Learning more about how the brain works when it tries to focus can help content marketers.

I read a very interesting article from Nir Eyal about how our mind focuses and how we can improve our attention span in the distracted world we live in.

It explained how the brain works when it tries to keep its concentration, and how researchers are currently working in finding ways we could even improve it.

The article is fascinating.

But it also got me thinking.

We must also apply those same insights and knowledge in how we produce and distribute content.

As content marketers, we battle for our audience’s attention. We want to catch their attention, but also keep it so that they spend time with us, with our articles, with our videos.

We need them to deeply engage with us.

It’s not just a like, a page view, or them starting a video we want, we don’t just want their engagement.

We want deep engagement.

We too often read that social media strategies and content marketing strategies are built to drive engagement. But in the end, what we need and what will drive the needle towards the business goals we are after is much more than simple engagement. We aim for deep engagement.

We want audiences to spend time reading the entire article, watching that video until the end. And them wanting even more after the fact. That’s what I call deep engagement.

Reading Eyal’s article, one thing stuck with me: how there are two brain functions that work in tandem to allow us to focus and concentrate. The first one is “enhancement” (our ability to focus on things that matter) and the other is “suppression” (our ability to ignore the things that don’t).

This means that to drive deep engagement, we must offer content that matters, while at the same time finding ways to publish it where there is as little distraction as possible.

I’m still building my thoughts around this idea of deep engagement, so I will let you read the article, and do not hesitate you would like to share or chat on the subject, simply email me at [email protected].