In one of his keynotes, Gary Vaynerchuk talks about how “attention is the number one currency in our society”. This shouldn’t be a surprise right? Yet, it’s not always understood, especially when it comes to marketing.
Attention Comes Before Selling
Before you start selling how wonderful your products and services are, you need the attention of the potential customer first. You need their attention in order for them to have a chance of caring about your words. In today’s very noisy landscape within ever-expanding media channels constantly coming at us from all angles, getting someone’s attention is step one.
Values Come Second
Next comes the matching of core values. Humans are emotional beings with internal values, and our buying decisions are usually based on this whether we realize it or not. You need a likability factor in your brand. You need to portray values that people like and aspire to have. If a potential customer can’t connect, understand or relate to you and your brand at a core level, they won’t be interested in listening to your pitch.
Think about your circle of friends. You’re likely friends with these people because there are commonalities between you all. You share common core values like loyalty, respect and trust for instance. Core values are so influential. You want your brand to exhibit the core values that your customers admire and desire; so figure out what that is of your audience.
Match values, and you’ll gain more attention time.
“Marketing is a contest for people’s attention.”
Seth Godin
Have A.I.R.
Despite how awesome you say your products and services are, it’s noise; and people are really good at selective listening. So, while there is the landscape of competitors to be aware of in a business market, the greatest competition is that of being heard.
One concept that has always stuck with me was from an undergrad marketing class I took many years back which I think is still relevant today. The instructor was lecturing about A.I.R. In order to market something, your product or service needs A.I.R. – First your brand must grab attention. Second, it must hold attention with interest. Lastly, it must be so impactful that the customer will recall your brand.
Maybe you read this post, or maybe you thought it was noise. It’s interesting that you have that choice to decide.