I was doing a personal coaching call and my digital marketing friend was obsessed with creating content that was extremely short because of “today’s short attention spans.”
Here’s what I had to say to him about that (and this is a direct quote): “Bullshit.”
People today do not have short attention spans. Your content has a short interesting span.
It’s not unusual to observe people spending 12 straight hours playing a video game.
… Or binging content on Netflix for days.
… Or watching TikTok for hours and hours.
Why? Because it’s worth it. It’s fun. It’s captivating.
The whole “goldfish” attention span thing is more than a myth. It’s an excuse used by lazy marketers. The problem is NOT attention spans. The problem is, you’re not good enough to compete with games, movies, and TikTok.
So the solution isn’t shorter content. Short crap is as bad as long crap.
The solution is: Create something that competes.
One of my favorite podcasters recently had a four-hour episode. Four hours. It took me two days to get through it but I hung on every word because he earned my attention.
Earning attention is very, very hard to do. That’s the whole Content Shock thing, right?
Marketing is difficult. I’d argue that marketing is more difficult today than at any other time in my career … And I’ve had a long career. Too bad. Marketing is your job, so double down and triple down on creating something that is worthy of your customer’s time.
Stop blaming attention span and get on with it.
By the way, I’m creating some new short videos about subjects like this one on YouTube. If you want to hear occasional rants, raves, and revelations like the one on the blog today, I absolutely love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of some of the world’s bestselling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.
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