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Key takeaways

How to use attention to drive your content strategy

In summary

If we’ve maintained your attention this long, then congratulations – you are living proof that all this psychology does in fact work!

Hopefully you’ve gained some new perspectives and insights you can take with you to improve whatever communications you are producing and using in your own business.

Because everyone loves a nice concise list:

#1 More attention means a healthier business:As Dentsu Aegis showed us, attention means real, sustained attention from our audiences and we should measure this in terms of active engagement time. And when we do this, we see a very simple equation emerge: more attention = higher propensity to buy.#2 Psychology is the key to understanding the science of attention:We looked at self-determination theory and the power of imagery, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. Psychology has a huge amount to teach us about the human brain, what makes us sit up and pay attention, and what sends us to sleep. By reading and understanding this research, we can gain a very unfair advanage over the competition.#3 We can get amazing results by applying these learnings:as shown in our study with Nielsen and Lumen Research, 10x improvements in attention are very achievable if we apply the science correctly. And remember, more attention = higher propensity to buy.

So, armed with these key takeaways, what should we do next?

Assess your current production practices –

Do you produce content with the intent to engage? Or is the form of your content an afterthought? Moving away from static, traditional methods can pay big engagement dividends.

Assess your current measurement practices –

Do you really measure attention, or do you use a low-resolution proxy like opens, clicks, or downloads? If so, you should consider how you can move to meaningful attention measures which correlate with the business outcomes you need.

Keep learning –

By reading this piece, you’re already 10x better informed than most practitioners, but there’s always more to learn. If you’re interested in the broad subject of attention, persuasion, and influence, you might enjoy our reading recommendations!