How to Get Customer Attention? Strategies & Tips

Attention is a necessary ingredient for effective marketing.

In the past, it used to be easy to get someone’s attention for an event or a special thing because the competition was still under the wave.

Time goes by, and online business leaps have made the market more fierce; the attention can be regarded as a currency.

Today, every marketer racks their heads to build a marketing strategy that can have an impact on customers. But before the customers can actually be affected, they need to be first paying attention.

Whether you are selling technology products, sports apparel, clothes, or anything else, it’s critical to make your audiences curious about what you are saying.

This article is intended to help you in this regard.

Table of Contents

• The battle for customer attention
• 10 killing steps to get customer attention
  • 1. Build your unique value proposition
  • 2. Build trust
  • 3. Have a crystal clear plan
  • 4. Figure out who the right customers are
  • 5. Understand prospects
  • 6. Create connections with potential customers
  • 7. Reach prospects via different communication channels
  • 8. Inform customers about vital information
  • 9. Don’t copy others, be unique
  • 10. Be enthusiastic to get attention
• Useful tricks from experts to get a customer attention
  • Tell a compelling story brand
  • Leverage content marketing
    • 1. Create a viral content strategy
    • 2. Use snackable content
    • 3. Use memes in content
    • 4. Create interactive content
    • 5. Follow a trend
  • Brand out with influencers

The battle for customer attention

The challenge of the majority of organizations is not capable of capturing and understanding customer attention with any strategy today. Failing to capture customer attention is troubling; however, if you know why it’s happening, it might be easier to revamp.

The first big reason is the increase in distractions. Information overload makes a person’s attention a shrinking span. The flood of information that swamps people daily seems to produce more pain than gain. It’s challenging for businesses to take a position in customers’ attention and put them at the helm.

That content becomes more and more important in driving customer behaviors requires brands to be creative and inimitable to make it stand out among an ocean of content out there. And winners are those who produce content that mostly relates to ideal prospects and appeals to them to take action.

The passive actions of businesses to reach customers also refrain them from being attracted by customers. You can’t just sit there, and people will come to find your brand. A customer survey finds out that the customer attention span is just around 8 seconds. So if you don’t market your brand and increase your brand awareness, nobody will know who you are.

Customers have many choices today, and businesses that go after customers will be more likely to thrive. You need to be proactive and add power to your brand every day so that it’s easier to be noticed.

One more thing that loses brands in this battle is the poor understanding of their target audiences. They did implement strategies that take a huge amount of money but do not understand what the audience actually needs. Poor research on the target market leads them to a wrong chain of not delivering messages that prospects need to hear to take action.

It’s actually a battle because it’s getting harder to get customer attention.

But you still have time to turn things around.

The following sure-fire ways and tips will help you get customer attention and make your life easier. Keep on reading to uncover useful techniques to attract customers to your business.

10 killing steps to get customer attention

1. Build your unique value proposition

Among many established brands out there, one of the most important things to make you survive is originality. If you can’t offer unique benefits, you have no room to compete with those brands.

A business with no pitch and appeals to compete with existing solid competitors will be flatlining with no attention. It is imperative to design a unique value proposition for your business. Answer some questions to make it easier: “How can you help the people you want to be customers solve their problems and achieve their goals?”, “What can you do for your customers while your competitors can’t?”

It’s imperative that you focus on your unique value instead of claiming vague promises on the Internet.

An example: Apple iPhone - The experience is the product.

Even in today’s oversaturated electronic marketplace, Apple remains the leading brand in the industry, recording the company’s total net sales amounted to 2274.52 billion U.S. dollars in their 2020 financial year. So what makes Apple The company firmly reiterates its value proposition in the copy about its iPhone range of products. The company builds its value proposition by creating unique experiences for customers.

Why is there nothing quite like iPhone?

“Every iPhone we’ve made - was built on the same belief. That a phone should be more than a collection of features. That, above all, a phone should be absolutely simple, beautiful, and magical to use.”

2. Build trust

Never lie to your audience even if they haven’t become your customers yet.

People can read a message you write on social media, but the only thing keeping them to continue following you is the incredibility you engage in their minds. Be honest when communicating with your audience. If you can build trust with your audience from the first time they see you, half the battle is won.

Because customers’ time is valuable, make them feel fulfilled when spending time with you by providing valuable information and resources that address their needs.

You can build trust in the audience by becoming an expert in your industry, provide them with valuable resources and make them confident when using your product.

In short, here are some tips to gain the trust of your audience that you can use right now:

• Get to know your audience
• Be credible and helpful
• Show successful results (real case studies)
• Be human

Read more: 7 ways to earn customers’ trust when you have zero sales

3. Have a crystal clear plan

Never wrong to plan on how you can attract customers to your business. Getting customer attention is a journey, and a feasible plan will guide you on each step of this journey.

You can’t plan everything, but when drawing a plan, you will need to anticipate the most important things to do to capture customers’ interest. You will find out more ways and opportunities to attract your potential customers.

A crystal and thorough plan will help you get customer attention in a systematic approach and know what to do next step by step. In your plan, you can test different techniques to select what works best for your business.

4. Figure out who the right customers are

The ultimate goal is getting customers doesn’t mean you will build relationships or talk with everyone. It’s crucial to decide whom you will spend your time with and also the ones that you expect to spend their time with your business. In other words, find the right target market in which you can focus on a specific group of customers.

Therefore, don’t target your customers too generally. You need to identify a specific market segment that you are going to chase. Choose those who will benefit from what you offer. For example, if you open a pick-up fast food restaurant, your customers will be those who don’t have time to cook or can’t sit in the restaurant to eat. Then, you will know your products should be customized to make it convenient for these customers to fulfill their meal without consuming too much time.

5. Understand prospects

There are dozens of ways to get customer attention, but one of the critical steps is to understand people from whom you need attention. Before you want someone to give you attention, you need to understand them to know what they need or what can really include in their circle of interest.

It’s essential to understand your audience prior to delivering your message to them because of many reasons. When you really know your audience, you’ll know exactly what to say in your message to make people want to read, listen, and pay attention to find out more about your brand.

Besides the common information about the demographics, locations, or hobbies, here are some questions you may ask to get a clear understanding of your audience:

• What are the problems they are trying to solve?
• What features do your target audience need?
• How did you hear about us?

6. Create connections with potential customers

Any brand needs to create connections with customers. If you think that the connection is only essential after someone has become your customer, it’s totally wrong. Take a website or an app as an example: you want it to be functional and pretty at the same time (custom UX/UI design) to attract visitors to your web product and deliver a specific public image. It’s critical to show the human side of your business that will help you get closer to your customers.

Think of the situation when you can talk with your customers like you are talking to your friends. A connection needs to be built between you and your potential customers to make them become more involved in what you say. You can gradually come closer to your prospects by inquiring more about their hobbies and interests.

Make sure you are hitting the spot as it would help you create an emotional connection between your business and your prospects. In the long run, it will help in building brand loyalty that solidifies a long-term connection with your customers.

Here are some tips to connect with your audience:

• Be empathetic and show that you care about your audience
• Be genuinely interested in what your audience is saying
• Build your self-confident
• Make sure the conversation you have with your audience is two-way street

7. Reach prospects via different communication channels

Your prospects can be everywhere online today, so proactively reach them through different channels to grab the high chance to get customer attention. In other words, you will leverage omnichannel marketing to get customer attention.

If you want to know which channel is the most effective option for your business, test them out to choose the best. According to a study by Small Business Trends, the list of marketing channels you can use to attract customers are up to 50 options. You can use traditional channels such as TV ads, Newspaper ads, radio ads, flyers, public speaking, billboard advertising, or digital marketing channels such as Google Ads, social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, etc.).

Social media is essential today, so don’t forget to create an excellent online presence for your business on the social media platforms that your customers are most active. Using different social media channels is giving customers more choice to reach you in a user-friendly way that would be convenient for them.

For example, if your audience is the most of Gen Z - the most powerful generation on social media. Therefore, you have multiple opportunities to test different platforms, from Facebook, Instagram, to Twitter, because they have a “home” on all of these platforms.

An example: Nike - Gather customers’ attention across social media platforms.

The brands also execute many different viral campaigns on Facebook or Youtube in different forms of content. Nike is really successful in touching people’s hearts and making them become the hero in the story.

Here’s the “You Can’t Stop Us” campaign on Youtube from Nike:

8. Inform customers about vital information

What really makes you different from others or what’s the secret you want to share with your customers to make their life better? Share with them if you already have answers to these questions. This information should be what they want to hear most and what makes them immediately want to open the door to your business.

The risk of doing this is that your competitors might discover you and copy your work. But sometimes, you need to take the risk to gain a competitive advantage in the market and get customer attention.

9. Don’t copy others, be unique

Remember that your potential customers are too fed up with the flood of information they come across every day in their newsfeeds, so be unique to bring fresh air to your potential customers.

If your competitors did well with their marketing strategy, you could learn from them to create a successful one for your business. But don’t copy them. Your uniqueness is the most important way to attract your potential customers.

Choose your own voice and create your own inimitable and add reputation to your brand by consistently using this tone of voice. Don’t be afraid to let the “real you” shine.

Uber is an excellent example of the uniqueness in what they deliver to their customers. The Uber brand voice is considerate, simple, bold, and consistent. It expresses exactly what the brand is and what it stands for.

An ideal example of Uber. They create their own tone of voice and consistently use it for any content or information they deliver to the customers.

10. Be enthusiastic to get attention

You will get customer attention if you pay attention to their problems. So don’t stop if you haven’t got a “like” from your prospects. It may take time. But if you give your potential customers dedicated attention, it’s more likely that they will, in turn, give you more attention you want.

Communication is of the utmost importance to get customer attention. So if you are not excited about your products, service, and messages you convey, how can you expect others to give their attention? Express that you are always willing to listen to their concerns and have solutions to deal with.

Useful tricks from experts to get of customer attention

Tell a compelling story brand

Storytelling is an art to attract customers.

Because it connects people and gets people engaged and interested.

Whether you are selling cars, training tools, or clothes, storytelling can bring your business alive.

A compelling story will keep your audience engaged and marks your brand in their minds more vividly. When done right, a story will help you win customer attention and keep them coming back.

There are some techniques to help you become a good storyteller.

• Personalize your story
• Study your audience
• Keep your stories short
• Keep your stories character-centered
• Keep your stories visual
• Say the truth
• Put emotional factors in your story

An example of genius brand storytelling is MouthFoods. The company tells its brand story through indie creators of everything from artisanal chocolates and hand-made cookies, to candy with the combination of hand-roasted peanuts, silky dark chocolate, and a sprinkling of sea salt.

The company sells these products as gift packages and subscriptions on their eCommerce site. By posting personal stories of the small businesses, Mouth Foods adds more value to what they sell.

Leverage content marketing

Content marketing is a powerful marketing channel that you can use to attract potential customers. Content is about creativity, so you can use content marketing in different creative ways to make it work for your business.

1. Create a viral content strategy

The best way to earn customer attention is by making something viral.

So what makes things go viral while others not? Jonah Berger, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School indicated that practical content that evokes high arousal emotions gets shared most. If you are using social media, you will know the fact that people will be more likely to share the content that entertains them and make them laugh.

However, keep in mind that the value you provide to your customers is the most important.

2. Use snackable content

Snackable content is straightforward, short-form, and easily digestible content. It tends to be visually engaging, can be posted consistently, and easy for customers to share, especially on social media.

Snackable content is usually used to offer immediate entertainment, enrichment, prompt social interaction, and of course, attract new customers. So if done right, it can help you get tons of customer attention.

3. Use memes in content

This is a trick that you can use to attract people to what you post on social media. Memes that create a sense of humor will make people more engaged and there’s a high chance that they will share your content. One thing to keep in mind is that the memes you use are suitable for the messages you are going to deliver and not offensive to the audience.

4. Create interactive content

Interactive content is the content where the audience actively participates instead of just passively reading, watching, or listening. This kind of content is more likely to be noticed by the audience because the feeling of being involved in the content stimulates them to become a part of it.

5. Follow a trend

You should check out a trend or hot topic that people are viral on the Internet and can be applied to what you are talking about. This content is not just sharable, but also easy to attract customer attention because it relates to what they are already talking about.

Brand out with influencers

Influencer marketing is developing stronger than ever across social media platforms. It is a great way to get customer attention. By collaborating with well-known industry influencers, you can effectively notice people and increase their awareness of your brand.

You should choose the influencers that have followers who match your target audience and can bring your brand to more audiences. Instagram is one of the most important and impactful channels for influencers, where ⅔ of marketers spend the most money on Instagram for influencer marketing.

The bottom line

In today’s information age, there is no doubt that getting customer attention is more and more challenging for every business. One of the easiest ways to be successful is to stand out from the crowd by making your messages exciting, fresh, and relevant. This article has covered the best practices to get customer attention that actually works for many brands. Try them on to see if they work for your business and share with us your success. Thanks for reading!