Digital Age and The Race for Attention

Digital Age and The Race for Attention – Ad placements over a decade ago are hardly seen on social media. They appear in emails and blog pages but are not as rampant and frequent as they are today. Although the internet at its advent wouldn’t be considered “smart” compared to what we have now, at least ads wouldn’t be intrusive, right? Right. But it has its downsides, too. For example, from the perspective of consumers, there might be things that they need but find hard to find. So they may want certain products but won’t buy them because it’s nowhere to be seen. Which is a lose-lose situation for businesses as well. A product or service may be crafted to perfection but without cost-effective marketing, it’s difficult to find the right buyers.

If that seems like a case solved by algorithms through machine learning, there is a newer issue that many businesses are facing—at least those with little funding and inexperience with advertising. Social platforms are free, posting is free and everyone is aiming for mainly one thing: attention. You read that right. It is a priority that is second to none. This is because you may have everyone’s interest because of the quality you are producing however, you won’t just reach your people without capturing and retaining as many eyeballs as you can. The no-bad PR scheme is important more than ever. Why? Because you only need a fraction of the audience that noticed you to make a living.

Let us deep dive. If every video that you upload for your business gets a million views on average and 1% of these viewers buy whatever you are selling for one dollar, that is already ten thousand dollars per video. So you either do more of the videos that get you a million views (which is tasking and costly) or simply optimise your content to multiply your viewership. If you still don’t get it, the best way to put your competitors to ashes is by making a noise that is so loud, that the market can barely hear them.

How about precision? Isn’t targeting a cheaper way to do it? Sure, that’s an easier way to reach your ideal customer persona (ICP), and yes, you can do that whilst also tapping a wider audience but if you are bootstrapping and wouldn’t even bother testing paid ads for months, maximise the attention that you are getting. If you are a media company and want businesses to sponsor you, there’s no other way but this route. If you are a business leader and want to lower the cost of your customer acquisition, do this and you can slowly transition to promoting your company without having to hire an agency all the time. When you’re just starting it is good to learn from them and then apply the best practices on your own.

Now here’s the win-win situation. The AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model still works, it’s just not linear anymore and it’s not as effective for longevity. So focus on how you can acquire an exponential amount of attention first then listen to learn, rinse and repeat. It may not rapidly click for a couple of tries but one thing is for sure. You will learn more about your business during the process and you will get to know more of your customers by getting constant feedback. If this sounds like a plan for your business, you can learn how we help our clients find the right talent for the ever-evolving digital age. Speak with our experts on this link or you can reach out to us through this page.