The Attention Economy pt.I



04/22/2019 10:42 PM




In today’s business world and owing to the endless array of information available on the internet, it is has become very difficult to win and keep the attention of anyone especially if you have an offer that will require them to let off their money.
The world economy is built on scarcity, and so is the attention economy where the attention of customers is an extremely scarce commodity to brand marketers and businesses.

The use of the internet and smartphones has exposed individuals to many attention crunchers and time killers that even the 24 hours of the day is not enough to live the worth of an entire day. If these individuals who are prospective customers to business do not even have enough attention to spare how then can brand marketers win their attention and probably fight to retain it?
The primary principle that controls the world of economics remains the principle of demand and supply. In cases where there are high supply and less demand, commodity becomes surplus in the market thereby causing a significant loss in value of that commodity, but on the contrary, when there are increased demand and low supply, there is scarcity. That is what is happening in the attention economy where marketers are in high demand of customers attention, but customers have their attention on some other matters -personal or otherwise. So, because of this demand for customer attention, the tension in the advertising and marketing sector has increased dramatically.

Find out more "Next Practices" in Meta Leadership
Visit Michael Stattelman  for even more….
 
Getting Ahead on the Attention Economy
During the 1990s and early 2000s, businesses took to the internet to win the attention of customers, and since then every marketer has focused on winning that same attention that there are so many contents on the internet, more than enough for customers to read. For a marketer to focus on a customer whose attention is being sought by a hundred other business amidst personal issues, the marketer needs to take drastic measures to stay ahead of these adversaries. 
In recent times, marketers have adopted a series of measures to get and hold the attention of their audiences.

Search Engine Optimization: This has brought many brands closer to their audiences by optimizing contents that are aimed at driving traffic to their websites. The website contains the landing page for the customers which are always often captivated by the content of the landing page. With this current measure, marketers and brands stand a chance of even getting the attention of their target audience.

Personalized Email Marketing: Email marketing is quite old but still works effectively for brand marketing. Although average individual get loads of emails from which many are filtered as spam automatically, getting the attention of the recipient is a lot easier when done rightly. Using personalized emails when marketing a brand tends to connect to the audience at a personal level which is what every human being craves –a personal connection. There are chances that an email sent using “HELLO Chris,” in the introduction will do a lot more at getting Chris’s attention than an email that comes with an introduction of just, "HELLO." Yeah, this takes a lot of effort as you have to relate to each audience independently; thus, doesn't look like you are spamming them.

Social Media and Influencer Marketing: Many people on the internet today are paying attention to the people that dictate which direction social media trends should go; in other words, the trendsetters. These people control a significant level of attention and using them to get the attention of your customers works exceptionally well also. Why? This is because most social media users are concerned about what these influencers have to say always.
The attention economy has taken on a new and more competitive face. Now marketers have struggles never before thought imaginable to contend with not only to stay relevant but just to get above the noise is harder than ever. The major tech giants are actually dedicating large resources into getting more and more of this precious resource. See this amazing TED Talk by Tristan Harris
where he goes into some pretty deep detail regarding the measures taken as well as offers some suggestions to slow this down.

#metaleadership
 
By Michael Stattelman


More