Less scrolling, more engagment

The average attention span of an adult is shorter than ever, which makes it all the more challenging for social media marketers to capture their target audience’s attention while they’re swiftly scrolling through their newsfeeds.

To compete with all the other fascinating and eye-catching posts and videos shared by friends, family and coworkers, marketers need to do extra to convince people to spend more than two or three seconds glancing over their sponsored post before moving on. If you’ve struggled with lower engagement rates recently, here are some proven strategies for persuading your audience to slow down and see what your brand has to say.

Craft attention-grabbing headlines

First and foremost, look at your headlines. Are they dull? Do they contain error(s)? Do they really offer much to readers? It’s so important to spend time writing headlines that people will actually care about, because a headline can make or break a potential follower’s decision to interact with your brand, check out your page, or buy a product or service on your website.

If you’re not sure which headline is right for your audience, then test out several different headlines with the same images and ad copy to determine which one leads to the best results in your next campaign.

Animate your posts

Did you know that people are more likely to stop scrolling if your visuals are dynamic and moving, rather than static? This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to spend a great deal of time on creating videos, of course. With the help of websites like Crello, you can create high-quality, animated posts for your social channels, which will likely lead to greater engagement rates from current and potential followers alike.

Add captions to your videos

Did you know that 85% of video content on social media is typically viewed with the sound off? Many social users reportedly dislike when sponsored video ads auto-play with sound, so many of them turn the volume off on their phones, laptops and desktop computers to eliminate the possibility of intrusive sounds flooding their speakers.

What this means for marketers is that you must include captions in any videos you post to social media — otherwise, a majority of people viewing your video likely won’t understand the full context of your message if you’re still relying on verbal narration to persuade them.

Use bright, high-quality images

Last but not least, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that social media users often skip over irrelevant, dull and/or low-quality images that appear in their newsfeeds. When you are constantly exposed to interesting, high-definition photos on social media, you don’t want to waste time checking out ads with poor quality, confusing imagery. Make sure your sponsored ads are maximizing your brand’s connection with audience members by including only high quality, appealing, relevant ads in every post you publish on social media.