10 seconds.
That’s how long a visitor takes to decide whether or not to stay at your website.
Obviously, that’s not a long time, so grabbing a user’s attention right off the bat is critical to keeping him engaged.
Here are a few proven techniques that can help you capture a client’s attention in 10 seconds or less.
Novelty
The term “novel” means different from what has been known before.
Our minds gravitate to the unknown. It’s human nature to want to investigate something new. The unknown is interesting. It holds our attention.
The more novelty in your website, the better you will hold a consumer’s attention. Whether it’s a new idea, a new term, a new process, or just a new layout, if you can present information in a way that consumers have never seen before, they’ll pay attention.
Limited Text
Say as much as you can in as few words as you can, and use images to tell a story whenever possible. Pictures are worth 1,000 words, and video is worth about ten times as much, so don’t rely on heavy text.
Visitors who view a video stay two minutes longer on average and are 64% more likely to purchase than other site visitors.
The more you can say with images and videos the better.
Emotional Appeal
If you can inspire emotion, you can capture attention.
Get people to feel something (whether it’s excitement, fear, sadness, hate, happiness), and not only will they pay attention, they are also more likely to remember your message.
Stories are powerful ways to evoke emotion, and they can be portrayed through words, images, video, or any combination of the three. If you can get a client to emotionally relate to a story, you’ll hook them in, and they will stay for a while.
Spend that 10 seconds wisely and use these techniques to keep visitors interested.
How do you grab your client’s attention online?