Attention! The Most Important Strategy for Podcasters and Marketers

Even though Ron Burgundy is kind of a big deal, he is always desperate for attention. Ron Burgundy is all of us. 
Whether you’re a marketer, a production company, a content creator, a politician, or pretty much anyone else… we all want more attention. And if we want more attention, we need an Attention Strategy™. (No, that is not a real trademark. Yes, it IS a real strategy.) 

Why? Here is a very obvious but blunt truth:

If we don’t have attention, we have nothing. There are no ears listening. There are no eyeballs watching or reading. There is zero consumption. We’re not getting anyone’s time, which means that we’re also not getting anyone’s money. 

So whatever we have made that is getting little to no attention is now also a huge waste of our own time and money.

Why You Need An Attention Strategy™

I believe attention is the most valuable commodity on the planet. It’s becoming increasingly harder and harder to get, and those who figure out how to get it reap all the rewards. 

Why is it so hard to get attention? As individuals, our attention is the limited resource we try to protect the most. We are bombarded with thousands and thousands of attempts to interrupt, steal, capture, hijack, or buy our attention every single day. And yet we ignore almost all of them. If fact, many of the attempts to get our attention, instead of earning it, make us annoyed and angry. 

A bad problem is now getting much worse. Thanks to the proliferation of AI-generated content, there is exponentially more mediocrity flooding the internet in an attempt to get our attention. There have never been so many choices, and there has never been a higher percentage of those choices that are absolute crap.

As a result, we have been trained to shore up our attention-defences. We have built Attention Fortresses™. We keep building bigger walls and wider moats. We’ve become more and more selective about who or what we allow to access our precious time and attention.

Whether it’s installing ad-blockers, paying for streaming services without ads, or quitting shows and books as soon as they become too long or too boring, we are all fighting to preserve our attention for things that are truly worth it. And that makes it very hard to be a marketer, podcaster, filmmaker, musician, TikToker, writer, or anyone else reliant on attention for success.

What Are Your Filters and Standards?

Think about your own life as a consumer of podcasts, videos, newsletters, movies, social media, etc.

How long are you willing to spend on something that is average or conventional?
When something isn’t very good, how quickly do you bail and search for something better?
How long do you spend searching for something on Netflix because you want something great and not something meh?

When you have infinite choice at your fingertips, you no longer have to settle for anything other than “awesome.” None of us wants to waste our finite time. We know that in this infinite sea of mediocrity, great stuff exists and it’s worth the effort to find it. Our quality filters and standards have never been higher.

How good are you at sniffing out mediocrity and avoiding it? How good are you at sensing desperation from a marketer? How good are you at intuitively knowing that an attempt to get your attention is transactional and shallow? 

I bet, like most of us, you are a world-class expert. And, of course, if you are a world-class expert, you should assume everyone else is, too. 

So what are marketers and content creators to do?

How to Gain Entrance to the Attention Fortess™

Here is another obvious and blunt truth: the most valuable attention is earned. If we want to succeed, we have to make something worth people’s time and attention. We have to create things that are valuable to the people we are seeking to reach. 

If consumers have high standards, those of us creating content and marketing also need to have incredibly high standards. If we don’t, we get no attention, and again… we have nothing.

People will give all sorts of time and attention to things they value, things they love, and things that unexpectedly and pleasantly surprise them. And, even better, when you unexpectedly surprise people with things they value and love, it’s good for us and our businesses.

So it’s obvious what we have to do:

We have to earn attention by creating value for the people we want to reach. 

It’s not necessarily obvious how to go about doing it successfully.

Earn It: Attention Strategies for Brand Podcast Success Webinar

I’ve spent my entire career learning and studying how to earn attention with creativity. From co-founding and running the Pacific Content branded podcast company to working in children’s television, and from running a digital audio innovation lab at a public broadcaster (my first podcast was in 2005!) to producing live television on MuchMusic (the Canadian equivalent of MTV), I’ve learned a lot.

I’ve spent the last couple of years coalescing all the most important and effective strategies and tactics I’ve learned into a new book called Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers.

The subtitle is important: these are not conventional ideas. Many of the ideas are the exact opposite of the status quo.

On September 18th 2024, Steve shared several of his favourite unconventional ideas in a live webinar in partnership with the team at Lower Street and Pacific Content. 

If you want to catch our future events, check out our Lower Street Event page.