An old well-known proverb says, “If all your friends jumped off a bridge then would you too?” Likewise, in marketing, it’s important to stay innovative, ahead of the game, and, more importantly, understand your clients. You should never do something simply because it is what everyone else is doing.
Just because major companies run banner ads, mid-roll YouTube ads, spam texts, running email ads, Pandora ads, etc. does not necessarily mean you should follow suit. In fact, Marketers Week says “Marketers continue to ‘waste money’ as only 9% of digital ads are viewed for more than a second”. There just isn’t a substantial amount of attention put towards these advertising methods anymore.
The market is changing, and, thus, attention is changing as well. Recently, businesses are making one major mistake: they are not focusing on a consumer’s attention. And in the marketing field, attention is key–see where it is going and follow it. If a marketer focuses their time and money on whatever channel of attention is trending, they can gauge consumer-centric interest and take the first step to winning over a consumer.
So, where is this oh-so-desired attention? And where is it underpriced and where is it overpriced?
As of late, major corporate companies are not buying ad space on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat, so it is vastly underpriced. Because it is a marketplace, anyone can run a $7 ad, which is atypical to what we’ve seen over the last several years.
Obviously, if a consumer isn’t actually paying attention to your ads and media, then it is not a good use of a company’s resources. According to social media expert and businessman, Gary Vaynerchuk, there are two places companies can win attention in their marketing strategy: social networks contained within mobile apps and video marketing.
Don’t make your consumer come to you and don’t make them work to find you. Create ads with intention and try understanding your customers. Learn where they navigate online and where they are receiving the most information. Make sure to be as present as possible. Consumers are spending more time on social media than ever before, so be there rather than on the aforementioned run banner ads or spam texts strategies.
“They’re assuming just because they’ve spent millions of dollars across all these platforms that they’re going to get the attention, that people are going to consume their 30-second video or their print ad with their slogan on it…They are trading on the perceived or potential reach of their message without quantifying that it’s 2017, and that the mobile phone owns consumer attention, and everything is harder in marketing than it’s ever been,” says Gary Vaynerchuk.
The trick to gaining consumer attention is to reverse engineer where and how the attention is consumed.
Once you figure out where their attention is, you must produce high-quality content or else no one will consume your messages. The quality of your posts and content is imperative. As explained in “6 Tips for Targeting Millennials through Marketing Design,” Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are crucial when marketing a product or service. They also provide a platform that allows consumers to critique, ask questions, and start conversations about a company or product. The quality of what you are placing in front of consumers is a crucial variable in determining if your ad will be successful or not.
The end consumer is the most important part of your business. Determine who that is and then work backward. Make an effort in 2018 to focus both on where your customers’ attention is directed and the quality of the content you post there. What other marketing goals do you think are important to have this year?
