Use This Easy Tweak to Combat ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ and Overcome People’s Dwindling Attention Span

“Surfing the web” has been a thing since the 1990s, and today, we still end up flitting around from link to link, article to article, stimulus to stimulus.

The way the internet is structured is conducive to short bursts of attention and frequent task switching, but not so much to sustained focus and concentration.

There are tons of distractions everywhere you look. And so, for good reason, it's natural for marketers to worry about “shiny object syndrome” — an easily distracted audience that can't focus on your content for longer than a few seconds before clicking something else.

There's a simple way around this problem, and it can work wonders for your conversion rates.

The key is structure.

The information hierarchy on your page — that is, the way that the copy is visually presented and the way the ideas are structured — can make the difference between a 6% conversion rate and a 20% conversion rate.

In a recent article from Unbounce, the author discusses the importance of clarity and structure for keeping your audience engaged longer.

The whole “attention span of a goldfish” is not really the point anymore. It’s not about the length of our attention span, it’s about how our lack of attention is influencing how we interact with technology.

This is why clarity is the most important part of the conversion equation.

Information Hierarchy

Information Hierarchy is concerned with the order with which the copy on your page is presented, both in literal terms (which comes first) and in terms of the visual dominance (what stands out most).

Consider the headline below from an unnamed email marketing solution.

We make it easy to grow your business
It’s Easier Than You Think to Create Professional Emails that Keep Your Customers Coming Back

Notice how the prominent headline is super generic and doesn’t even reference email marketing? It isn’t until you read the subhead that you understand what the page (and the service) is really about.

To drive this point home, I ran a five-second test on the headline/subhead at Usability Hub to see what happened when people answered the simple question: “What does the product do?”

The test resulted in a paltry 6% of respondents answering the question correctly.

6%!

A 6% conversion rate is probably amazing, but as the result of a five-second test it’s pathetic.

How would you feel if only 6% of your visitors could figure out what your business does? That would be like if you showed up to your own birthday party and only three out of the 50 people who showed up even knew who you were. You’d feel like a giant lame-o.

I’d seen this phenomena occur many times (where the subhead held all the clarity), and I hypothesized that a simple headline/subhead flip (below) would improve the Clarity.

It’s Easier Than You Think to Create Professional Emails that Keep Your Customers Coming Back
We make it easy to grow your business

The result?

With the subhead and headline reversed, 20% of respondents answered the question correctly — a dramatic increase.

Five-second tests are a great way to uncover Clarity problems, and if you have both a headline and subhead communicating your UCP, consider trying the headline flip for a followup test.

Now, I’m not recommending you simply flip it and forget it. What you should do is think about your Information Hierarchy, and make sure you’re telling your story in the right order, and that your subhead is there to add Clarity, not be the sole holder of it.

Clarity is (clearly) incredibly important in creating effective landing pages, but it’s certainly not the only thing that matters.

In addition to a clear message, you need to align every element on your page with your singular campaign goal in order to win those conversions.

When your key value proposition is clear from the outset, you're more likely to grab the reader's attention and keep them on your page long enough to convert. You can read more about increasing conversions by improving the clarity of your value proposition over at Unbounce.