Attention everyone!

Everyone wants it. Marketers fight for it. Influencers covet it. Thought leaders lust after it. A whole industry is built on trying to capture it.

Attention is precious. So it needs to be handled with kid gloves.

But if you abuse it, it can burn.

Often this factor is not given enough thought in our quest to gain it.

Because the focus is on attracting attention. Those click-bait headlines that play on our psychology.

They work. To a point.

Yes, I clicked on your headline and got led to some over-hyped copy that promised the earth for someone with a set of circumstances I do not share.

That is a fail. Because now I’m going to avoid you like the plague - regardless of what you may have in the future that I could genuinely benefit from.

But it’s a numbers game I hear you say. That’s true. But it cuts both ways. Do you really want lots of bad publicity from those whose attention you misappropriated?

Anyone who tells you all publicity is good publicity is revealing their low IQ. Who wants to be known for having an awful product? Or shoddy service? Or wasting people’s time and attention?

The way I look at it, people’s attention is precious. And it's a privilege to be given it. So we shouldn’t abuse it. We need to earn the right to be given it every time we ask for it.

So if you’re getting attention churn, with bounce rates through the roof, open rates through the floor, unsubscribes out the door, and crickets on your posts, don’t blame the algorithm.

Cream floats to the top and mud sinks to the bottom. If you’re producing mud, the algo, and people are smart enough to work it out.

The equation is simple, if your focus is on delivering value to your audience, you’re off to the races. But if your focus is on capturing value, your odds for success are long.

Sounds easy. Quite logical. But logic seems to be in short supply these days. A bit like Lewis Road Creamery chocolate milk when it launched (but at least there was a demand for it!)

Know your customer. Give them something they want. Not something you want to give them. It’s never about you (just be happy knowing you’re awesome, you don’t need to tell them).