We live in an attention economy. One where some of the most profitable companies in the world base their entire business model on keeping you hooked. At its best, our attention can lead us to new ideas, new careers, and moments of mental clarity. At its worst, our attention can drive us to addictions, obsessions, and anguish. We devote our mental activity to something that is one of the core psychological tenants that drives consumer behavior.
Our Limited Attention Span
The attention span of consumers is shrinking dramatically. In the year 2000, the average human attention span was 12 seconds. In 2020, the average was eight seconds, one second less than the attention span of a goldfish.[1]
So what does this mean? One amazing study measured the attention span of online shoppers using an EEG biosensor cap. They found:
- When under time pressure
- Shoppers focus on fewer products
- Shoppers pay less attention
- When not under time pressure
- Shoppers focus on well-known brands
- Shoppers spend about the same amount of time browsing regardless of their level of online shopping experience[2]
So what can we do about this?
- You can’t be everything to everybody. When you are developing your marketing or product rollout strategies, realize that consumers have limited attention. If you try to promote everything equally, it will give you less time and budget to promote the products or services that are most important to your organization.
- Brand awareness matters. Consumers focus on well-known brands. This is true in both low-effort and high-effort consumer behavior.
You Are Not Multi-Tasking
Advances in technology have led to some great opportunities for us to reinvent the workplace. However, with all of its positives, it has also led to some challenges that many of us have difficulty managing. As our task lists become longer and the lines between our work lives and personal lines blur, the idea of multitasking sounds like an attractive option to try and keep us on track and to keep us sane. However, our brains aren’t built for multitasking. Numerous studies highlight our inability to perform multiple tasks at once. Instead, our brains engage in task-switching, where we rapidly switch between one task to the next. We’re so bad at this that some estimates find that it takes us 40% longer when we multitask than if we were to try to devote our attention to two separate tasks.[3]
So there’s no such thing as multitasking; a better alternative is single-tasking. Devoting time to a single task can make you more productive. One way that I like to do this (and the only way I was able to juggle a full-time job, grad school, and a kid) is the Pomodoro technique. Basically, the Pomodoro technique is where you devote 100% of your time to one task for 25 mins. When the timer goes off, you stop what you are doing and take a break for five minutes. Rinse and repeat. It works wonders. However, this isn’t a blog post about how to best utilize your time; it’s a post about how our attention spans suck and what you can do as a marketer. Just realize that our attention can and is going to be divided. We’re going to be distracted. We’re going to be on an important Zoom call when our kid walks in.
The Cognitive Miser
Our brains are hardwired to be cognitive misers. This essentially means that we’re kind of lazy. Our brains seek solutions that require the least amount of mental effort.[4] It’s the reason that we have the “For Dummies” series, one-click buying on Amazon, don’t read books, only read headlines, just text and don’t talk, create acronyms, and try only to find answers that support our position. The cognitive miser effect plays a significant role in our short attention spans. And it’s not just in fundamental, everyday decisions like buying toothpaste. Even in important decisions, like where to get a mortgage, the average number of sources we consult is two.[5] Yep, two sources.
So what are the marketing implications? As a marketer, you’ve got to be able to cut through the clutter, grab someone’s attention, and try your best to hold on to that attention while you make your case. You’ve got eight seconds (probably a lot less if you’re trying to get someone’s attention that is “multi-tasking) to try and convince someone to find out more from you.
As a regular guy that is just trying to write about consumer behavior and marketing, I can say that this equation is incredibly tough. It’s a saturated space, and there are so many people that have been writing about these topics for decades more than I have. And either good or bad, I personally don’t have anything to sell. I’m just writing about these topics because I like doing it, and I want to start some conversations with people interested in what I’m talking about. In my job, though, I design campaigns for a company with a well-established value proposition and a recognizable brand within the industry; it’s much easier.
In a high-effort consumer behavior event, the process that a consumer goes through follows five steps. This includes problem recognition, information search, consideration set, purchase, and post-purchase behavior. Just consider the implications of the cognitive miser mortgage study has on one of the most important steps, information search. If the average number of sources that someone consults before making a major purchase is two, if you’re one of the sources that they’re seeking for information, you are halfway to the consideration set. Since the preceding paragraph is sounding really academic, and even I’m starting to get bored with it, let’s look at a real-world example.
Last year I had a 125’ Willow Oak fall in my backyard. However, it didn’t just fall; it leaned. Yep, they call leaners “widow makers” because someone like me likely tends to just grab the chainsaw and have at it. After several rounds of convincing from my wife (who just gave birth) and my father-in-law, I finally stepped into part one of high-effort consumer behavior; I recognized there was a problem. I didn’t think there was at first because I thought I would take care of it. After I realized they were right and probably shouldn’t die trying to take down a massive tree with an 18” chainsaw, I entered step two of high-effort consumer behavior, information search. I spent a couple of searching for tree services near me and making calls. I talked to these companies, read a few reviews, and moved into step three, consideration set. I made 3 or 4 appointments to get estimates. During the consideration set phase, I talked to the estimators and moved into step four, where I made my decision. I’m still in step five, where if one of my other trees falls, I probably won’t call the same company because the experience wasn’t the greatest. They were kind of messy and didn’t do the greatest job cutting the tree into small enough rounds that I could hand-split (which was a request).
This is Fine, but How Do I Get Someone’s Attention?
5. Think in Headlines
People aren’t likely to pour over your piece of marketing, savoring every image and every word, and most people are not going to read everything a long-format piece of content unless they’re interested. I’d be dreaming to think that my audience actually read the first twelve paragraphs and didn’t just skip down to the listicle. As a marketer, you have to realize that this is okay, and it happens all the time. Many people will just read the headlines, so make your headlines clear, concise and portray your entire marketing message. We used to do this thing in the ad agency world called a creative brief. Part of that process was to try and distill the entire campaign into just one thing. Think of it this way, if your audience knew only 7-10 words about what you were selling, what would you want them to know? It’s as simple as that.
4. Create Your Content in Blocks
It’s not just headlines, but scrolling, even doom scrolling through the news is usually built-in blocks. You will typically see a headline, image, preview, or small amount of content. In my experience, this is a really good approach in an email. 7-10 “content blocks” is a great way to view your next consolidated email. By organizing your emails in content blocks, you can distill a massive amount of content in a very small area. The added bonus is that your call to action (CTA) or other embedded links are tracking your users. If you give them just a couple of sentences and they have to click through for more information, you know they engaged with that particular piece of content, and you can adjust your next sales pitch accordingly. A word of caution, don’t be a creeper by calling them to say, “I saw you clicked on XYZ.” Trust me, I’ve gotten these calls, and they don’t last long.
3. Create an Omnichannel Approach
Omnichannel is just a fancy way of saying create a lot of versions of the same thing. For most of my big campaigns, I’ll do a press release, email ad, social media posts, direct mail, and work this into other email content. Someone may see your message in one spot and forget about it. They see it in two spots; you’re closer to getting your message across. Three spots? You’ve gotten their attention. Keep in mind that memory works on source decay, so regardless of what the message is, where they heard, the information will ALWAYS fade before the message itself. Remember hearing that Subway used ingredients found in Yoga mats? I’m guessing you remember that message but forget where you heard it.
2. Talk To Your Sales Team
If you’re in marketing, you probably kick out a lot of content, but I’m guessing that your customer interaction is limited. You may have some really good survey data or a wall of impressive metrics on CLV and CTR, but you’re probably not having the daily one-on-one conversations that your sales team is having. Remember that regardless of how good your marketing department is, they exist for one reason: sales. A marketing department is essentially a sales support department, even when they are the sales drivers. Make sure to share the marketing you are producing with your sales team, not only for feedback but also to make sure that they are communicating the same important points you are trying to do with your digital and physical media.
1. Refine, Refine, Refine
You’re never done, and you can always learn something. There are some great metrics that you can use for KPIs like time on site and click-through rates in emails that can give you an idea of how to get your customers’ attention in a more efficient manner. When you do this, realize all of the many variables that can be affecting your data. In addition to your message, your data could be skewed by audience segment, day of the week, time of day, holidays, industry events, and more. That’s why marketers should get involved in A/B testing to continue to refine the messaging.
[1] https://muckrack.com/blog/2020/07/14/how-declining-attention-spans-impact-your-social-media
[2] Shih, D. H., Lu, K. C., & Shih, P. Y. (2019). Exploring Shopper’s Browsing Behavior and Attention Level with an EEG Biosensor Cap. Brain sciences, 9(11), 301. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9110301
[3] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/creative-leadership/201811/why-you-can-t-multi-task
[4] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cognitive-learning-and-skill-deficits/201902/9-signs-you-may-be-cognitive-miser
[5] Stanovich, Keith E. (2009). “The cognitive miser: ways to avoid thinking”. What intelligence tests miss: the psychology of rational thought. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 70–85. ISBN 9780300123852. OCLC 216936066.