On Spotlight: Digital Marketing Attention

Where the attention goes, that's where your money grows!

It's already 2024.

Our human attention span on devices are constantly growing. But it doesn't mean our attention span on content is growing.

In fact, our attention span on content is getting shorter.

I found that, as a digital marketer, I won't spend more than 30 seconds watching a boring video on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok or even YouTube.

While constantly commuting on trains, I also noticed random people will just skip lots of contents, not watching videos lasting more than 10 seconds.

So, where does that leave us as a digital marketer/agency consulting our clients?

The answer is plain simple. Simplicity AND Creativity.

Simple, Short & Sweet

Why do agencies spend a lot of time, creating multiple 5-10 minute client videos every month and still don't get the desired results?

That's because they do not understand "human behaviors".

If you, yourself, don't have the time to watch these videos, why should anyone have the time watch those 5-10 minute videos and expect them to make an enquiry for the product/service?

For Malaysia, our digitalization for digital marketing is already on par with our South East ASEAN partners. However, we're still lacking behind in terms of creativity, simplicity and understanding of digital users.

In 2024, keeping it simple, sweet and short is the way to go.

The Execution

For agencies and digital marketers, I would suggest everyone to do this to speed up your video production and maximizing results.

1. Shoot 1-2 videos of 1-3 minutes duration.
2. Hire a video editor guy/girl who understands digital marketing. This investment will help you in the long term.
3. Create 10-20 different videos with different duration, 5 seconds, 10-20 seconds, 30 seconds promo and so on based on the 1-2 videos that has been shot with the clients.
4. Your copywriter guy/girl must be creative with short sentences and capturing digital audience.
5. Create 10-20 different contents based on 4-5 objectives; Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Message, Leads or Purchase.
6. Last but not least, distribute these contents accordingly to 4-5 different platforms; Facebook, Instagram, YT Shorts, TikTok, X or even LinkedIn.
7. Now, watch the magic happens as you spent the client's budget based on these contents.

Gifs, memes and still relatable images are also the way forward as people want to relate more towards the content in order to have a higher intent to engage.

These are what our clients wanted. The higher intent digital audience to engage with our contents, which will result in higher conversion.

Forget the old ways to do things to execute. It simply doesn't generate the right attention anymore, unless of course, you're promoting on YouTube.

Proven Data & Performance

I've also analyzed the past 1 year data based on a few of my clients.

A 5-15 seconds video would have a much higher retention rate of digital audience watching than a 1 minute video, up to 55% retention rate for Meta platforms.

And the people who enquire for products/services also increased by 30% based on the shorter duration videos.

A simple, enticing, short and sweet image has also proved to generate a higher impression number than those complicated and plain ones.

Take for example, a meme or gif, which is related to an event or a cause.

You'll tend to get a higher intent audience which ends up enquire or buying your product, like Golden Screen Cinemas FB/IG contents.

So, take note.

Where the attention goes, that's where your money goes!

Until then, stay tuned for my bi-weekly "On Spotlight!" newsletter.

Take care and stay safe.

~ Cazey Tan