Wrangling the Attention Economy as a Small Business in Michigan

Michigan is teeming with small businesses, and in Midland, there’s a very direct approach to bolstering the outlook of entrepreneurs and new enterprises. In fact, Midland’s been hailed as a five-star “best practice” community for its work in supporting entrepreneurial endeavors. Perhaps, then, it isn’t a surprise that the state as a whole is home to and reliant on so many small businesses.

There are some 1.9m small business employees paid by the 902,000 small businesses dotted across the Wolverine State. This amounts to over 48 percent of the total workers and 99.6 percent of the total businesses. They’re crucial to the state economy, but in recent years, there’s been an ever-increasing need to adapt quickly. Much of this comes down to the rise of the “attention economy,” which now has to be taken into consideration.

Catching Customers’ Fleeting Attention

It’s a pretty sorry state of affairs that we’ve found ourselves in, but it’s undeniable how much influence small-screened devices and online platforms have over our everyday lives. After all, the average American spends over 4.5 hours on mobile devices every day. That’s over one-quarter of our waking hours. It’s changed how we behave, how we shop, how we interact, and created an attention economy based around grabbing us.

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This is why you’ll see news headlines that try to coax your interest rather than inform, and why social media platforms, with their short bursts of entertainment videos, become so dominant. Many of us are now keyed in to give our attention to the most attention-grabbing headlines and thumbnails, changing how businesses should try to reach us in these many, many hours of screen time.

While tapping into online ads and posting informative content continues to be a big driver, so too should be to come up with a unique selling point or angle of approach that befits the attention economy. As a prime example, many online gaming sites have adjusted to become 1 dollar deposit casinos. It’s an eye-catching promotion approach, bucking the norm of big welcome deposits while also offering more value from the lower initial deposit.

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Looking into What eCommerce Startups are Doing

Startups are always looking for ways to do things better, and often on a relatively small budget. It forces them to find novel ways of appealing to customers and, often, show angles that small businesses should explore to be at the forefront of new trends. In the attention economy, catching the eye, offering something for nothing, and having a slick website are all of paramount importance.

One approach seen on the website of StockX – a limited edition products storefront – is to have a little notifications bell. Customers are drawn to the bell symbol now, and when you go to StockX, you’ll see it with a little green dot, indicating that you have a notification. This is subtle but easily spotted and sits above the main header showing their special offers, like low seller fees.

In a similar approach, hair color specialist Madison Reed has a little price tag symbol in the same place – the top right of the page next to the basket symbol. Upon entry, this price tag symbol has a notification dot and a number in it, quickly communicating that you can get discounts there right now. For Varsity Tutors, the approach is to instead ask a question, offering two answers that then immediately have you engaging with the brand and site.

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The attention economy isn’t easy to wrangle, and the competition isn’t exactly bringing out the best of business, but there are some subtle ways to become much more eye-catching and appealing in the US market.