How to Attract Your Customers’ Attention

Today people are loaded with tons of information. So we be selective with our attention, and focus on one thing while ignoring the others. Our eyes can see everything around us, but only a small part of what we see really gets our attention Historically humans learned to quickly identify only critical signals from the environment to make decisions, either to attack or run. Otherwise, we would not have survived as a species. These mechanisms remained almost unchanged in a modern world too, the inherited memory is still strong e.g. today cars are a bigger threat to people’s lives than animals. But our brain will notice a moving animal faster than a moving car. That’s because our ancestors used to notice animals immediately as fauna was not only the source of food but could also be life-threatening.

To make people choose your dealership among the thousands of others you can use visual signals and stimuli in your marketing strategy. So what will definitely draw users’ attention to your ads?

• People. You can easily attract customers’ attention with static images of people. Such images are a social signal that catches the eye. When we see different parts of the human body, different areas of our brain get activated.
  • Face. We notice expressions of emotions much faster than any other changes in appearance. We also perceive symmetric traits better, because our mind searches for basic geometric patterns on any face. So pay attention to the emotions and facial expressions that you want to convey as a message to your customers.
  • Body. Just like faces, human bodies attract more attention with their geometric proportions. Use a standard formula “body + face” and position it naturally to catch a user’s eye.
  • Body parts. Our brain perceives body parts differently. Use specific body parts to induce certain emotions, e.g. thumb up or down to show you like or dislike something depicted, index finder to point something out, etc.




• Hints to apply. There are 5 types of specific signals:
  • A gaze. We have developed the habit of looking into a person’s eyes during conversation. As they say eyes are windows to the soul.. We automatically follow a person’s gaze to see what he/she is looking at. So we will look at the direction of a person’s eyes in the ad.
  • Head and body position. If we can’t see what a person is looking at, we focus on the positions of the head and body. So if you use this in your ads, try to give your viewers as many clues as possible.
  • Pointing. When someone points at something it captures the overall attention immediately. The most important pointing signal is the direction of the forefinger. It “orders” us to look in a specific direction. So if you want to get the maximum attention to your ad use this tip.
  • Arrows. Arrows also immediately grab our attention and give directions of where to look at. You can use them to point at CTA buttons.




• Self-relevance. Surely there were cases when you were talking to someone and then suddenly you heard your name. And after that your attention had shifted to the people around. This is the power of self-relevance that is based on factors from outside. To attract a customers’ attention you can use such methods as name, face and mental interaction.
  • Name. When a person hears his/her name his attention is grabed immediately. It affects not only auditory stimuli. We experience the same effect when we see our written names. That’s why you need to use personalized newsletters.
  • Face. Our brain has developed mechanisms to immediately identify our own face in any photos. You may have noticed that the social networks that give you the ability to upload your photo to a profile seem more convenient, user-friendly and pleasant to use. If you have a registration form on your dealer website let your users add profile pictures. By this you will make your site more attractive for customers.
  • Mental interaction. People often buy things when they can imagine how they will use it, so-called mental interaction, e.g. truck drivers buy particular makes and models when they see themselves sitting at the wheel, starting up the ignition, looking ahead on the road, etc. Mentally they get connected with the trucks. So to create a mental interaction between your vehicles and your customers provide high quality photos and creative videos. Make your buyers see themselves in your vehicles.




• Animals. Сharming cats, kittens, puppies, etc. are overflowing online. The secret to it is very simple: our ancestors needed the skill to catch the sight of animals immediately, especially predators.. If you don’t want to place cute cats and dogs in your ads provide images of other animals, e.g. horses.

Here we have described some “human” and “animal” factors that influence our brain and make us pay attention to particular visuals we see. Follow our upcoming posts to learn more details about stimuli that make people behave in certain ways and to motivate more customers.