Quote from James A.Hart on July 16, 2025, 9:27 pm

In today’s digital landscape, attention is the first transaction that takes place between a business and its potential customers. Not the sale. Not the form submission. Not even the click. It’s the moment someone stops scrolling to look at your message — and that moment is earned through one skill above all:

The ability to hijack attention — and then earn the right to keep it.

Let’s break this down clearly.

You’re Not Competing With Competitors Anymore

Traditional marketers used to think they were battling other businesses in the same industry. That’s no longer the case.

You’re competing with:

• 6,000 Netflix titles
• 700,000 active podcasts
• 2 million blog posts
• 5 billion YouTube videos
• 42 browser tabs open on a user’s phone

And yes, you’re competing with dopamine hits from cat videos, TikToks, memes, and group chats. This is the new battlefield: a war for attention.

Marketing in the Chaos of the Internet

The modern internet is a blizzard of distraction. Users are bombarded with content that’s fun, funny, extreme, emotional, and personalized. They give you only seconds — sometimes milliseconds — to prove you’re worth their attention.

So what happens when your ad or landing page is “just okay”?

It dies. It gets scrolled past.
And that’s the most expensive part — because ad platforms charge you for impressions, not results.

Why “Being Loud” Is No Longer Optional

You can no longer afford to play it safe.

To hijack attention, your message must:

• Interrupt the user’s pattern of scrolling
• Stand out visually and emotionally
• Create instant curiosity or intrigue

This doesn’t mean being obnoxious or clickbait-y. It means being visibly different and psychologically relevant to your audience.

In other words, you don’t earn attention — you steal it.
And only after that do you earn the right to keep it.

The Real Job of a Marketer in 2025

It’s not enough to write good copy.
It’s not enough to run ads with clean designs.
It’s not enough to be “better” than competitors.

You must become a student of attention and psychology.

Ask yourself:

• What shows does my target audience watch?
• What podcasts do they listen to?
• What topics are they obsessed with right now?
• What emotions drive their behavior?

If you’re not tapped into their world, your marketing will feel irrelevant — even if it’s “technically good.”

From Hijack to Trust

Here’s the final piece: Getting attention is not the end goal.
Once you’ve hijacked it, you need to earn the right to keep it through value, clarity, and relevance.

This means your landing page, your sales message, your offer — they all must follow through on the curiosity you sparked. Otherwise, you’ll lose the lead as fast as you gained it.