Content of every kind is everywhere you look – articles, blogs, videos, images, infographics, comic strips, memes. With so much information available at consumers’ fingertips, the relentless battle for attention is forcing marketers to address the increasingly serious problem of “content fatigue”. Content marketers face a case of content oversupply and as with any commodity whose supply exceeds demand, it is not enough for marketers to reasonably differentiate their offering but create a completely different identity/ brand fortheir content.
The cause of content fatigue
The cause for “fatigue” is fairly obvious: too much information and only a finite amount of time in a day to absorb it. Consider some of the numbers out there:
• Over 2 million blog posts published a day
• Over 10 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook in a day, on average
• More than 500 million tweets a day
Mind you, these are just some of the avenues through which content is being distributed. Why is this a bad thing, especially for content marketing? It is really the amount and volume of “noise” that is generated. With so much material , it takes something spectacular or ‘remarkable’ as marketing guru, Seth Godin puts it, to stand out from the crowd. As more content is created and delivered everyday, this is obviously going to become even more extreme. In the best case scenario, they stick to their favorite sources and ignore everything else; worst case – they just don’t look for new content.
Building consumer engagement to overcome content fatigue
“Consumer engagement” the name of the game and getting them to notice you is your opening move. Remember that the more options they have, the more selective your audience is about what they choose to consume.
Know your audience
First things first: know who you’re targeting and why they want this content. Know who they are, their demographic, their likes and dislikes, and their online behavior. If you’re not aiming for the right market, your content fails before it even gets out.
Create quality content that matters
Your content may be relevant and worth sharing, but unless it’s something that connects with your consumers’ lives and thought patterns, no one is going to notice or share your content. Are you answering their questions? Offering them solutions? Meeting a need? If not, you can almost be certain that the content will be drowned in the huge pile getting produced. Research, strategize, introspect and then create well-written, quality content – make these your foundations and you raise your chances of being noticed and remembered.
Engage your audience with different formats
Bearing in mind the different places and times during which your audience is consuming your content, engage with your audience by providing them with different formats for your content – blogs, videos, animations. Explore your options in content format and material…but stay relevant to your brand and message.
Let your expertise and authority shine through
There’s a lot of competition out there so you need to be the expert in your chosen area. Your audience subscribes to a few trusted, informed sources for their content, so you need to display the kind of expertise that makes you their go-to. You may be small, but be effective!
Bottom line: content fatigue exists, but that doesn’t make content any less relevant. The trick is to make your content stand out from all the noise. And above all, remember you’re writing for people, not search engines!
***********
Curated by the NetMarketer editorial team
Some useful sources and references related to content fatigue
• CyberAlert
• Clickrain
• Silvertech
• Ceros
• Kissmetrics
• InternetLiveStats