20 techniques to attract the customer's attention

The most common marketing formulas are: AIDA (emotional) and ACCA (rational). Despite the differences, they are united by the same first stage — Attention. And indeed, if we fail to attract the customer's attention, then further efforts simply lose their meaning — there will simply be no one to evaluate the selling triggers and succumb to the charm of conceptual fonts. Today's article is dedicated to techniques that will help to fix the eyes of your target audience to the screen.

We have identified 20 ways to attract the customer's attention. They are based both on the peculiarities of human thinking and on the primitive instincts preserved in modern people.

1. Dynamics — The human brain has been paying special attention to moving objects since prehistoric times. Hunting for a mammoth and hiding from a saber-toothed tiger required an instant response to any movement. And although we moved from cold caves to cozy offices, the reflexes remained. It is worth moving something against a static background, as the prehistoric hunter inside us thinks: "What if something edible runs past us!". It is on this principle that the action of dynamic banners on the Internet is based.

1. Contrast — what stands out against the general background, a priori arouses interest. Contrast can be expressed in a variety of ways: graphic, verbal, semantic. Therefore, when thinking about what kind of advertising attracts the attention of customers, it is important first of all to stand out from the nearest competitors.

1. Emotionality — especially danger and pleasure. The parts of our brain responsible for instincts are much older and faster than the prefrontal cortex, which determines willpower. Therefore, a colorful photo of ice cream necessarily activates the corresponding centers in the consumer's brain. As, however, is the image of a tarantula approaching us.

1. The use of original frames — advertisements highlighted with a frame are striking. The principle has been used since the 19th century. This is still well understood by the administrators of online bulletin boards offering such allocation for a fee.

1. An illustration with a signature — another classic of advertising, a signed image arouses interest. Therefore, the caption under the image should be taken seriously. It should contain a selling message or attract further familiarization with advertising.

1. Animals — since our ancestors lived in a world populated by dangerous animals, images of animals also attract our attention. In addition, the distinctive features of an animal can help express the nature of the product. So, a cute fluffy bunny is suitable for advertising a blanket, and a cheetah or jaguar is suitable for a sports car.

1. Catchy words — they also help to attract the user's attention. There are a lot of such magnet words: "sex", "free", "money", "new", "cheap", "practical", etc. Some of them have lost their former power (for example, "sensation"), while others retain their original power. It is only important to understand that these words really should reflect the quality of the product, otherwise the consumer will be deceived.
2. Children — their images in advertising exploit the parental instinct, forcing them to keep an eye on the baby, who may inadvertently harm himself. World-famous brands have a number of successful advertisements based on this principle. You can read more about this here.

1. Location in the upper left part of the screen — in our culture, people read from right to left. Therefore, the advertisement located in the upper left corner attracts attention. And the user may simply not get to other advertising messages by clicking on the ad or the title in the search results.
2. Color — colorful advertising always attracts the customer's attention better than black and white. This is one of the reasons for using emojis in snippets of websites. At the same time, it should be remembered that for premium brands, "motley" advertising is unacceptable, as a result, other ways should be sought to attract the attention of the client.

1. Vertical arrangement — a vertical rectangle, according to research, is better perceived by our brain. At the same time, one should not go to extremes. If the logic of the situation requires a traditional, horizontal placement, so be it.

1. Price indication — the very fact that there is a price in advertising increases interest in it. This is due to the natural curiosity of most people: "What about that?".

1. Using stickers — as in an offline store, wobblers and shelf stockers are used to attract the customer's attention to the goods on the shelf, so stickers are used on the Internet for these purposes. These are flags / labels / marks "Hit", "New", etc. There are two rules to follow when working with them: 1. there should not be too many of them, 2. they should be catchy and bright.

1. Incentive signals — for example, arrows. This primitive, at first glance, method, in fact, often turns out to be the most effective. However, you should not limit yourself to the classic red arrows. There are many other ways to attract the reader's gaze. Among them we can mention: the look of the model, the orientation of her head, direct finger pointing, the location of the body, as well as directed words.

1. Negativity — evolution has built our brain in such a way that we recognize negative information faster. The only difficulty here is redirecting this negativity to another channel so that it does not get involved with the advertised product or company at the level of associations.

1. Taboo — a message about any "forbidden" activates the consumer's attention. However, if we are talking about a premium product, then you need to be careful with this technique. Many advertisers believe that it is "cheap".

1. Novelty — most people want to be "on trend". This explains why the banal "New" sticker still works. At the same time, you can find extraordinary ways to activate the novelty trigger. By the way, ads like "2022 Innovation" are also based on this trigger, although they do not contain the word "new".

1. Faces — due to the fact that a person is a social being, people's faces immediately attract our attention. In the human brain there is even a special department responsible for face recognition — a special area on the surface of the fusiform gyrus. People's faces attract the eye. Any professional advertiser knows this.

1. Party effect — even in a room filled with people talking noisily on various topics, you will hear an appeal to you by name. That is why popular names and direct designations of target groups are often used in advertising. This also helps to attract the user.

1. Surprise — shocking and discouraging information motivates us to further familiarize ourselves with it. The pitfall is that it is easy to slip into "yellowness", unacceptable when selling expensive goods. Remember the pop-up teaser ads saying "Shock!", "Sensation!", which are packed with sites from not the first league.

Attracting the client's attention is an important task. However, the marketing does not end there. To treat advertising as a simple "barker" created on a whim means to lag behind modernity. Advertising efforts should be included in a coherent and multifaceted marketing system. And the answer to the question of which advertisement attracts the attention of your target audience should be sought based on a thorough marketing analysis. Only then will you be able to convert the attention of your potential customers into profit with enviable stability.