Marketing to goldfish: The importance of bite-sized content [Infographic]

Does your day feel a million miles per hour? Well you're not alone - with so much information coming at us 24/7 from all directions, on all devices, there's no surprise. In fact, research from the National Center for Biotechnology Information shows that in just 5 years, the average human attention span has reduced from 12 seconds to just 8.5 seconds! 

If you believe what Microsoft's research says, your attention span is now less than a goldfish! (Sorry)

Oh dear - this does pose a problem for us marketers. With less than 10 seconds to impress, we need to make sure we understand our buyers better than ever, and respond to their ever more immediate needs for relevant and engaging content, quickly and creatively.

To solve this content conundrum, we need to look at our audiences and the reasons behind their shrinking attention spans:

1. Most people consume content on mobile devices, on the go. It's a scrolling culture...smaller screens equal smaller attention spans
2. Today's internet user spends 60% of their time on social media, satisfied by its instant gratification style content snippets
3. There is so much information available at the touch of a button, if your content doesn't do the trick quickly enough, the next competitor will.

The solution: Make your content bite-sized...a bit like fish food!

Unless you're a big, fun brand, catering for this mobile-first, quick turnaround, wow or lose world seems like a difficult task right? 

Well fortunately, there's a solution which applies to B2B, B2C, big and small brands alike: Introduce some bite-sized content ideas into your content and social media strategy. This great infographic from  Column 5 and Marketo will guide you through the process:

Key takeaways:

Don't stop producing longer form content, but why not drop a few of these content formats to drive a bit more engagement: 

1. GIFs, Memes and quotes are great for driving engagement and boosting likes and shares.
2. Support larger marketing campaign elements such as events, webinars and long form content with shorter bite-sized snippets such as stats, images & lists.
3. If you don't have time to create new content, sharing, retweeting and reposting existing content is a great way to drive engagement and build your social following.

Need a hand navigating the mobile-first world. Download our eBook: Mobile marketing: Key trends and user experience factors to consider