Your audience is overloaded. So keep it simple.

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Are your engagement rates down? If so, it doesn’t necessarily mean your ideas are bad. Sometimes, you lose engagement because your audience’s brains are checking out. 🤯

I mean, with the 24/7 news and doomscrolling, my brain definitely doesn’t have as much capacity as it used to. Unfortunately, that’s a relatable conundrum for your followers, who are living with 37 open tabs in their heads at any given time. 😵

So when your content asks someone to:

…it’s not “high value.” It’s high cognitive load.

Today, we’ll break down:

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With cognitive load theory, your audience can only hold a limited amount of information at one time. They use their “working memory” as a short-term scratchpad to process what they’re seeing, make sense of it, and decide what to do next.

The kicker, of course, is that working memory is tiny. 🔍

So when your post tries to teach and sell and entertain and include 14 bullet points and a mini manifesto, your reader’s working memory is like, “I can do one (1) thing today, and it’s not this.”

You might get annoyed thinking about cognitive load theory, and I get it. Because you’re thinking, “But I worked so hard on that carousel.” I know. You did.

And your audience still might not engage, because engagement isn’t only about value. It’s also about effort.🫩

When something looks like it will take energy to understand, people assume it will take energy to finish. So they save it “for later” (never) and keep scrolling.

👉 That’s why simpler visuals + fewer fonts + one CTA is better.

Not because the idea is simpler, but because the experience is smoother.

Before you publish, finish this sentence: “After this, I want the reader to ___.”

You can’t have multiple answers here, either. You can choose between having your audience:

If you try to do all three, your post becomes a buffet. And the brain hates buffets. Too many choices = decision fatigue.

I know, I know. It’s tempting to add a lot of CTAs to give people options, but more isn’t better. Multiple CTAs don’t increase conversions. They increase confusion.

Pick one CTA per post. Good options include:

Your audience isn’t processing your post like a scholar. They’re processing it like someone in line at Target. 🛒

Even with long-form content, you should keep the number of ideas simple. Shoot for:

Too many design elements a) look clunky and b) give your followers too many places to look. When you reduce the energy needed to engage, you reduce the cognitive load. 🖼️

Everyone’s got a different #aesthetic, but these rules of thumb stand up no matter where or what you’re posting:

You might think an idea is straightforward because you’re living and breathing it. But other people need to see examples.

Whether it’s photos, testimonials from other customers, or user-generated content, examples reduce cognitive load and increase understanding, fast. 🙂‍↕️

Before you post, ask:

If your answer is “ehh kinda,” go back to the drawing board.  💡Posting streamlined content is more work, but your followers will reward your effort with engagement that sticks.

Your audience is tired. Help them out with simpler, cleaner content. You aren’t dumbing down your content, but making it more digestible for rushed followers.

Take one high-effort post that didn’t perform the way you hoped. Rewrite it with these constraints:

Then publish it again, or test it as a new version, and see how engagement changes.

As always, hit reply if something in here hits home.
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Speak soon,
Kenzi

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