• What captures your attention? A pretty face? A televised car chase? The smell of cookies wafting through the room?

    What holds your attention? Satellite images of a hurricane bearing down on your town? A cancer diagnosis? Watching your children play on a lazy Sunday?

    We soon realize that the things that capture our attention are often not enough to hold our attention.

    Capturing attention is far easier than holding attention.

    Getting attention the wrong way is even easier: Just yell “Fire!” and someone will look your way. But that won’t do you any good if you want to hold their attention in the future, especially if there is no fire nearby.blog_9.5.07.gif

    Attention-driven advertisements can make you look, but they won’t necessarily make you buy. Just ask the companies that gamble each year on Super Bowl TV ads. Often we remember the advertisement, but we can’t remember the product being pitched.

    Yet the attention is addicting, and companies spend millions of dollars on the lure of Super Bowl ads – in part because of the “free media” attention those ads are sure to attract.

    No purchases are guaranteed, but the attention the ads will receive is enough for many.

    Attention is the catalyst that makes future purchases possible. Without it, there is no hope.

    That’s why attention drives our economy.

    In the Attention Age, “interesting” is not enough. Valuable information must be exciting, fun, immediate, compelling, useful, and relevant.

    In order for your message to receive attention, it first must be interesting enough to warrant attention. And once you realize it is interesting, it had better be something more.

    blog_2_9.5.07.gifThe secret to holding attention is to make the message appealing to your target audience. Make the “story” personal.  It’s the personal story that carries the greatest impact.

    A hurricane could hurt YOUR family, YOUR neighbors, and YOUR friends. A cancer diagnosis affects YOU and YOUR loved ones. YOU have an emotional investment in YOUR children. Anything that affects them matters to YOU.

    The message that draws our attention must have a direct emotional connection to our lives, or our attention just won’t last.

    I know what you’re thinking. “Paris Hilton gets a lot of attention, and she has nothing to do with me?” She doesn’t? Then why are you watching? Why do you care? How did she get into your head, and more importantly, who is allowing her to stay there?

    There’s something going on here. You just may not want to admit it.

    Successful communication hits its mark when it involves the target. Communication must be about the audience, not about you, your company or your product. People pay attention to what affects their lives, not your own.

    If you can convey your message in a way that tailors information to the emotional needs of your audience, you will get their attention and succeed in the Attention Age.

    Consider Starbucks. They didn’t invent coffee; they just made coffee culture “cool.”

    starbucks_logo.gifStarbucks founder Howard Shultz doesn’t want people to enjoy his coffee. He wants them to experience coffee culture – the sights, the smells, the sounds, the ambiance and the emotions that come with the Starbucks coffee experience.

    Shultz envisioned Starbucks as a “people place,” not as a coffee shop. It’s a place where we can go for coffee where “tall” means “small,” where “grande” means “medium” and “venti” means “large.” There is a coolness to the lexicon that lets us feel like we are members of a club, with club locations seemingly on every city street corner.

    It’s a marketing paradox: An “exclusive” club where everyone is welcome.

    Starbucks captures our attention and holds it whether we drink coffee or not. Customers may learn to like – even love – the beverage, but they come back to Starbucks for the culture. It’s an Attention Age success story.

    apple_logo.gifApple is another successful attention-getter with a passionate following. Apple has what I like to call the “T-shirt factor.” People are so enthusiastic about the company and its products that they want to put the Apple logo on their T-shirts, their computers, their cars … you name it. It’s a brand that invokes loyalty and action because Apple makes their consumers feel like part of a winning team.

    Think about it: Have you ever been around an Apple enthusiast for five minutes without hearing them mention that they are, indeed, an Apple enthusiast?

    There’s a consistent message coming through that iPod: It’s passion, and it gets our attention.

    The most successful companies, like Starbucks and Apple, develop an innovative culture that serves as a basis for a real connection with consumers. The company, its products and people become an attention conduit for clients and consumers. Attention is served over and over again to great success.

    Online entrepreneurs can do it, too.

    How can you develop your own Starbucks experience with your online business? How can you replicate the passion of Apple’s fan base?

    If 100,000 potential customers were brought to the “doorstep” of your Web site – right now – how would you capture and hold their attention?

    Let me know. Pour yourself a venti, fire up the Mac.

    Show me how it’s done.

    Share your thoughts with my blog readers. You have their attention.

    Consider this your challenge to keep it.

    Post your comment here (one attention grabbing web link allowed)