How Can We Attract The Right Audience In Scale? - Jaffer Ali - MediaBizBloggers

quotHe is greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his ownquotHenry Ward Beecher Social reformer abolitionistI would like you to take a moment to read the title of this piece again How can we attract the right audience in scalePlease note that I did not ask How can we target the right audience The difference between attracting the right audience and targeting the right audience is profound And in my opinion our emphasis on targeting the audience versus attracting the audience is misplaced and illadvisedWhyIsn39t attraction the brand39s real job To entice lure persuade and dare I say it charm the audience You would never know this by reading our online media pundits They are too busy spreading the targeting meme to consider the notion that attracting is a more preferable discipline than targetingQuestion What is the first principle of attracting the right audienceAnswer Use content that engages them rather than repel them with advertisingThe answer is both simple and utterly profound To attract audiences in scale we simply must give them what they really want engaging content If you39re a marketer who believes that your audience wants more relevant ads I suggest you stop reading now because I have nothing to offer that will convince you otherwise But if you perceive a ring of truth to my words read onamp8230The only folks who want more ads are the vested interests the media and marketing folks who produce and sell them period They come armed with eversmaller peashooters to wage battle against an increasingly unassailable and impenetrable force of logic in an ondemand world nobody demands more adsIt39s simpleamp8230if you want to attract and deliver audiences in scale you need to use content that engages them not ads that repel them Audiences vote by choosing videos that they want to see by choosing articles that they want to read by choosing music that they want to hear Nobody chooses ads not even the folks who produce themA year ago clickthrough rates for banner ads averaged 3 Today that figure lies somewhere south of 1amp8230hardly an encouraging trend Meanwhile and in the absence of contentdriven alternatives search marketing continues to dominate One reason why search is so powerful is that the audience initiates the engagement But search speaks to existing intent It does not create new desires Search is not scalable and thus is not a good branding tool Content that taps shared sensibilities is a proven way to bridge the gap between brand and prospectContent acts as a selfqualifier as well because people are attracted to content that interests them But attracting the audience is just the first step in a threestep process It39s what you do with the audience once you39ve attracted them that really countsIt39s not just a matter of offering the right content to attract the right audience in the first place it39s a matter of bundling the right content with the right audience and delivering both to the right place the advertiser39s website That39s where the magic unfolds that39s where audience engagement occurs For the content to do its job it needs to be consumed on the advertiser39s website the only riskfree competitionfree branding environment available anywhereAttract Deliver EngageOnce the audience is delivered to an advertiser39s website the real work begins This is where agencies can earn their keep by developing ways to keep the audience engaged once they get them where they want them In fact the same consumer behavior that asserts itself in the first place now accrues to the exclusive benefit of the host advertiser and should compel that advertiser to capitalize on the opportunity by offering additional and deeper levels of brand engagementThe bottom line is clear You can39t engage prospects until you attract them and you can39t attract them with ads Content however is the great equalizer and the only way to engender big scale reach for big brand advertisers is to stop targeting consumers with hightech ammo and start attracting them instead with better baitJaffer Ali is the CEO of Vidsense wwwVidsensecom and can be reached at jalividsensecom Read all Jafferamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Jaffer Ali MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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How Can We Attract The Right Audience In Scale? - Jaffer Ali - MediaBizBloggers

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