In yesterday’s Promotional Consultant Today, we looked at the results from recent research that showed consumers who read content on a digital channel are more likely to retain concrete facts but less likely to connect with abstract concepts than consumers who read the same content in a print channel. Today, PCT presents how you might be able to use this data to improve your digital marketing content.
In his blog post “Digital Content with Facts Wins According to Science,” Robert Caruso provides five ways that marketers can utilize the research to make their digital content better. “Scientific data on human behavior related to digital content, which can be used to improve content creation, writing styles and the effect of content marketing, is pure gold,” writes Caruso.
1. Use facts in your content: One of the main findings of the research was that users focus on and retain factual information on digital channels. The takeaway is to lean on concrete examples and facts to make your points in digital copy.
2. Make your content meaning clear: Focus your digital marketing content and stories on clarity and avoid writing that requires readers to decide for themselves.
3. Avoid abstract concepts: Clearly define the meanings of words and concepts and avoid making readers connect the dots and interpret abstractions in digital content. Don’t rely on readers to apply concepts to their specific situations.
4. Write for the medium: Knowing that readers retain facts better from digital sources and make connections to abstract concepts better from print sources, your organization should be writing different versions of your marketing content for print and digital sources, utilizing the strengths of each medium in each version.
5. Emotion is ok: The data doesn’t say you should never use abstract content or emotion in your digital content, just that it should be used wisely. Caruso suggests you use emotion or abstractions in the title and in drawing the reader into the story, but then center the content on concrete examples and facts from there.
Source: Recognized on Forbes list of top 40 social media marketers and the 57th top digital marketing influencer in 2016, Robert Caruso is a social media, digital marketing and technology professional with over 20 years creating, planning and executing strategies within various industries. Robert was the co-founder of Bundlepost and holds multiple Internet technology patents.