There’s an information overload, everywhere. How did you and I cope with that? Just by becoming picky! Your subconscious has a set of filters that tells you what to consume and what to ignore. And when we see the word “promoted” or “sponsored”, the filtering rules become even stricter.
This nightmare of advertisers is known as Advertising Blindness, a 2013 study revealed as much as 86% of the audience suffer from it.
Can you now relate this with ever decreasing click through rate on your digital campaigns? You sure do!
Is there a way out?
I’m not trying to dishearten or frighten you. Because there’s always a way out.
New York University’s Professor of Journalism Clay Shirky said,
”There’s no such thing as information overload – only filter failure”
This isn’t enough to celebrate though!
Even after you breakthrough the filtering, you have just 8 seconds left before the audience decide to continue or skip. Thanks to technology, our attention span is now less than that of a goldfish.
Are we on the same page?
Great! We both want to create content that gets noticed and consumed. Let me take you through the steps to do just that.
Step 1: Reality Check! Does your content pass the patented forehead slap test?
Famous copywriter Clayton Makepeace recommends using his patented Forehead Slap Test to create compelling copy. The same applies to every piece of content you and I create.
Beat calcium deficiency naturally with milk
Now if you wake me up at night with a tight slap on my forehead, would I be saying, “Oh Man! I need to beat my calcium deficiency!”
The above imaginary example is not so imaginary at all. Using the forehead slap test, you’ll find tons of facebook posts by brands that carry no meaning to the audience.
People are interested in benefits, and not fake benefits (i.e. techno jargons, or features).
Calcium deficiency doesn’t bother people, but insomnia does. So does muscle cramp, or brittle nails and bones. For a caring mother, her children not reaching puberty on time does! These are only a few of the problems traced back to calcium deficiency.
When creating content to educate the audience, you should always stress benefits, and not functions or features. Before you approve your next content, remember to use this patented test.
Step 2: Grab Attention and Raise Interest in a Split Second
Write Great Post Titles
80% of the readers never make it past the headlines – Copyblogger
And only 2 out of every 10 who read the headline will read the rest.
You see the headline first to decide whether or not you’ll read the rest.
See VS Read
You know the difference.
If they don’t like the headline, they won’t consume the rest. How much did you pay to create that content piece? You are safe to consider that’s lost. This is where we need to bring back the talent we ignored in digital marketing for so long – Copywriters! Just look at all those worthless content and ask yourself, could copywriters have made any difference? Yes! They could!
But when I look at most of the bloated digital marketing teams, I don’t find a copywriter among them. Without copywriting, the content we create isn’t actually content.
Accept no less than a stunning visual
Repurposing photo-shoots from your press campaign, or buying stock images and illustrations (even stealing copyrighted media from google). That somehow became the standard in digital.
Why so? The cheap rates at digital advertising doesn’t mean that cheap content can pass as well.
Using images that resonate with your audience and perfectly represent the idea you are trying to sell will increase your click through rates multifold at any given scenario. Visualizers spend hours, days, even weeks to create your press campaigns. Why give them only an hour or two for today’s facebook post? Or why not even get a proper visualizer in your digital marketing team (be it your own or outsourced).
You need to remember just two sentences from this section
Words are powerful.
And
An image is worth a thousand words.
By including capable copywriters and visualizers in your digital team, you can create irresistible content. Please don’t worry about the increased cost, the returns will be manifold.
Step 3: Deliver an Amazing Experience with Your Content
Does your content have the magic of e3?
Toni Robbins’s e3 is the mantra of digital marketing thought leaders like Amy Porterfield. To give the audience an amazing experience with your content, it has to do one or more of the following:
- Educate them
- Entertain them
- Empower them
Can your content educate your audience (don’t forget the forehead slap!), can it entertain them (do that without breaking brand guidelines), can it empower them enough so they take actions based on what you taught them?
These are the foundations of a new workflow that can change the way you think about content and create them.
Use More Than One Content Structure
A 600 by 600 pixel of Facebook post – all day long, every day is not enough!
Give your audience some variety. Why not create infographics, videos, even full length articles, e-books? What’s wrong with interactive content such as a quiz? Are we experiencing creative block, or are our hands tied too tight?
If you open up to more content structures, your audience will find it refreshing enough to engage with. Isn’t it time to rethink your digital marketing calendar?
Step 4: The No-brainer hack to Get More Engagement!
Throughout my career as a digital marketer, I’ve had administrative access to a wide variety of facebook pages (and websites). Parenting, Food & Nutrition, Beauty, and even a stock exchange!
One thing is common for every one of them.
Highest Number of People Are Active Online After 9 PM
Head over to your facebook page insight to see for yourself.
Yet majority of brand posts are published in day time and and usually no later than 6 pm.
I understand it is costly to keep the marketer seated till 9 pm to post. Surely, you can use advanced scheduling? You can schedule your content in advance directly from Facebook. For multiple platforms, you can use a tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer.
By publishing your content when most of your target audience is active, you increase your odds of getting more reach and engagement.
Isn’t this a no-brainer? Told you so!
Step 5: Target Only Those Who Matter
Want massive reach with your content by flexing advertising dollars? Best wishes from Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page! If that isn’t something you care about, you need to refine your targeting. Ads can make your content Seen only. The above tips focuses on creating content that gets Noticed.
But even the best of marketer can’t create content that engage everyone. Why then bother those you know are not going to be your customer, ever?
Interest based targeting can help you pinpoint those who are most likely to engage with your content topic. At the same time, it can help you study the audience to find out what kind of content they engage with.
The March 2017 issue of BBF Monthly Magazine has a step-by-step guide for doing an audience analysis with facebook.
Facebook Audience 101: How to find fans that matter, and things that matter to them
Read it if you haven’t already.
Summing Up and Over to You!
Distraction is what stops us from focusing on the important things on the internet. It is upon us, the marketers, to arm our content with all the strength it needs to cut through the clutter.
For a pure marketer, there’s no need for reinventing the wheel. By going back to good old copywriters and visualizers, it is possible to create killer content in the digital media.
Too long a copywriter was restricted to writing just a headline or at best a 30 second script. Too long a visualizer was restricted to columns and inches.
Imagine what a copywriter can do with long form articles or digital video scripts. Imagine what a visualizer can do with infographics, or e-books.
Have I moved you enough? The rest is up to you!
- Atiqul Bari Chowdhury, Founder, Little Biz Marketing
