How To Get Attention To Your Marketing Message When Your Your Target Audience Has The Attention Span Of A Gnat
An old colleague of mine would always used this anology (aimed at himself) to end boring meetings..it was very effective!
When it comes to advertising and marketing messages, Long Copy Out Sells Short Copy.
This is a fundamental truth that most seasoned marketing pros know well.
Contrary to conventional thinking long copy messages are best. Long copy gives you the ability to tell the reader everything that they need to know to make a decision. You can answer all the questions and counter any doubts they may have.
Well that sounds great, but lets get back on topic.
Long copy and the attention span of a Gnat don't seem to mix very well!
In a world cluttered with messages and choice, you are right; how do you get the attention of YOUR audience?. How do you break through the clutter and get people to actually read your long copy marketing message...or for that matter,, to read any sized message?
A lot of inexperienced marketers or business people don't understand or believe this principle. They think this way "People have short attention spans. They don't have time to read and are easily bored. So what you need is short, punchy copy that gets attention fast and makes a sale fast."
Well, there is a grain of truth in this way of thinking. But experienced marketers know ways around these problems.
Traditionally, marketers have learned to get past the gate-keeper, get passed the impression that their message is junk mail and just generally break through the clutter to get noticed and read.
Today, we add in the internet or web and suddenly there are literally millions of messages and choices presented daily.
Statistics show that a website home page has 6.5 seconds to get someone's attention to spend more time viewing your website content before they hit the back button...so something has to be done to help achieve a reasonable ROI on your marketing activities.
There are many different strategies to use to get someones attention but today we are looking at the copy and how you can get a longer message inwhich you can get your point across read. To be a successfull Copywriter (or know when someone is doing it right for you), the process to follow is guided by AICDA. Most marketers will have heard of AIDA...we add the C in for extra effect. So what does it mean?
Rule #1 is Attention.
So you need to get Attention and fast!. That is traditionally your headline.
Regardless of whether it is a brochure, a flyer, an advertisement or your website home page, you should have a compelling, attention grabbing headline.
Take your website as a typical example. Now this is not always appropriate or practical to have a headline on your website's Home page. That is why you should have some other Landing Pages in your website...pages that focus only on a single topic and who's objective is to get the reader to take some more action such as reading the next page, signing up for a report or newsletter, purchasing something or getting on the phone and requesting an appointment.
These should be the shorter, punchier, to the point and above all, attention grabbing pages. After grabbing Attention and building some initial Interest (Rule #2), it should have a call to action to get people to click through to another page to continue the story. In effect, the long copy is still there, it is simply broken up into bite size and hence less daunting, chunks.
Advertising is Salesmanship in Print
Create compelling copy with the Copywriter's magic formula AICDA and long copy comes to life - I mentioned 2 of these valuable Rules above, Attention and Interest; find out about the others in our blog at AICDA - Discover The Copywriter's Secret.
Adapt these methods to your medium. The digital medium (like this email) allows you to focus on parts of the message but with the benefit of long copy by having simple click through points to Read More>>.
You really can have your cake and eat it to.
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