When you think about how you measure the success of your online presence and content, what do you consider? Perhaps you think first of statistics like how many visits your website received, how many clicks, or how well your pages rank on search engine results pages. While these can all help you understand your online performance, there is a new metric to consider when it comes to your online presence and content: attention.
Nowadays, it seems like the attention span of the general population has shortened significantly. People scroll their phones looking for something interesting, and if your content is not engaging enough, they scroll right on by. The same trend is visible in how most people watch TV now; streaming platforms offer ad-free TV shows and movies to avoid losing a viewer’s attention during a commercial break. Advertisers who create commercials are more pressed on than ever before to create something that will capture and keep viewers’ attention. Even children are conditioned to have short attention spans with online games and apps that offer constant entertainment. Everything online needs to be quick and to the point. Otherwise, people lose interest and move on.
This is an important lesson to keep in mind as you create web content and build your online presence. Here are four key drivers of attention you should take into consideration to create and keep consumer attention:
- Quality. Put simply, customers do not want to waste their time on poor-quality media. Your online content needs to be high-quality if you want to capture and keep the attention of people who visit your website or your online profiles.
- Relevance. If your content is not relevant to the viewer, they will quickly lose interest. Focus on creating online content that resonates with your audience. Find questions and issues that are relevant to them and start there.
- Viewer choice. Many platforms now seem to force advertisements upon viewers, like the ads you might see before watching a YouTube video. If the user chooses to view an ad or visit a page, it significantly increases their attention to that content. Create options for your online visitors to see more content—and make that content worthwhile.
- Creativity. Creativity has been recognized as the number-one driver for attention. If you can find creative ways to present your content, you will have a much higher chance of capturing your online visitors’ attention.
At first, it may seem like a tall order to create online content that checks all four of these boxes. When put into practice, however, you will likely find that you were already trying to create content that was high-quality, relevant, and creative. By being more mindful of these four drivers of attention, you can purposefully create content designed to capture viewers’ attention and drive interest in your practice.
In the end, it all comes down to creating engaging content. Engaging with your online visitors—who will hopefully become patients—is key to growing your business. And do not forget your existing patients; they want engaging, quality content too. Growth and retention can both be achieved by focusing on capturing your viewers’ attention.
To learn more about how to capture attention online, we welcome you to contact us today at AudiologyPlus. We are committed to helping you grow your practice.
