How to Map Out Strong Content

Can you influence a prospect in 7 seconds? 140 characters? 23 words? Your answer better be yes if you want to win friends and influence people in a marketplace that’s got a microscopic attention span.

With prospects, you’ll get an initial 10 seconds of time – tops – to grab their attention. That’s about 23 words, or the length of a tweet. For a broadcast message, you’re down to 7 seconds. For copy, a lot of readers stop at the headline. If that.

So what does it take to communicate? Consistency. That way, as your messages are shortened or broadened, they all communicate the same thing – affirming your image and brand.

Once someone becomes aware of you and enters your “content funnel,” the amount of time they’ll give you increases. It breaks down like this:

• 7-9 seconds – headline, tweet
• 2 minutes – infographics, videos, blog posts
• 5 minutes – magazine articles, long webpages
• 20 minutes – white papers, webinars

Your goal is to get your prospects to consume larger pieces of content as they move toward your products and services. And you need to keep the message consistent throughout. What will help?

Create a map – A message map is a one-sheet tool that defines what points you want to emphasize on a topic and how you can support your points – whether you’ve got one minute or 10 minutes of attention span. It’s basically your main message, 3 supporting statements, plus supporting detail.

Remember: who is the message for? Your customers. And they want to know: “what’s in it for them?” Put benefits in your first 9 seconds so that the customer knows what you can do for them and why they should contact you. “We keep you comfortable year-round” is a basic message, for example. But you add more when you…

Make your supporting points – Create three supporting statements that relate to and explain/ prove your main message. That would look something like, say: “We keep you comfortable year-round through expert installation and repair, innovative energy efficiency and friendly, personal service.”

This first map is your main message – the one that should be included in everything you do. And it should stay within the 9-second, 23 word cut-off. From there, the amount of detail and supporting information varies based on the type of content and where it fits within your content funnel.