In the current digital marketing climate, urgency trumps authenticity. We’re all victim to it – faced with a saturation of comms that herald a ‘Flash sale’, ‘Limited time only’ offers, ‘Last chance’ opportunities and more. It’s as if digital media is one big panic attack. As e-comm brands in particular work overtime to vie for audience attention, are those messages actually connecting and converting, or creating overwhelm?
To get noticed, your message needs to land quickly and clearly. But your digital presence shouldn’t be about pushing out hundreds of content pieces and trying to appear everywhere. It’s about showing up strategically; working smarter rather than harder.
Try these marketing strategies to increase your online visibility and build long-term brand trust.
The attention problem
We live in an attention economy; a term coined by Herbet A. Simon in the 1970s after noticing that in a world flowing with mass amounts of information, it’s not the information that is scarce – it’s people’s attention. Audience attention is the commodity that brands try to capture and monetise.
According to Forbes.com, the attention economy keeps us glued to our screens. It’s fueled by addictive and unconscious behaviours; every scroll, click, like and share are automatic responses from audiences that detract from genuine, connective experiences. While instant engagement makes your messaging look as though it hits the mark, those top-level actions detract focus from more enriching, and enduring digital experiences.
So, how can we create great marketing that doesn’t shout at people for their attention, but rather engages them in the right way?
So, how should a business decide which marketing channels they should invest in?
- Map out your customer’s journey. Where are the existing touchpoints? Where is there potential? At what stages are customers likely to take action? For instance, writing content for high-intent keywords can help your business appear in search results when people are actively looking for your solution, while using social media creates conversations to keep your brand top of mind.
- Play to your strengths to stay consistent. A strong online presence comes from consistency, and that matters more than trying to be everywhere. By focusing on the type of content you can deliver well and regularly, this will improve your brand’s visibility and trust.
- Look at what’s already working (and why). Dive into your metrics to see what’s already building engagement, traffic or conversions – and what has the potential. Then put your energy into the channels that give you the best chance to get seen and amplify your reach online
How to foster genuine brand connections
1. Build communities, not campaigns. When brands develop community instead of endless self-contained campaigns, people are invited into a relationship and experience, rather than a fleeting impression. Create experiences where people can engage and connect with your brand and possibly involve their loved ones too. Designing IRL or virtual experiences that people can enjoy with friends, partners and family ensures your brand is a part of real-life experiences, not just social media feeds. The emotional stickiness created cannot be replicated, nor its value underestimated.
2. Create content with purpose, not pressure.
Show your audience that you value their time by creating content with a clear purpose – helping, educating, entertaining or inspiring. Rather than just posting for the sake of posting, your brand needs to become a reliable source of knowledge that people actually want to tune in to and reference. Eventually, building authority builds brand sentiment and loyalty, as audiences refer back to your content as a source of truth and dependability.
3. Give your audience space. Attention is earned, not demanded. No spam, fewer interruptions, easy opt-outs and less purposeless content – all shows respect for your audience’s limited time and attention. This restraint and composure can stand out in an environment where other brands are pushing louder and harder. This means, when someone chooses to engage, it’s their decision and they feel in control.
4. Lead with transparency
The fact is, trust is the real conversion metric. In world optimised for clicks and flooded with content, brands that forgo the hard sell in favour of honesty feels refreshingly human. When a brand is upfront about how it operates (pricing, data, use, mistakes) it turns what is seemingly a moment of vulnerability into credibility. This is what drives long-term loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.
5. Invest in quality storytelling – the kind worth slowing down for. People often don’t buy a product, they buy the story. Think about the Stanley water bottle craze, for instance. What could’ve been a passing fad became a cultural phenomenon. People love to get behind good stories that they can connect, resonate with, or have fun with.
Scaling the right way in the attention economy comes down to robust, data-led strategies. Keen to move with purpose? Get in touch
