They’ll Never Focus on You If You Can’t Focus Yourself

Let’s start with a fact that’s hard for me to swallow as a content writer.

According to recent research, only about 6% of you will have a disciplined enough attention span to read this entire, short article (680 words - a 3 minute read). I’m even intentionally keeping this one shorter than normal just to improve those odds to 6%... And do you want to know the most frustrating part of that? Statistically, it doesn’t matter what I say here either. Your mind is probably already somewhere else.

It could be useful, life-changing, engaging, or super impactful information you’re trying to communicate, and STILL studies show you have less than a minute to get the FULL message to people before they’re gone – checking other emails, daydreaming, answering their phone, etc. You’re minimized, with their good intentions to read the rest later, but you just become one of 72 other open tabs on their desktop they’ll never get back around to.

We’re living in a very distracted world. Since 2004, our attention spans (and the ability to give any topic our undivided attention) have dropped from 2 ½ minutes on average down to 47 seconds. For reference, most Americans speak around 100 words per minute in casual conversation, so, if you’re lucky, you’ve got your audience for 30 seconds before their minds switch gears to something else entirely.

If I’ve kept you until this point, you’re probably exasperated and discouraged, wondering how we can possibly get effective messages to our homeowners that grab their attention AND call them to quick action. But I want to throw this back in our laps a little. If we ever want them to focus on US as marketers, then we must be willing to focus ourselves first.

A few weeks ago, I was at the EGIA Epic conference, an HVAC industry show in the world’s capitol of distraction, Las Vegas. I watched several hundred contractors walk around, listen to some top-notch motivational speakers, network with others, and speak with vendors about solutions that could honestly help change their business’ trajectory. They had several hours of information overload, but I’d still be willing to bet my next paycheck the majority won’t change a thing when they get home. They’ll look at a bag full of notes and business cards from the show, then get distracted by a desk covered in messages from their time away. It’s the same scenario each time you decide your website needs improvement or you really want to make a push for new leads this Spring. You think about it, might even make a phone call to start the process, but then something else happens and it’s pushed to the back of your mind. Maybe next year.

Multi-tasking is this generation’s buzzword for calling ourselves more productive. But at the end of the day, when we try to work on all our problems at once, it’s highly likely that none of them will ever get truly solved. I think this is the main distraction, productivity stealer, and public enemy number ONE of contractors today.

Instead, what if you treated your internal business management or marketing problems like you do your customers’ invoiced jobs? What if you worked on them with diligent focus until they were fixed instead of the normal cycle – giving it 15 seconds of your attention every couple of weeks, knowing you SHOULD do something but never pulling the trigger?

People’s attention spans are short, so it takes organized and targeted messaging to get them to a point of decision before the next crisis steals them away. And the same goes for business owners. If we ever hope to improve our processes, see healthy growth, and make wise decisions, we must learn to put our blinders on and focus on one problem at a time from idea to implementation.

Hudson,Ink is here to help organize your efforts and keep working on solutions even when you need to go put out other fires. We can help you bring those passing thoughts and good intentions into reality. Start with a free marketing consultation and get the ball rolling toward big changes for your business.