The human brain is incredibly complex, but you don’t necessarily have to be a brain surgeon to understand what makes it tick from a marketing prospective. As consumers, we have so much information available to us at our fingertips, whether it be using our mobile devices to research products and services on the internet or hear feedback directly from our “friends” on social media. However, with all of this information so readily available, our attention spans are actually becoming shorter.

Fortunately, if you’re reading this article, you will actually have a leg up on your competition as we are going to share some neuroscience findings to help you more effectively market to the 7 second consumer. After all, today’s consumer has an attention span shorter than a goldfish, right?

Here are 3 fun facts that we know to be true about our brains that will help your content stick with your audience and ultimately make you a better marketer:

Fact #1: 50 percent of our brain’s capacity is dedicated to vision.
Vision plays a critical role in how quickly your brain digests content and how long your brain is able to stay focused on that topic. If you need proof of this, just take a look at social media. This is why Pinterest is growing like gang busters and has become the leading e-commerce site over Facebook. This is also why YouTube generates more than 4 billion views each day!

As a marketer, you need to make sure that your website is well-designed and optimized for mobile viewing. Knowing the importance of visual content and its ability to engage audiences, you’ll also want to include this type of content in your business blog posts and social media interaction. Try creating your own infographic as a way to summarize complex information and appeal to your audience’s desire for visual content is a smart move!

Fact #2: The more simple your content is, the easier it is for your brain to digest.
Getting way too technical with consumers early on in your sales funnel is never a good idea. The brain has a tendency to grasp what the big picture is much better than all of the nitty gritty details. Keep this in mind when creating content for your website and developing your marketing materials.

As a marketer, you can keep things simple for you audience and paint the big picture for them by opening up your content with a general overview of what the content is about. Also, take advantage of bullet points and subheadings to summarize your content and make it easier for consumers to scan and easily digest before committing to read your content in its entirety.

Fact # 3: The more variation you can offer in the content that you share, the longer you will hold your audience’s attention.
It’s so easy for the content that you share to sound monotonous over time. That’s because our brains naturally “get into a groove” when creating content, making it all flow the same and as a result sounding redundant.

Think about the ways that you currently deliver content to your audience. For example, if your audience has become accustomed to seeing lengthy whitepapers from you, mix things up by sharing a fun and quirky video or an engaging infographic that easily summarizes information for your audience. Often, the unexpected is what will help to keep your audience interested and engaged.

Use these findings to your advantage and allow them to help you be more effective with your marketing efforts!