Kelford Labs Daily: The most important part first
The most important thing is attention.
“People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull. You know that great things are about to happen, but the viewer doesn’t. She will never know; she has gone to the bathroom.”
— David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising
The most fundamental component of marketing is attention.
If you don’t have the attention of your audience, nothing else can happen. We can’t demonstrate our value if there’s no one watching or listening (except to ourselves).
But that doesn’t mean we should be annoying, cloying, or simply loud in our marketing.
It means that we should start talking about the important parts first. So our ideal audience can see that we have something to offer them in particular. It means we don’t waste their time with what we want to talk about—we start with what they want to hear about.
So when you go to make your next piece of marketing—maybe that’s a LinkedIn post, a search ad, or a short-form video—think about whether your last line should actually be your first.
It’s possible—perhaps even likely—that you’ve saved the most important bit for the end. But, chances are, your audience will have moved on before they get to that critical line.
So don’t save the best part for the end–put it right up front.
Because the most fundamental component of marketing is attention.
