Time and again, I see marketers and sales teams fall into the trap of chasing after someone’s attention. Attention, as crucial as it seems, is fleeting. Attention alone won’t build a pipeline or renew your loyal customers. Attention won’t get you far when your product fails or your event goes awry.

Attention is a momentary spark, but a real relationship? Now, that’s a steady flame.

We’re all vying for the same audiences and the attention span of those audiences is fleeting. This means brands are increasingly focused on grabbing attention, they overlook a more valuable and sustainable approach of keeping it and building deep relationships. If you’re tired of the endless pursuit of attention with diminishing returns, maybe it’s time to try something different. We built Loop & Tie with one thesis in mind: what would the world look like if technology could serve as a facilitator of human-to-human connection?

First, let’s talk about why connection matters more than attention — and how you can find new ways to inject connection into your practices.

The Trap of Attention-Driven Tactics

Every marketer and salesperson knows the feeling of chasing numbers. How many impressions? How many dials? How many meetings? How many (gulp) MQLs? 

These metrics are tempting to focus on because they’re easy to measure, offer a clear step-function (X work in = Y work out), and are easily divided between key functions within an organization ( …. Not for like, placing blame or anything ….. no.). But here’s the fundamental problem with that approach: the more you do the same thing, the more you see diminishing returns in the outcome. 

More doesn’t equal more. More equals less. 

Take exercise as an example, when you keep doing the same workout without variation, you hit what’s called a plateau. The more you repeat the same routine, the more your muscles naturally build efficiencies around them and ultimately your body becomes used to the routine. The more your body becomes used to a routine, the less your body responds, and the gains you initially experienced start to diminish. 

To avoid the plateau, you must reimagine your approach to unlock more growth.

Marketing and sales tactics function in the same way. 

Just like you can’t expect the same workout routine to build long-term fitness, you can’t expect attention-seeking tactics to build lasting relationships. At first, attention-driven tactics like flashy ads, aggressive email campaigns, or constant generic social media posts might generate attention. But as audiences become more accustomed to these tactics, you start to see diminishing returns—click-through rates decline, open rates fall, and customer engagement wanes. 

To avoid this plateau, you need to re-engineer your strategy, moving beyond attention and focusing on building connections that engage people on a deeper level.

Attention-seeking tactics are like fireworks—bright and flashy for a moment, but then they fizzle out. Attention, while helpful in sparking initial interest, rarely leads to long-term engagement. Attention alone doesn’t translate into meaningful or long-term relationships.

Or as we at Loop & Tie and Matcha call it: connections. 

The Power of Connection

What if, instead of chasing short-lived attention, your strategy was centered around creating meaningful connections? Connection is about much more than just staying in front of your audience and trying to capture and keep their attention—it’s about building trust, demonstrating appreciation, and fostering intentional relationships. 

And the research backs this up:

• Connection Fosters Trust, Loyalty, and Revenue: A study by Harvard Business Review found that as a customer’s connection with a brand develops, they become increasingly more valuable the deeper they feel connected to the brand. Customers who are considered “fully connected” are 52% more valuable to a company than their counterparts who are just “highly satisfied.”
• Authenticity Boosts your Brand: The Journal of Consumer Psychology published research that demonstrated how perceived brand authenticity significantly enhances consumers' perceptions of value and trust. More precisely, brands that are viewed as authentic can see a 30% increase in perceived value. Not to mention, a 52% boost in the likelihood of being recommended to others.
• Appreciation Drives Your Team’s Performance: Building a culture of gratitude on your team can retain and motivate your best talent. Companies built around acknowledgment, support, and authenticity saw a lower voluntary turnover rate than companies without. 

The value of connection over attention is in the facts: when you build connections rooted in trust, gratitude, and authenticity, the results far outweigh the short-term wins. Connection doesn’t just get you a one-time sale—it establishes a built-in regenerative revenue model that perpetually attracts and expands new business.

Strategies to Build Genuine Connection

Shifting from attention-seeking to connection-building requires a change in mindset as well as adopting new internal practices, but the results are worth it. Just like with working out, it gets easier and more enjoyable over time as you see the results of your hard work. 

Here are a few places you can start making an intentional connection-based transition:

1. Audit Your Employee Onboarding: The way you treat your team is the way they treat your customers. Begin by auditing your employee onboarding processes and identifying opportunities to enhance experiences and build a meaningful relationship from the outset. Find ways to integrate them not only into their team but into members outside of their team who they might not otherwise interact with. Ensuring new hires feel welcomed and valued from day one is the best way to set the template for a connection culture. 
2. Build a Customer Champion Program: Your best customers will do your marketing for you. Identify and empower your enthusiastic customers early and often. A Customer Champion Program not only fosters deeper connections but also provides valuable insights into customer preferences and needs.
3. Establish Appreciation and Gratitude Programs: Too often we have customer or employee escalation protocol for when things go incredibly wrong and absolutely NO protocol when things go incredibly right. By establishing a program for celebrating the big and little things you’re able to have a built-in mechanism to enable your team to default to appreciation and gratitude. 
4. Implement Relationship-Building Programs: Instead of relying on traditional attention-seeking marketing tactics, shift your focus toward relationship-building initiatives. This could involve reimagining your outreach approach, developing content series that align with personal and professional development, and igniting community engagement efforts around shared interests. 

(Psst: Not sure what your customers' interests are? Matcha.so can help with that!)

Implementing these strategies can transform the way your organization connects with employees and customers, leading to long-lasting, meaningful relationships that benefit everyone involved.

Move Beyond Attention, Start Connecting

If you’re exhausted from chasing attention as the ultimate goal, start investing in more efficient and impactful goals: like connection. Attention might get you in the door, but the connection keeps you in the room—and builds lasting relationships that fuel long-term growth.

By focusing on building a connection-based culture and developing programming to empower authenticity in your relationships, you’ll instantly infuse every interaction with meaning and intentionality. Instead of just being seen, you’ll be remembered—and appreciated.

The goal isn’t, “How can I get more attention?” but rather, “How can I make a connection that lasts?”

I’d love to hear more about how you build connections! Be sure to share your stories with the Matcha team at www.joyofconnect.ing.

MK Getler-Porizkova is the CMO of Loop & Tie and Founder of Branded Inferior. With over a decade of experience as a human-focused marketing leader, they are on a mission to bring empathy and authenticity into B2B spaces worldwide. MK is a champion for inclusion and a passionate supporter of Matcha’s vision for intentional, human-centered connection and networking. You can connect with MK here.