique. Only then will your audience give you their attention and emotion.

A time and place for snackable, short-form, and long-form content

Whenever the conversation around short attention spans turns to creating snackable content or 10-second video clips or punchy headlines — just remember, it’s not about speed. It’s all about the story or quality of content. And if you want to succeed, then you need to spend your effort and resources on creating amazing content — not worrying or arguing about the length of content. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and a place for different lengths of content. I’m not saying that a short social post is useless.

My point is that far too often, the reaction is to focus on speed, not quality of content.

If you want to hold the attention of consumers, then stop making lame content. Don’t blame it on attention span. And don’t focus on the wrong things. Not everything should be snackable. Not everything should fit above the fold. If we create an emotional story with a new twist, the brain will be more engaged.Keeping customer attention is all about giving them good choices and quality content. If they like the content, they will keep consuming and give us their attention.

Stop focusing on time. Start creating unique and emotional experiences that activates your audience to take action…and buy.

Be clear abouT the Content’s purpose

Think of your content as conversations with your ideal customers. A way to show them that you see them – you understand who they are, their aspirations and their struggles. Understand their position within the Customer’s Journey. Are they aware of your brand and/or product? Are they aware of the problem you are solving for with your product? Are they aware of the reasons to believe and trust your brand and/or product? Where are they within the Awareness Funnel?

Consider how your content can serve your audience – how it can drive your audience from Unaware to Product Aware.

Content helps you build rapport, letting your target audience get to know, like and trust you – thus priming them to buy from you. Once you’re clear on where they sit within the Customer Journey, it’s easier to give this work the intent it needs to demand attention. But content for content’s sake is noise. Your content needs to be strategic to be effective. It needs to speak to what your audience needs to activate them to make a purchase.