The Digital Fatigue Fallacy: 3 Ways to Optimize Digital Experiences

Eye strain. Headaches. Neck pain. If you’re familiar with the symptoms of digital fatigue, you know that stepping away from the computer to binge-watch the latest Netflix series on the TV is an effective antidote.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed much of our life online. Some digital experiences wear us down, while others energize us. As the Netflix example illustrates, content—not medium—is the cause of digital fatigue. Below are some tips to ensure your company’s content falls under the latter category.

Personalization

From wearable tech to social media algorithms, customers are willing to provide personal data in exchange for digital experiences tailored to their wants and needs. Not all content appeals to every customer. In fact, it shouldn’t. A marketer’s job is to learn as much as you can about your audience and its various subsets so you can customize content accordingly.

Each phase of the buyer’s journey presents a new opportunity to offer customers personalized content. You might want to display a banner highlighting positive customer reviews on your homepage for first time visitors. You might email those who downloaded last quarter’s report an exclusive preview of this quarter’s report. With 80% of consumers more likely to patronize a company that provides a tailored experience, it seems well worth investing in technology, upskilling, and outside expertise to support personalization.

Diversification

Google, Facebook, and Amazon are known as the “big three” in digital advertising. An effective content strategy incorporates the big three platforms but leaves room in the budget for forays onto other platforms quickly gaining influence. One such platform is TikTok, which saw a 180% uptick in users between the ages of 18 and 25 during the pandemic.

Diversifying content is perhaps even more important than diversifying mediums. In the case of TikTok, users are looking to be entertained, with 65% claiming to like brands better when they create or participate in a TikTok trend. Native display ads that blend with the aesthetic of their platform are also good options for companies looking to target customers on social media apps, while those that incorporate video and interactive elements increasingly outperform their static counterparts. Consumers crave audio experiences as well as visual ones. Podcasts are a popular way to reach younger audiences, with Statista projecting the number of podcast listeners will swell to more than 160 million by 2023.

Gamification

The average American checks their phone 80 times a day, further supporting the argument that reports of digital fatigue are greatly exaggerated. It is safe to assume that many of these phone checks are so the user can see the number of “likes” on a recent Instagram post or measure steps taken against their daily step count goal. Social media and pedometer apps are part of a larger shift towards gamification.

Depending on your product or services, you might want to introduce a point system, a referral program, or even a personality quiz that encourages consumers to share results with their social media networks. Gamified content can help you engage customers, gather actionable insights, and increase brand exposure. By 2027, the market of gamified systems is expected to reach $37 billion. Gamifying your content today can help you stay ahead of the trend.

Make content personal, mix it up, and make it fun! Combat digital fatigue, raise brand awareness, and gain customer intelligence and loyalty through the creation of engaging digital experiences.

By Miles Hill

These takeaways were compiled based on overlapping insights shared during several different 2022 B2B Marketing Exchange sessions. Speakers included:

Mark Bornstein, ON24
Marcus Sheridan, Marcus Sheridan International
Robert Peterson, Forrester
Chris Rack, Demand Science
Garrett Mehrguth, Directive
And others

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels.