Profitable Attention : Getting The Right Eyeballs

Getting, Holding and Engaging the Attention of your visitors is most critical part of doing business on the web.

When I was working with Dr. Kowalick in the area of advertising optimization, a strange thing occurred. We took our focus away from the testing mechanics themselves. Meaning, we took our attention away from the tools, arrays and the math and simplified our scope of work toward the design of the experiments and design of the inputs.

Input Design Overview

The design of the inputs is the most important part of the entire experiment. This was the primary reason that some students get 5% increases and others get 200% increases.

It is not the headline itself. It is the design of the headline.

It is not the images themselves. It is the design of the images.

Yes it is about design.

As an engineer, I understand design. Poor designs fail in the marketplace. Great designs are considered innovations. 

The questions became – What are the proper inputs for this experiment so that right people (buyers) see (give attention to) and respond (act) to this ad. Eyeballs folks. Eyeballs.

Many of you have heard me say that I don’t even want you to see my pay per click ads unless you are ready, willing and able to buy now. That ready, willing and able is from my sales days. If I was going to drive 2 hours for an appointment, a sale had better be on the other side.

Anyway, we found that all attention is not good attention. Which on the web translates to “all traffic is not good traffic”.

Too many times, I have spoken to business owners that will state that they are getting a ton of traffic, but it is not converting.

What does that statement tell you?

Well for starters: You are not giving the visitors anything to hold on to. No hook that will stop them from bouncing in and around your site and get them to focus on your offer and what your product/service will mean for their future. You are not getting and directing their attention.

As I was doing research, I ran into this most interesting article about the Attention Economy written my Thomas Davenport and John Beck (2001) on a site called

www.readwriteweb.com

The specific post/article is The Attention Economy: An Overview.

Again, great volumes of traffic with no results is not a good way to run a business.

• Getting traffic is critical.
• Getting the right traffic and getting them to respond is an art unto itself.

I think if you read this post with the question in mind you will look at your traffic in a different light:

• Am I getting, holding and engaging the attention of my prospect and customer base?
• What can I do to get the maximum benefit from the attention that I am getting from the marketplace?

It is all about the eyeballs.

David Bullock