The 6 second rule

If you are anywhere in management, for any product or service, you have to be living with this rule constantly in the back of your mind.

• A web page will only get 6 seconds of review before continuing or clicking away
• A CV/Resume will only get 6 seconds before forwarding or deleting
• A landing page will only get 6 seconds to get the interest of the reader to click on that dreaded “Learn More” button
• A blog post or video post has to gain the attention of the individual within 6 seconds if you want it to be read/watched

And so on and so forth.

If you can’t say/show what you want in under 6 seconds, you most likely will fail at gaining attention.

I have produced many professional video’s in my life. From sales to company to consumer. And I always start with the question “In 20 words or less, what do I want the reader/viewer to know?”

I then write that question at the top of a whiteboard (and yes, I do this with every agency/staffer/fellow employee I have ever worked with). It not only helps with the focus, but it also allows every idea and concept thrown out, to be placed under the question to make sure it “fits”. (If it doesn’t, I don’t discard, I put to the side. There is no wrong idea or concept, just maybe not at this time.)

After that, we (it’s no longer an I, but a we) decide on the one thing that is most important to “know” about the product or service.

Then I ask “In 20 words or less, how is that communicated”.

Those 20 words then become the six seconds to grab a consumers attention. Oh, btw, it’s not “By video” or “A sentence”. I’m talking about something like “We have an airplane take off with the words ‘Don’t let the wheels fall off of your a,b,c’”. You get the idea. It may be more than 20 words, when you have a video or graphic involved, but, the shorter (in words) it takes to describe what you want to communicate, the easier it will be for the reader/viewer and production crew, even if it is yourself.

It can be difficult at times, especially when a video is being produced. But in general for a video, it may be words on top of video with hashtags across the bottom (the brain can process a lot in 6 seconds), or a graphic, with a bold sentence and a moving image.

We then lay everything out, lay the copy (or script) down, and do the first round (rough draft) of everything. Once we all agree to all the changes that were made (there are NEVER not changes), I then take everything out and put only the parts that someone is capable of comprehending in 6 seconds back up in front of everyone. Usually, this is the first sentence of a blog post, or the top of a landing page (remember, people read left to right, top to bottom), and so on.

I then put this in front of individuals who were not part of the building/designing stage (it’s called a focus group — and it can be other employee’s, friends, relatives, or a paid group of people — doesn’t matter).

And I want (well, require) myself to hear something along the lines of “Oh, that’s interesting, tell me more”. If I don’t hear something like that, I ask everyone to start over and get back to the 6 second rule.

NOTE: This gets back to my rule of “Never believe a single individual — always talk with three or more individuals so you can get a better “mean” of what the thinking is”. There may be one individual who is always negative and doesn’t care, where the other two may be excited to learn more. If you had only asked one person for feedback, and you got the negative response, you may have a gem that will work on 80% of the world but you never gave yourself the chance to find out.

It’s not as time consuming or hard as I have written about above. This could be you alone, you with some staff, you with an agency, or you with the C-Suite, multiple agencies, and the board.

It’s all relative. It’s easy to do. Especially when you think about your own experiences (in life and business) and ask yourself “What got me to keep reading/watching longer than 6 seconds?”

It is a skill. An easily learned one. Learn it, live it, do it.