Whatever product or service you are marketing, it’s the most important product service in the world…to you. That’s because your livelihood depends on successfully marketing it.

The importance of what you market brings us to attention spans; the all-important length of time you have to grab someone’s attention.

You have less than 10 seconds to capture and hold someone’s attention.

Try these facts on for size:

• The average human attention span is only 8.25 seconds, which is less than the goldfish’s 9-second attention span.
• The average adult internet user’s attention span is 8.25 seconds, influenced by the increasing distractions on the internet, social media, and the environment.
• The average attention span of a human has decreased significantly over the years, from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013.

With attention spans diminishing, the importance of keeping your message clear, simple, and direct has never been more important.

Seconds count: the importance of a good elevator speech.

If you had all the time in the world, talking about what you sell would be no problem. But you don’t. You are limited on time. There is no room for redundancy or lack of clarity.

In short, if you fail to capture your audience’s attention, the rest of your messaging may as well not happen

So…to keep up with shortening attentions, our answer is the elevator speech

An elevator speech is a short message conveying who you are, what you do and the value your product or service brings to your audience. It is one of the most effective ways to promote your personal brand and one of the simplest, most powerful tools for any marketer.

When you combine the importance of an effective elevator speech with the lessening of attention spans, it means your message’s first eight seconds are critical to connecting with your audience.

Wellons uses elevator speeches to pitch media.

At Wellons Communications, one of the first things we do for our clients is to create an elevator speech that we can use to pitch media about our clients. That’s because we only have eight seconds to get the attention of media, who are bombarded with pitches and story idea from folks like us.

While we have eight seconds to capture attention, we have about 30 seconds to augment what we have established in the first eight seconds.

Good news: the same elevator speech has greater value that simply pitching to media. It can be used to convey what you do (and why it’s newsworthy or important) to virtually anyone…particularly potential customers. 

At Wellons, we use elevator speeches to pitch media

Our first objective in pitching media is to ensure that our message has value to whomever we are pitching. Media want to hear pitches that are newsworthy and have some connection to the audience they service.  So…our elevator speech is tailored to the journalist we are pitching.

Here are a couple of examples of elevator speeches we use to pitch stories to media:

I’m Will with Wellons Communications, in Florida. I want to offer you a story idea that we believe will connect with your readers (or viewers or listeners). It’s about how technology is making it easier for attorneys to research information that can reduce hours and make it more affordable to clients to use their legal services.

I’m Lauren with Wellons Communications, an Orlando PR firm. We have come across a story idea that has characteristics that lend themselves to your news outlet. It’s about how changes in tourism in Florida have changed since the peak of COVID in 2020.

So, what would a typical elevator speech look or sound like?

A short elevator speech will include five key elements: an introduction, a definition of the challenges of the target audience, a reference to how to solve the challenge, why you are best suited to solve that challenge, and a call to action.

Here are a couple of examples…in response to “What do you do?”

I’m with Daily Grind, a coffee marketer. We coordinate the delivery of high-quality coffee beans to coffee shops throughout North America. We save money for our clients by arranging transport of coffee beans from directly from growers who can roast coffee beans on site and ship them directly to the coffee shop.

I’m with Little Thrills, a recently opened tourist attraction in Florida. We offer guests more than 30 fun, totally safe, rides that are crafted to allow parents and children to both enjoy a fun experience together. It’s brand new and well within the budget of most families.

Both elevator speeches are short, to the point, and include a value proposition.

Work with Wellons to create your elevator speech

How’s your elevator speech? Do you use one? Do all of your employees know what it is? Do they use it too?

Our PR agency is happy to set you up with an elevator speech program that starts with an appropriate elevator speech and by expanding the elevator speech throughout your organization, ensuring that all of your employees to use the same elevator speech with consistency and pride in your organization.

Call us and tell us more about your business…and try your elevator speech out on us!