People have a short attention span, especially online. How can you create content that’s easier for your audience to digest? In today’s podcast episode we reviewed a number of ways that you can make your content easier for your audience to consume. Here are three of our favorites.
Let Them Know How Long It Is
Let them know how long it is – Read Time lets your audience know how much time they need to invest in your content.
Your audience’s time is valuable. Adding a “Read time” indicator lets them know how much time they’ll need to dedicate to your content. You’ll still want to make your content skimmable, but for articles with a bit more substance, let them know how much time they need to invest in reading, watching or listening to your content.
Use a Table of Contents
Use a Table of Contents – So your audience can click the parts most relevant to them.
If you write longer articles, use a clickable table of contents at the top of the page. You can also follow the same format with your video. When it comes to watching YouTube videos, you can use timestamps and chapter markers so that your audience can jump directly to the information they want to see. YouTube offers step-by-step instructions for automating chapters or doing them manually. Timestamps can be used in long podcasts as well.
You can even link to a specific section of your video or your article directly from your social posts, and did you know Google search results also can take you directly to the relevant section of an article?
Provide Multiple Formats
Use Multiple Formats – People consume different content in different ways.
With your podcasts and videos, you should include transcripts as well as captions to help people with hearing challenges and also where listening to audio might not be an option. Transcripts also help you get found when people search. There’s no need to type out a transcript manually as there are many services on the web that will do it for you and are not too expensive.
The bottom line is this: We live in an era of information overload, so anything you can do to make it easy for people to get what they are looking for will help you stand out. Think of your own online use and what makes a better experience for you. Shouldn’t you do that for your audience too?
Links in this episode: 6 Content Helpers That Encourage People To Read, Watch, or Listen
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