We’ve all been feeling it… the effects of being on our devices all day long. Whether we’re catching up on the bombardment of emails that hit our inboxes immediately at 9 AM, reading up on industry trends, or even scrolling through our own personal social media, digital fatigue is hitting us all at every angle. And it’s safe to say that your customers and buyers are feeling it too.

According to Forrester, 80% of today’s consumers have increased their reliance on digital devices and touch points since the pandemic. Even On24’s 2022 State of Digital Experiences Report states the deliverance of digital experiences has increased 135.57% since 2019. However, the same Forrester study shows that 76% of buyers agree that engagement with digital [marketing] tactics is dropping. So what’s causing people to use their smartphones and other devices more frequently but become disengaged with the content they’re being exposed to? 

Today’s buyers lack the bandwidth and tolerance for low-quality content. In fact, more than half of today’s buyers (55%) move on if a piece of content does not pique their interest within the first minute. Here’s the cold, hard truth: digital fatigue is burdening and overwhelming your buyers. Continue reading to uncover 4 tips to ensure your brand’s content rises above the noise and keeps your buyers engaged.

What is Digital Fatigue?

Let’s get back to the basics and dive into what digital fatigue really is and why it’s so influential in today’s digitally focused world. Essentially, digital fatigue is a result of too much screen time. For instance, spending a majority of your day on Zoom calls, getting an influx of emails, or mindlessly scrolling through social media before bed are all potential causes of digital fatigue. It’s that overwhelming feeling of mental exhaustion from being bombarded with content at a rapid rate.

Consequently, one in five people report needing a “digital detox” and 70% of people admit they are reducing their consumption of digital media. This is an alarming situation for marketers. If people *cough* target audiences *cough* are disengaged with digital marketing channels, how can marketers reach their buyers? We’ll tell you one thing: inundating your buyers with heaps of content every day is not the answer.

Flooding Your Buyers With Content is Ineffective

Companies today are prioritizing quantity over quality to get their brand’s name out in the world. That means marketers are taking the spray and pray approach to their content distribution, hoping that buyers will engage. However, overwhelming buyers with low-quality marketing content is only leading to digital fatigue, not revenue. As a result, 59% of consumers feel as though companies have lost touch with the human element of customer experience. 

Today’s buyers want to be treated like what they really are: humans. They want high-quality buying experiences that are tailored to their needs and use cases. With approachable, interactive and personalized content, delivered at the right time in the buyer’s journey, it’s much easier to keep buyers engaged. 

4 Tips to Overcoming Common Digital Fatigue Challenges

So you get it—digital fatigue is bad… and it’s on the rise. So what can you do to overcome these challenges while still making connections with your buyers? Follow these 4 tips to get started:

1. Segment Lists to Avoid Sending the Wrong Message to the Right Buyer

Sending out emails and content to your entire database, hoping that even a sliver of leads will convert, is a foolish game. To provide buyers with the most personalized and pertinent information relevant to their role, pain points, or needs, you need to segment your contact lists based on buyer personas, industries, or use cases. 

For example, say your company sells a CRM platform that enables both marketers and sellers to create the most impactful buyer experiences. To market the platform effectively, you need to create content specifically for marketers showcasing the efficiencies the platform offers marketing teams, like the ability to run automated campaigns. Likewise, you need to share content specific to sellers regarding the benefits the CRM provides sales teams, such as enhanced pipeline management. The last thing you want to do is create content that speaks to sales and share it with marketing, or vice versa. This will cause buyers to feel as though you don’t understand their use case or their needs. The result? Another deal left on the table.

Consider this: 56% of people who unsubscribed from a business’ emails did so because the associated content was irrelevant to their use case. Ultimately, providing your buyers with irrelevant content is just another checkpoint on the way to causing them digital fatigue. Segmenting your lists helps you drive buyers further in their purchasing journey quicker by providing them with specific, high-value content that addresses their needs and use case. The more relevant the content is, the more likely a buyer will engage with it!

2. Less is More: Offer 5 Pieces of High-Quality Content Over 25 Pieces of Low-Quality Content

You’ve heard the cliché before: “quality over quantity.” The same holds true for content marketing. Now more than ever, it’s important to create content that offers greater value to its intended audience. Today, 81% of decision makers prefer thought leadership content that offers provocative ideas that change their assumptions regarding a topic over content that validates their current thinking. 

Spraying and praying is ineffective and, frankly, annoying. It’s time to get creative and only publish content that:

• Sparks inspiration and engages readers
• Provides forward-thinking thought leadership and insights
• Takes a stand on a given topic or issue in your industry

3. Deliver Better Buyer Experiences with Interactive Content

With digital fatigue plaguing just about every B2B buyer these days, it’s on marketers to curate better buying experiences. Only publishing static content is a surefire way to fall behind the competition. If you want to ensure your target audience remains engaged, it’s important to create interactive marketing experiences such as videos and animations that you can share on social media.

Interactive content like polls on social media, surveys, and even live video sessions where viewers can ask questions in real time are all ways to enable your audience to participate in your conversation. And let’s not forget the power of virtual events like webinars and panel discussions. According to Zippia, 73% of B2B webinar attendees will become qualified leads! 

4. Make Marketing Decisions Based on Engagement Data

The key to squashing digital fatigue and ensuring your buyers remain engaged with your content is to leverage buyer engagement data. Buyer engagement data measures the various interactions a buyer has with your brand and content. For example, these interactions include opening an email, downloading a resource, or attending a webinar. 

It’s best to leverage these engagement insights to provide each buyer with content that would move them forward in their buying journey. Consider this example. Say you're a SaaS platform that solves for identifying insider cybersecurity threats within the organization before a major breach occurs. One day, a buyer downloads your infographic on the rise of insider threats. Awesome! Based on this data, you can make the educated decision to share an eBook on insider threat mitigation solutions with this buyer directly in your next marketing touch point. Making data-driven decisions enables you to provide the right content at the right time to the right buyer, hyper-personalizing their experience. And as a bonus, marketers who make data-driven decisions based on customer feedback garner a 34% increase in conversions!