In a sea of messaging, how can you connect with your ideal customer? Make sure your voice doesn’t get lost.

The average American adult is exposed to roughly 12,000 messages a day – or four million a year. To put this statistic in perspective, in 1984, the number of daily message intake was roughly 1,500. That’s a 1,000 percent increase. We are overwhelmed by advertisements and email campaigns, and it’s only going to get noisier as companies push out effective messaging.

Now, imagine that you’re standing in the middle of Times Square. No, you’re not an extra in a horror movie. You’re standing in THE perfect storm of advertising, surrounded by roughly 500 ads vying for your attention. If you’re paying close attention, you may see half, but you’ll only remember only a handful. What we focus on speaks to and connects with our core wants, desires and values. In other words, we connect with brands that speak our language.

It’s also important to remember that as a nation, our attention span is decreasing every decade. In 2000, the attention span of the average American adult was 12 seconds. Today, it’s eight seconds. The average attention of a goldfish is nine seconds.