What Are You Doing With Your Five Seconds?

It doesn’t matter if you are Apple selling the “best media player on the market” or Mother Theresa selling a better way to live. If you take more than five seconds to convey your message, the likelihood that your potential customers will stay engaged is .002 percent. You can disagree all you want, but they probably won’t give you a second chance to convert them. Understanding message and concept is key. You’re familiar with the “bounce rate” on your web site. (Yes, that statistic telling you how much people don’t care.) The apathy of your prospective customers can be addressed by being honest about what you do. When you only have five seconds to engage visitors on your web site, you don’t get to “feel them out” and target your message to each individual. In lieu of targeting the individual, what would you say about yourself? Sometimes it is possible to roll a message and concept into a fairly seamless package. More often than not, though, business owners haven’t perfected their elevator pitch. Stop arguing for everything that you want to be, and how it all needs to be part of your messaging. Your customers don’t have time for it. Your elevator pitch needs to be front-and-center on your web site. Distill your message down to five seconds worth of pitch; otherwise, you will have a heck of a hard time getting new customers. What are you doing with your five seconds?