In a world driven by the speed at which a social post becomes a viral hit, marketers must now contend with a much more common concern: short attention spans. Now that the average user is flooded with messages from instant notifications to email, attention has become a Herculean exercise. Marketers have kept up with these changes, constantly evolving their ways of connecting with customers. What’s strange, though, is that one of the oldest strategies in the marketer’s toolkit – email – becomes an indispensable asset in the fight for attention.
Understanding Attention Spans
But first, if we’re going to look at email as a remedy, let’s talk about how attention spans today are working. As a Microsoft report showed, the human attention span declined from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015, less than that of a goldfish. This is largely due to the advent of smartphones and social media that provide short-term pleasures and a constant barrage of distractions.
Marketers need to adapt their strategies accordingly. What does this mean? It’s about embracing marketing that acknowledges the ephemeral nature of online buying, but that offers real value.
The Resurgence of Email Marketing
In this environment, email marketing has undergone a renaissance of sorts. Email is far from a dying medium, and it has proved to be an excellent tool for connecting with someone. For every dollar spent on email marketing, Litmus calculated that the average ROI for each dollar spent was $42. This is a far cry from the low response rates and high prices of social media advertising.
This is because a number of factors make email a powerful tool for managing short attention spans:
Targeted Communication: Segmenting your audience lets marketers communicate highly targeted content to specific audiences. Email marketing helps marketers directly engage with consumers with content tailored to their specific interests, unlike social media where information can become lost in the shuffle.
Privacy: Inboxes are your space. When someone reads their email, they’re usually more focused than when they are browsing a social media feed. Email gives the user a level of autonomy that can lead to closer connections.
Direct Calls-to-Action: Emails make the experience of engagement easier. When designed effectively, email marketing can deliver short and precise CTAs, showing the recipient exactly what to click next. Whether it’s a coupon, a video or an email subscription, the transparency can cut through the noise.
Valuable Content Delivery: Email is a medium through which companies send valuable content to their subscribers’ inboxes. In an abyss, providing free templates, exclusive deals or in-depth guides engages readers in a way that 280-character tweets or scrolling pictures typically cannot.
Crafting the Perfect Email
It’s all about the message as much as it is about the medium. Making a perfect email takes insight into your target, short-form copy, and an offer they cannot resist. Here are some tips to remember:
Inspiring Subject Lines: Because the subject line is the first thing a recipient reads, it has an influence over whether they will open or not. Make it urgent, keep it interesting or promise something useful in a well-crafted subject line. Remember, this is your first (and often only) opportunity to attract their attention.
Repetition: Since time is precious, keep your email subject line as short and informative as possible. Short paragraphs, bullet points, and visuals make the content easy to read. Long texts get boring, so make them pay attention.
3) Eye-Catching Design: A well-designed, and well-organized email design can make the big difference in your conversion rates. Use images, colors, and design layouts that compliment your brand and are read-friendly.
A/B Testing: Use A/B testing to determine the best content strategy. – Test out different subject lines, formats, and types of content to see what people are interested in. Such a data-driven system permits continual improvement.
Mobile Optimization: The majority of emails open on mobile. Using mobile to optimize your emails means they will remain impactful across all platforms.
Clear Call-to-Action: Lastly, make sure your CTA is obvious. Ask your readers to do what you want them to, without overwhelming them with options. If you know what you are trying to accomplish, people can jump in.
Building a Relationship Through Email
The temptation is to think of email as simply a medium for messaging, but doing so underrates the effectiveness of email marketing. And it’s not just a medium for selling; it’s a platform for maintaining relationships. By providing relevant and helpful content, marketers can assure their consumers that they care and that they’re on their side.
That’s what lead nurturing entails. Segmented email campaigns can take leads in the form of valuable content and nurture them as they work their way through the sales funnel. Recommendations can be tailored on the basis of previous interactions, so that each encounter feels relevant to the individual person.
Conclusion
Ultimately, short attention spans should not discourage marketers, it should catalyze creativity and innovation. Email marketing provides an uncommon combination of targeted messages, deeper engagement, and value-add — all within a tightly managed and private setting. As brands attempt to find a way to communicate amid a clutter of noise, email is the one medium where history and innovation meet.
The tools and techniques will continue to develop but the fact remains: leveraging email marketing on the basis of shortened attention can yield valuable relationships that drive not only clicks and opens, but relationships that will be long-term and engender strong brand loyalty. Marketers, go to those inboxes again and start writing engaging, convertable emails.
