How to Profit Off the Attention Span of a Goldfish

How many times a day do you read articles? And when I say read, I mean read – beginning to end. I’m going to guess once, maybe twice. The reality is that our attention span has diminished to a mere 8 seconds. That’s actually right behind goldfish. We can only thank the social media apps we use for this lowered attention span. Vine gave us 6-second videos, YouTube graced us with short video compilations, and, last year, Facebook started producing 30 second cooking videos that entertained us beyond belief. Even if we spend hours watching these videos, they trick us into thinking we are not wasting a lot of time because the videos are so short.

The reality is that most of you aren’t even reading this sentence anymore. I lost you after the first paragraph. You’re now scrolling down because you see there are videos embedded into this article, so you figure you can go straight to those and get the gist. It’s okay, I would have probably done it too. It’s human nature and, more importantly, it’s profitable.

Your company can, and should, create short videos that explain important aspects of your product, which make it simple for consumers to follow along. An easy-to-follow video can help potential and current clients understand what they could gain from working with your company, especially if you have a complicated idea to explain. By creating videos to explain one product, you can reach more than just one client or potential client. These videos can be made available to the public, so anyone who wants to learn about your company, can.

The genius of video marketing relies on the ability to put a paragraph’s worth of information into 30 seconds of explanation voiced over a graphic or animation that puts images to the words. This gives the consumer a way to fully interpret the information you share. Gone are the days of long articles with too much information to even be understood.

Most of the time, customers are looking for a description of your product that is the length of an elevator pitch. If it interests them enough, then they will look into more details. However, you have to keep them engaged in what you’re trying to sell to even get them to read the fine print. These captivated consumers will then be more likely to share your product with others, providing more potential buyers to your company.

If you’re reading this, it’s not too late to get on board with video-marketing. Creating short videos of simplification for your products can increase the consumer’s desire to buy your product. Video-marketing gives you the opportunity to get rid of those long, tedious articles that contain a lot of information your clients want to know, but just don’t have the time to find out – kind of like this one.