Is Your Content On Target?
According to an Adobe (2017) study, consumers spend 1/3 of their day on average “engaging with digital content.”
People are actively searching for interesting content, but they have definite ideas of what forces consumers to stop or switch interacting with content. This list will not surprise you, but you need to be more and more mindful of the amount of time your content takes to load or download on a variety of media (rank based on stopping view content altogether):
- Content takes too long to load (78% stopped or switch to a different content)
- Content is too long (70%)
- Content interaction is disrupted (83%)
- Images will not load (79%)
- Not displaying well on current device (82%)
What is important to know about content, based on this research, is that branded content is only valuable if it is informative, simple and — above all — accurate. People have grown weary of content that is too wordy or poorly written. This is the age of branded journalism, but the rules of journalism still apply.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
