When you’re talking to a potential marketing client or when strategizing a marketing campaign for a client, keep in mind a gigantic goal most (if not all) businesses have:
ACQUIRE CUSTOMERS AND RETAIN CUSTOMERS
The Attention Economy (the current state of the Internet)
You should be ready to engage with people if you want to grow a business online — but you’ll need to engage them where they are and how they want to be engaged. You want your chances to be hot, not cold.
Knowing how to do it can mean the difference between failing and succeeding. We all aim at winning and even though there are some who are luckier than others, it’s not luck — utilizing all the available tools can open you up to success rather than spin the wheel of ‘luck’.
THE ATTENTION ECONOMY
Attention is a necessary ingredient for effective advertising. The market for consumer attention (or “eyeballs”) has become so competitive that attention can be regarded as a currency. The rising cost of this ingredient in the marketplace is causing marketers to waste money on costly attention sources or reduce their investment in promoting their brands. Instead, they should be thinking about how to “buy” cheaper attention and how to use it more effectively.
Imagine that you’re blindfolded and willingly throwing money into a pit as you fight battles beyond your means. It may sound far-fetched, but that’s exactly what’s happening with brands and their advertising spend these days — plan for the Attention Economy and the 3 pillars of ‘attention’ you can use to maximize your reach, while appealing to a single audience who collectively respond slightly differently based on their clicks vs. desired attention areas:
EARNING ATTENTION
- Example: Your content is found, consumed, and shared
- Example: Your content is found, consumed, and linked to
OWNING ATTENTION
- Example: Your content is found in organic search
- Example: Your content is consumed regularly from your own assets (ex: blog, social channels)
RENTING ATTENTION
- Example: Your content is found/consumed from Paid Search or Display
- Example: Your content is found/consumed from Native Advertising
Choosing to focus on only one of the above leaves too many ignored potential customers to be drawn in my your competitors. Make sure you earn, own, and rent attention wherever possible for yourself and your clients.