TCC #8: What do anxiety and short attention spans mean for content marketing?

Eyes glossing over when you're reading a long piece of content (like this one?) Maybe you're not alone

Author

Joshua Poh
October 04, 2023

Is it me, or is it harder to finish reading a piece of content/essay these days?

Turns out I’m not alone. There are a lot more competitors for our attention.

Just in the online space we now have:

  • Endless streaming services (covering TV shows, movies and music) with infinite amounts of content. And that’s just the ‘mainstream’ streaming services

  • Millions of blog articles and essays are published each day

  • Podcasts and YouTube videos have grown exponentially, For example, data from Podcast Index estimate the number of active podcasts to be over 4 million.

  • TikTok videos and how every service from TikTok, to Instagram Reels to YouTube Shorts are embracing the short-form video format

That’s A LOT of online content - too much for anyone to go through. You probably won’t even finish if you spend all your waking moments consuming content (and no one does that!)

Offline too, we’re speaking to a crowded mental space.

According to Wunderman Thompson’s recent emerging trends and opportunities report (linked below!), these are the top 10 worries of people today:

  1. Inflation and cost of living concerns

  2. Climate change

  3. Poverty and hunger

  4. Access to affordable health care

  5. Mental health

  6. Wars

  7. Inequality

  8. Infectious diseases and epidemics

  9. Crime

  10. Chronic health conditions

No wonder why people are tired. Google Trends shows that more and more are Googling the phrase “I am tired”. People are spending less time on websites, viewing fewer pages and scrolling less, according to Contentsquare’s 2023 digital benchmarks

Or why average attention spans have dropped from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to a sad sad 47 seconds. (Is that better than a goldfish, or what?)

Ah, good ol Dug being the perfect image for crappy attention spans

All this sounds really depressing isn’t it?

But here’s the kicker: people are looking for experiences that enchant them - i.e bring joy, wonder and delight.

“People have always enjoyed being transported but, crucially, there is now an appetite for brands to deliver this. In a global survey for Wunderman Thompson, almost twice as many people say they are likely to buy from brands that bring them a sense of joy (49%), or those that surprise and delight them (45%), than from brands that just do what they say they will (26%). Yet, few brands are tapping into this desire: 70% of people say they can’t remember the last time a brand did anything that excited them.  “

I believe all these contextual factors are important for us as B2B marketers because:

  • We’re still marketing to humans

  • Humans who are facing the same attention-related issues and offline worries today

  • Humans who have broader interests than what they do for a job

  • Humans who at their core relate to things that can tap into their emotions in a positive way (no sleazebag scarcity marketing or manipulative conversion tactics here)

I believe people will relate more to brands and people who can resonate with these emotions and speak with empathy to these contexts.

That’s for the What.

As for the How, I don’t have all the answers, but I found these are great starting points to give yourself a strategic direction to head into.

Questions that came to mind as I was reading this report:

  • How can we infuse more humanness into our content? Can we deliver content experiences that delight and empathise with what our target audiences are facing, rather than content that shoehorns “Look at how great my product is!!!” Into a blog article? Being sold to without providing proper value never feels great from a reader's experience. Plus, people are tired of these messages and ignore anything that looks like an ad banner.

  • How do you engage people even in an attention-scarce world?

  • How do you create content and experiences that respect your audience’s time while delivering value to your readers?

As for practical steps, my thoughts

Go back to basics.

Text with a strong personal touch and human element still wins. Despite falling attention spans, we’re still seeing a massive growth of ~personal newsletters, suggesting people still read text online. They want to feel connected with people with expertise and nuanced points of view without all the shiny SEO stuff getting in the way

Respect your audience’s time:

Go beyond the shallow stuff. Marketers have made a living on 500-word fluff articles stuffed with keywords for years. It’s one reason people rather turn to forums like Reddit for an authentic voice from real people rather than the overly SEO-ed content (and ads) that dominate search engines.

Ever read a nothingburger, an article that said everything but nothing at the same time? Yeah, you don’t want that. Stuff like that hurts your brand more than you might think.

Deliver value upfront

Zero-click content, or content that delivers valuable insights without a click, serves both platform goals (answering questions on the platform itself) and audience goals (no need to click on a link and wait for it to load and skim an article to get your answers). Share complete posts people can consume easily and get value out of. Repurpose your content into standalone pieces on social media.

Refine your point of view

Develop a spikey point of view, a strong point of view that people can disagree with you about and something you feel strongly about. Weird Marketing Tales does this extremely well - it’s slightly unhinged, well-researched, and draws from Hollywood, YouTube apologies and Daft Punk for their marketing insights. It’s a distinct voice from HubSpot and Ahrefs - both marketing authorities in their own right.

Related: Build a content moat using a mix of different content and a solid perspective to make it difficult for people to recreate your content or compete with you.

Make your content easy for your audience to consume.

Beyond formatting for scanning, can you make otherwise dry subjects enjoyable? One of my favourite examples: this climate game from the Financial Times comes to mind - making an overwhelming subject applicable and interesting through gamification. More cool interactive content experiences here.

Related: Bring elements of digital accessibility into play. Designing your online experiences and content for people with access needs makes the experience better for everyone. For example, including subtitles makes consuming video or audio content easier for everyone.

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Plenty of food for thought here! As always, advice and tips are one thing, finding the time, budget and buy-in to implement tips is another. Find what works for you, your content priorities and your audience.

I had tons of fun reading and reflecting on this topic. I’ll love to hear what you think!

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References and other awesome reads:

“Let’s say that you want to ask a girl out, but you don’t know what to do. So anxious young man or woman you are, you Google “how to ask a girl out.” Then you wind up on WikiHow and see an article advising you to plan what you’re going to say, wait to ask until you’re fairly certain she’ll be a good mood, and so on. Ugh. Such empty advice. So instead it’s time to Google “how to ask a girl out reddit” which will yield everything from detailed advice to personal anecdotes to weird dudes telling you that you’re doomed because your face is the wrong shape. This can be a real mixed bag, but at least it’s advice from people who talk like HUMAN BEINGS.”

Cool examples of interactive content:

If any of this resonated with you

And you’d like to make thoughtful content that opens sales conversations, ranks on Google and generates leads a more significant part of your business, I’d like to invite you to work with me.

Here’s how we can work together:

  • B2B SaaS writing: Create quality content that your audience can trust

  • Customer case studies: Celebrate your customer’s success! Emphasise how your work has helped your customer get results.

  • Whitepapers, research reports and e-books: Showcase your brand’s unique POV and power your marketing campaigns with a solid long-form content asset

  • Content repurposing: Don’t let the content you worked so hard to put together collect digital dust after publishing. Repurpose your existing content to reach a new audience.