A little under 20 years ago, advertising on the internet was easy.
You could run a Google Ad for the word “coffee” and it would cost you 5¢ a click.
By the way, you were the only one showing up, so you were going to get a 50%+ to click through.
But times have changed…
You are now not only competing with 4,583 other brands and startups like yours, but you are fighting for consumers’ attention with every other business running ads, Netflix show, blog post, mobile app, video game, and funny prank video.
The internet is a massive, distracting place.
Scratch that, the entire world is a massive, distracting place.
Marketers have to be all-in if they hope to stand a chance to stay relevant.
It’s the hard truth.
They have to have an exceptional product, trustworthy advertising, and fantastic customer service.
Simply running Facebook ads or creating video content isn’t enough anymore—it has to be great.
You might be one of the lucky ones that are at the top because you built your brand before the ‘content boom’, or maybe you got a shot of adrenaline because you appeared on SharkTank or had a successful Kickstarter.
But unless you are fast, efficient, and super creative, you will fade quickly.
How to fight distractions to get attention
Okay, we’re going to get granular here, because that’s how we roll.
The first thing you need to understand is that consumers are going to fall into two buckets before they are truly attracted to you:
- They ARE NOT currently looking for what you are offering, thus you are trying to influence them
- They ARE currently looking for what you are offering, thus you are trying to convince them
But remember, before you can do either of these things, you have to first get in front of them.
Image Source: Medium.com
After you achieve one of these two things, you have now won the attention game, which is huge in today’s world.
But it’s not either influence or convinces, you need to be able to do both at the same time.
Let me explain (By the way this is totally made up and hypothetical example).
On Monday, Susie, mom of 3 in Iowa, could be reading the latest article on PureWow.com.
While she is reading, she sees a (sponsored) post snuck in the midst of the said article, written by Rachel Hollis, an author, and social media star that she loves.
The article is about Rachel’s favorite beauty products for the busy mom.
Susie clicks the article and reads through Rachel’s suggestions.
She really likes the ideas that Rachel has about contouring.
And she decides she wants to give “Product A” that Rachel is suggesting a try.
Hence, Influence.
On that same Monday, at the same exact time, Lindsay, a single woman in Brooklyn is sitting in her apartment thinking about the upcoming weekend.
She has a date with a cute girl from Queens on Friday, dinner with friends on Saturday, and brunch with her parents on Sunday.
She’s running low on bronzer, and she’s not super pumped about the one she has been using, so she decides to shop.
She hops on Pinterest and begins pinning all the looks and products she likes.
Then she goes to YouTube to watch a few product tutorials from brands and influencers.
Finally, she goes to Google to price-shop the top three brands she finds.
She finds a great deal on Amazon for “Product A” and orders it with 2-day shipping.
Image Source: PC Mag
Hence, Convince.
If you sell Product A, you just won two new customers at the same time.
And here’s how you did it:
- You negotiated a 1-year sponsorship deal with Rachel to create content about how much she loves your product
- You collaborated with Purewow to do a sponsored posts with Rachel
- You sent your products to 100 of the top YouTube makeup influencers and began working with 40 of them to produce tutorials using your products
- You found 40 bloggers with a large presence on Pinterest to partner with who write and post about your products
- You set up Amazon FBA to distribute your products at a fair price with 2-day Prime shipping—so you automatically earn a higher level of awareness and trust than your competitors who are not on Amazon.
If one of these strategies was missing, you might have lost Susie or Lindsay as a customer.
If two or more of these strategies were missing, you might have lost both.
In order to truly thrive in today’s Wild West version of the internet, you really have to work backward from your customers’ purchase, into a full omnichannel marketing approach.
It’s how the next generation of winners will win.
