it’s all about attention
When's the last time you really paid attention to an ad on the side of the bus? Or you watched a tv commercial without glancing at your social media in the meantime? When's the last time you bought something you saw on a billboard on the side of the road?
For the majority of the population, this answer will be "a long time ago".
The fact is, our habits change. Our focus shifts. Technology evolves. Too often we forget about these trivial observations when we think about marketing.
Attention is the only key value that you should seek. It's the only real result you should check your costs against. Your only chance to get any results is grabbing your potential customer's attention. Show them your unmissable offer. Drive them through a smooth as silk journey to conversion.
That's it. Easy, right?
Wrong. The options out there are numerous and the platforms often too complicated. To make things worse, the information you can find is fragmentary, discordant or biased. If you couple this with the scarcity of the budget available, marketing can become a real nightmare.
The solution is simple. Take a step back and think; strategise. You need to act rationally and don't get overwhelmed by all the different notions needed.
When you come to peace with the fact that attention is the only thing that matters, you'll understand that there isn't any platform that's absolutely wrong or right. It depends. It depends on your audience and your campaign's goals.
Before you even start thinking about spending money on marketing, you should know your audience inside-out. You should understand who they are, what makes them tick and where their attention is.
It’s all about that attention.
Every audience will pay attention to different things. Are you trying to reach an older audience? Maybe ads in the local newspaper will do it for you. They will be a waste of paper if you are trying to reach a younger generation. For them, an ad on Instagram or a custom Snapchat filter might be a better option.
There's a never-ending number of scenarios like that. Every business, every product, every campaign needs this kind of attention. It requires a level of rational thinking and creativity that always aims to answer one question: how can I grab my audience's attention?
That's it. Attention.
Everything else is just ego and misinformation. If you want to pay through your nose for a billboard that nobody other than you will see, feel free. If you want to go all in with Google AdWords because you've read a couple of headlines on Reddit, good luck.
Slow down. Read. Think. Ask for help if necessary.