Shorter Attention Spans
Remember how long novels used to be, like Homer’s Iliad at 752 pages? Lifetimes later we have 15 second "shorts" videos and TikTok (RIP Vine). Here’s how that changes content marketing. According to recent studies, our attention spans have gone from 12 seconds in 2000, down to 8 seconds today. That might be a little generous to be honest. And, the average time a video is watch on the internet is 2.7 minutes and amount of words read by 50% of readers is under 111 words. What does this mean to content marketers and bloggers? It means that we overkill our content. People can only consume 2 to 3 simple ideas per post.
Of course, there will always be long form content, which acts like a complete resource guide, like what Neil Patel does with his blog posts, but then we have content gurus, like Seth Godin, who put out 200 word posts. One of my most favorite bloggers that I discovered recently, is GoinsWriter. His website has a Domain Authority of a 70, which is huge, and most of his content is under 750 words. It’s what you say, not how much you say. His posts are addictive and short and they link out to two or three more of his articles which lowers his overall “bounce rate.” At 750, or even 600 words, we could write more articles per day and leave our readers refreshed rather than bogged down and wanting to leave halfway through a post.
The attention span of a human is officially shorter than a goldfish, a new study by Microsoft reveals. We see it everywhere, i.e. commercials, ads, songs, ebooks, instructions. Humans are on overdrive when it comes to processing stimuli. Most people on Twitter will retweet something without reading it, just because it “looks good.” I’m guilty of this.
Quick Content Consumption
Our content needs to snap! It needs to hook the reader in asap and hold them there through every twist and turn. I forgot who coined this term, but someone called this type of content “slippery.” It had to get the reader from point A to point B and to C with the least amount of resistance. That means, having a question right away in your post, or some alarming statistics. It also means using a little Neuro Linguistic Programming, NLP, by painting the ideal future for your reader, by starting sentences with “Imagine.” Like, “Imagine, if you woke up in the morning and there were 5 new orders in your inbox?” You get the reader feeling good about his or her future. Or, you get the reader to say “yes” a few times before they get into the content by asking questions upfront. This is more for sales copy content.
You also can add video midway down in your post. If you don’t make video, you can simply copy and paste the code from under a video on YouTube that you like and add it into your post. Ideally, you use your own video and use a video player, like JW Player, to play the video, so you don’t lose your readers when they click on the YouTube video and takes them to YouTube. Infographics also do great in posts. They not only get you a lot of social media shares, it can bring you back a lot of backlinks from websites linking to you through the infographic. Content is becoming like a tightrope act. You have devout attention on one side and complete lack of interest from your reader on the other side. Your content is the thin metal cable that connects the reader from disinterested to rabid buyer. A lot of what I’m telling you takes practice and you will only get better the more you write.
Think about who you are writing for. Create a customer profile, also known as an avatar. Write down everything about your ideal customer, i.e. their age, their habits, what they buy, and what they believe and how they act. Once you figure out their every facet of their personality, write for them. Come up with 5 main keywords that describe your reader’s needs or pain points.
Short And Sweet Content Benefits
I used to be all about 2,500 word posts because of SEO and Backlinks, but something changed. Find out, 5 Real Reasons Why 750 Word Posts are Better. Many new bloggers attempt to write 2,500 word posts because they read somewhere that Google loves long posts, they get shared more on Social, and you supposedly get more Backlinks from long-form content. The problem is, most of these bloggers miss one huge aspect of writing these long posts: They are dry, boring, and get abandoned from reading. Know what I mean? Only a handful of top bloggers, like Neil Patel and Ramsay from BlogTyrant, can pull off the 2,500 word post. So, what should the rest of us do? I go over the key principles of why shorter posts are better, for almost all of us. I save you from writing all day or for days even, when you only need to write a couple hours.I point out some serious mistakes that can be easily avoided.
1. Saying Less Is More
Remember that one friend you had that went on and on and never shut it? It wore you out and you never wanted to hang out with them again. Blogging is no different. If you have 10 sentence paragraphs, tiny font that you need to read with a microscope, and the content is as dry as a Freshman college research paper, then you’re in trouble. If you’re not about to add infographics, videos, charts, solid statistics and references, different sizes of font, or anything else like that, then you definitely want less content. What you’re going to need to compete with the pro bloggers is compelling words full of emotion, insight and wisdom. You’re going to identify what your audience’s needs are and you’re going to pull their emotions by your powerful writing. The format is simple: Address a problem. (One your audience faces as well) Add your personal story around that problem. Provide a solution to that problem. Your reader’s attention is on the line. Don’t go running away on a tangent about your awesome cooking when the article is about overcoming insecurity.
2. Your Readers Will Read It All
When your article is powerful, to the point, and ideally 750 words it can be read to completion. When someone reads all of your content, they are crossing an invisible finish line that only seasoned bloggers understand the importance of. It’s a big deal. So, getting your readers over that finish line of completing your article is a huge feat in itself. 750 word posts do this far easier than 2,500 words.
3. It’s Refreshing
There’s so many blogs trying to be the “authority” that many miss engaging their audience. When I discover a blogger who is confident with “less is more” and says everything they need to in a succinct manner, I get kind of giddy, because I know these types of writers are a rarity on the web. Also, using no more than two sentences per paragraph should be mandatory. Attention span is dwindling every year and digesting a three to ten sentence paragraph seems ludicrous for some readers. Don’t be that blogger. Learn from introvert bloggers and focus on quality over quantity.
4. Shorter Posts Can Lower Bounce Rate
Most of my shorter posts have a 60% bounce rate, while my longer posts have a 80% bounce rate. Yes, for some of you these rates are horrible, but I’m not here to show off fake numbers. “Bounce rate” is defined as someone leaving your site after reading only one page. It’s not the end of the world if you have a high bounce rate. Many online newspapers have a 90% bounce rate. But, if you’re a blogger, you want people to read more than one post, ideally. The point is, readers have a mental time length that they will stay on a particular website. A shorter post will ensure that they read the first post and want to check out another one.
5. 750 Words Is A Professional Standard
Big authoritative sites, like Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc, and Huffington Post put out tons of articles each day by a slew of content writers. Most of these articles are 750 words. This was a breath of fresh air for me because for months I was trying to make all my articles over 1,500 words. Now, I can write two posts a day if needed thanks to a shorter blog post requirement and double my blogger profits!
