What Causes Information Overload and How Can You Avoid It in Marketing?

As such, it’s a huge issue in the world of marketing. You want your audience to be able to make good decisions and have the ability to take the action you want them to take. But, if they’re unable wrap their heads around the information you provide them with, how are they supposed to do that?

In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at the causes of information overload, and what steps you can take as a brand to combat it.

The biggest cause of information overload is the constant huge amounts of information that we have to deal with on a daily basis. In general, it’s a problem, but what about when it comes to marketing?

Such massive volumes of information have come about as a result of changes in habits and technology. Whilst it’s easy to say that there is just too much information out there in the world, it’s not something that just happened by itself. Think about how easy it is to create marketing materials these days, for example. Whether you’re writing a blog post, or creating a set of images for a picture-based ad campaign, with so many different programs and, of course, the internet available to us, we are in a position now where we can create and publish information faster and more easily than ever before.

But that’s not all. As people’s habits have evolved, the amount of channels that have been available to publish to has also increased. There’s TV, radio, podcasts, written word and any amount of social channels that all enable brands to bombard consumers from all angles at any time of the day. This has inevitably led marketing habits to change as well, but this isn’t something that happens in a vacuum. It doesn’t take long for competition from other brands to emerge, and given how easy it is for content to be created as mentioned above, it’s not hard to see how pressure to match what competitors are doing can further compound the problem of information overload.

As a brand, there are a number of things you can do in order to cut down on information overload within your marketing content. The good news is they’re all pretty easy things to roll out. One of the main things to do is make sure you’re keeping things simple regardless of content type or format. The less information you present, the easier it will be to understand for anyone who consumes it. This can be done by ensuring that everything you’re saying is relevant. If your message meets a need, it is far more likely to stick. But always, above all else, make sure that what you’re saying is crystal-clear. Simplicity and relevance are all well and good, but unless the core of the message shines through, it will never be as effective as it could be.

And whilst short and sweet is the most tempting route to go down in terms of length, remember to always let your messaging be as long as it needs to be. Provide supporting information where it is likely to be required, and be explicit with what action needs to be taken as a result of your message being delivered. Keep things pointed and concise, and you won’t have to worry one bit about over doing it.