The Evolution of Marketing: Earning Deeper Engagement Through Content

I had a chance to chat with one of our partners and customers, Rich Walsh, over at Growth Operations Firm. Net-net, marketing is undergoing a profound transformation (duh, Nick). The traditional focus on lead generation is giving way to a more nuanced approach centered on capturing and maintaining audience attention.

Attention.

Recent studies highlight that audience engagement is becoming a critical metric for marketing success. For instance, research published in the Journal of Marketing Research indicates that engaging content is more likely to result in customer loyalty and long-term brand relationships (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016).

We all know this. Like, whether you read that nerdy study or not, you know that to be true. But we're kinda still producing SEO-centered content at scale and it has NOTHING to do with engagement or building affinity.

As Rich from Growth succinctly put it, "We're attention generators. We're not lead generators anymore." This shift reflects a fundamental change in how businesses approach their marketing strategies, recognizing that in an oversaturated market, attention is the new currency.

The Attention Economy: A New Paradigm

In our information-saturated environment, the true challenge for marketers lies in engaging prospects meaningfully over time. The American Psychological Association reports that the average attention span has decreased significantly in the digital age, emphasizing the need for marketers to create compelling and captivating content (Wilson & Kellerman, 2018).

Your TOFU blog post on "10 things you should do if you've never done your job before" is not that.

This reality is evident in the day-to-day experiences of marketers themselves. Rich is going to maybe kill me for this, but case in point during our call... He started kinda looking off to the side and bit and then said, "I go back, and I look at my recordings, and I apologize because I'm looking off to the side because other shit is occupying my time." This anecdote underscores the constant battle for attention that marketers face.

You gotta add serious value. Help people with their Jobs To Be Done. Like... REALLY help them.

The Content Engagement Funnel: A Gradual Approach

To address the challenges of the attention economy, Rich and I talked about an evolving opportunity to take a gradual approach to content delivery. This idea involves starting with easily digestible content and progressively introducing more in-depth material based on the depth of engagement (or lack thereof). Research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology supports this approach, showing that a gradual increase in content complexity can enhance user engagement and information retention (Klein & Melnyk, 2020).

I'm a clown , so I'll quote myself from this call: "Email one is like maybe a mini course to your point, or a blog post, or something like quick, short, fast consumption. We know that this format moves fast, right? And it's a low ask." This strategy respects the audience's time and attention, gradually building trust and interest.

Personalizing the Content Journey

An article from the Harvard Business Review emphasizes the importance of personalization in content marketing, suggesting that personalized content can significantly increase engagement and conversion rates (Ariker, Diaz, & Weninger, 2019).

This isn't news.

Innovative marketers are exploring ways to make every interaction count.

Because your job in the first touch is to generate some kind of engagement. Just a little. Not an hour long webinar engagement. Just a click and a quick read/watch. And every time you send content, the more uniquely targeted it is to the recipient, the more likely you've generated that attention which earns you the opportunity to earn even deeper attention in the next touch.

And, you know, ATC is here to help by automating recommendations of all your different content formats to every single contact (had to fit that in).

The Role of Different Content Formats

To the above...Different content formats serve various purposes in the engagement journey. Research published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing shows that utilizing diverse content formats can cater to different audience preferences and increase overall engagement (Grewal, Bart, Spann, & Zubcsek, 2016).

But it isn't just about creating content in varied formats to serve varied customer preferences.

It's about those formats being tailored to the depth of attention you've earned.

This is really pretty intuitive. If your first content ask of someone is to listen to a 45 minute podcast, your likelihood of success is low. And if what you're asking people to engage with isn't relevant to them, again, your engagement is going to be low.

The goal is to create content that delivers on the interests of your audience AND is built to meet them at their current level of attention with you. If I know Rich is super into HubSpot and ABM, but he hasn't heard of Air Traffic Control before, it's best we target a great piece of thought leadership content to him on LinkedIn. Given that he's a customer and partner, we have a reasonable chance of getting him to consume an entire podcast relevant to those issues. Like this one.

Building a Content Strategy for Deeper Engagement

Creating a cohesive content strategy involves planning a series of interconnected content pieces that guide the prospect through a narrative journey. According to a study in the Journal of Marketing, a well-structured content strategy can create a more immersive and engaging user experience, leading to higher conversion rates (Pulizzi & Barrett, 2009).

Rich describes one creative approach to content strategy as a "Telenovela sequence": "So you've got to get the moments where you know where the look happens and where the drama occurs, and where the climax. And so each stage of the funnel is part of the episode." This approach turns content marketing into a compelling narrative, keeping the audience engaged throughout their journey.

Measuring and Optimizing Content Engagement

To refine and improve content strategies, it's crucial to track how prospects interact with personalized content. The Journal of Interactive Marketing suggests that utilizing advanced analytics and machine learning can provide deeper insights into content performance and user behavior (De Vries, Gensler, & Leeflang, 2012).

That study is 12 years old, but, I gotta be honest, measurement on content's impact is still so, so weak. Marketers, at best, are deploying multi-touch attribution. But that's about campaigns, not content. So we've built a model to attribute every content item with an influenced revenue number.

Content isn't deployed in a single way in a single campaign, so it needs to be evaluated a bit differently.

Conclusion

The future of marketing lies in creating meaningful, personalized content experiences that capture attention and foster deeper engagement over time. As research from the Journal of Consumer Research indicates, personalized and engaging content can lead to stronger emotional connections with your audience and higher levels of brand loyalty (Schmitt, 2019).

I think the mechanics of campaigns still matter. But building the mechanics around qualifying whether or not you're in a position to ask for more time is a very different approach than treating every click the same. This shift from simply delivering content to earning the right to engage more deeply with an audience represents the core of modern content marketing.

As we move forward, the most successful marketers will be those who can navigate this new landscape, creating content that not only informs and entertains but also builds lasting relationships with their audience. By focusing on engagement, personalization, and strategic content delivery, businesses can thrive in the attention economy and build stronger, more loyal customer bases.

References

Ariker, M., Diaz, A., & Weninger, R. (2019). Personalization at scale: The next big marketing shift. Harvard Business Review.

De Vries, L., Gensler, S., & Leeflang, P. S. H. (2012). Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2), 83-91.

Grewal, D., Bart, Y., Spann, M., & Zubcsek, P. P. (2016). Mobile advertising: A framework and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(4), 657-675.

Klein, K., & Melnyk, V. (2020). Gradual content complexity and user engagement. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(4), 640-651.

Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96.

Pulizzi, J., & Barrett, N. (2009). Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 73(5), 67-80.

Rust, R. T., & Huang, M.-H. (2021). The AI revolution in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 85(1), 24-42.

Schmitt, B. (2019). From atoms to bits and back: A research curation on digital technology and agenda for future research. Journal of Consumer Research, 46(1), 1-11.

Wilson, T. D., & Kellerman, K. (2018). The information-saturated brain: Attention deficit and hyperactivity. American Psychological Association.