The most valuable currency today is customers’ attention, according to Rick Bakas, founder, Bakas Media. During his keynote at Inbound Marketing Summit NY 2013 this morning, Bakas told attendees that they should aim for not just ROI, but also ROA: Return on Attention. “We need to build one-to-one relationships to cut through the clutter,” he said.
Bakas offered 5 tips for converting attention to intention:
1. Mobile first; desktop second. Marketers need to ask: How will our messages look on a mobile phone; how long will a video take to buffer on mobile? Designing for mobile first will deliver a better mobile and web experience, he said.
2. Have customers do a little to get a lot. “I call this the three taps or less mentality,” Bakas said. Most companies today do the opposite, asking customers for a lot, but not giving them much in return, he said. A good example of a company getting it right is Foursuqare: You check in—easy—and then you get a lot in the form of tips and offers, friends’ activities, etc.
3. Immediacy and intimacy. Marketers need to respect the intimacy that comes with mobile and the social web. Think of building customer relationships like dating. You have to build the relationship, and customer trust, over time.
4. Close the gap. Make your call to action truly actionable. That means make it easier to get to the transaction. Don’t, for example, use a QR code that takes customers to a site that’s not optimized for mobile. Increase sales by reducing effort. It’s not unrealistic to think that you can put a button on an app or a link in Twitter to click through to make a purchase, Bakas said, citing Cinsay SmartStore as an example: Its current mobile sales conversion rate is 10.2% and climbing.
5. Exponential traffic. There are myriad and growing channels that lead customers to companies’ websites. Three in mobile are delivering a completely new customer experience and have the potential to drive exponential traffic to your site, Bakas said. They are QR codes, SMS, and apps. Use them wisely, he said, referring to taking a “three taps or less” approach.
