{"id":73803,"date":"2025-02-07T14:21:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T14:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/marketing\/attention-and-relevance-are-different\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T14:21:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T14:21:47","slug":"attention-and-relevance-are-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=73803","title":{"rendered":"Attention and relevance are different"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Reader attention and reader relevance are often confused, which can result in bad decisions.<\/p>\n

Marketers, SEO consultants, writers, and others like discussing how to produce content that attracts attention.\u00a0 They promote \u201csecrets\u201d to grab the attention of readers, promising that organizations can control what people notice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The relevance of that content to readers is given far less attention than whether their content attracts attention.\u00a0 Ensuring relevance isn\u2019t about controlling readers but being responsible to them.<\/p>\n

Yet, in the minds of many content professionals, attention and relevance are synonymous.\u00a0 People will pay attention to content that\u2019s relevant to them, and relevant content will attract attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this relationship, while ideally<\/em> true, is more often untrue.<\/p>\n

Attention can be irrelevant<\/h2>\n

The fallacy of equating attention and relevance is evident when we consider how much attention is wasted on irrelevant content.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

People look through content that promises to be relevant but isn\u2019t. They overlook content they should notice but don\u2019t see or read. One manifestation of this phenomenon is known as the \u201cstreetlight effect<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

We need to dispel the myth that if people \u201cview\u201d or \u201cengage\u201d with content, it is necessarily relevant to them. Breaking these assumptions is challenging because the foundations of content analytics and measurements are predicated on these metrics. It\u2019s easy to measure clicks but harder to measure what people are thinking or wanting.<\/p>\n

Toward a taxonomy of relevance<\/h2>\n

Once we consider all the circumstances in which readers might view irrelevant content, we begin to see how uncommon relevant content is in practice.\u00a0 Sometimes, content is irrelevant to users unintentionally, but other times that irrelevance is intentional.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s enumerate different variations of content relevance:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Matched relevance<\/strong> is when the content matches what the reader needs at the time they are seeking it. It\u2019s great when we have this, but it is rarer than we think.<\/li>\n
  2. Misleading relevance<\/strong> is when the content suggests it will be about a topic relevant to the reader but is, in fact, about another topic. The content leads with something of interest but switches to the publisher\u2019s alternative agenda, often to sell you something you weren\u2019t looking to buy. Alternatively, the content might imply it is relevant to a certain reader but isn\u2019t. Headlines mentioning \u201cyou\u201d are notorious examples.\u00a0 Readers expect the content to be about \u201cme\u201d but find it isn\u2019t.<\/li>\n
  3. Spurious relevance<\/strong> is when content isn\u2019t about what it purports to be. Much content represents itself as objective but reflects the bias of its publisher, who is selective in the information they highlight or downplays their role in commissioning content developed by others. Content cloaking occurs with misleading product demos, testimonials, and vagueness in claims.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  4. Overgeneralized relevance<\/strong> occurs when the content is so broad that the reader has difficulty seeing what specifically they need to know and consider. Content that promises to offer \u201ceverything you need to know\u201d is a prime example of this genre, but it\u2019s prevalent in content that makes less sweeping claims, such as user manuals.<\/li>\n
  5. Hidden relevance<\/strong> is when something that would be relevant to the reader is buried in the content to obscure finding it. This situation arises through poor content planning, such as mixing too many topics in a single item or trying to address audiences with divergent interests.\u00a0 In addition to confusion arising from poor execution, sometimes relevance is intentional.\u00a0 Organizations like to bury bad news.\u00a0 They will invite customers to read their updated terms and conditions but make it difficult to see what has changed that could impact the customer.\u00a0<\/li>\n
  6. Mistimed relevance<\/strong> happens when content is provided too early to be relevant because the reader isn\u2019t considering the topic or isn\u2019t ready to make a decision.\u00a0 Alternatively, the content may be communicated after it is immediately useful. Organizations offer \u201cmore of the same\u201d information because a customer has previously made a similar one-off decision.\u00a0 While mistimed relevance generally leads to attention avoidance, it sometimes sparks confusion concerning the referent, such as an email \u201cconcerning your recent purchase\u201d that\u2019s actually a pitch to get you to buy more.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Noisy attention-mongering triggers wariness<\/h2>\n

    Attention is squandered when relevance isn\u2019t established. Customers become cynical and don\u2019t take statements at face value.<\/p>\n

    The relevance of content depends on the trust it elicits.<\/p>\n

    \u2013Michael Andrews<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Reader attention and reader relevance are often confused, which can result in bad decisions. Marketers, SEO consultants, writers, and others like discussing how to produce content that attracts attention.\u00a0 They promote \u201csecrets\u201d to grab the attention of readers, promising that organizations can control what people notice.\u00a0\u00a0 The relevance of that content to readers is given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[8623,28337],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-73803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","tag-attention","tag-relevance"],"yoast_head":"\nAttention and relevance are different - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=73803\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Attention and relevance are different - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reader attention and reader relevance are often confused, which can result in bad decisions. 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