Attention.

Focus.

Two really simple concepts that can be applied to a lot of things in business.

From operations, to administration, to finance & accounting, without attention & focus, things will fall behind, and ultimately “decay“, so to speak – and digital marketing is no different.

A good offline analogy of this is your vehicle or home.

Without attention, it’s easy for your vehicle or home to fall out of shape or disrepair.

Imagine a car that’s been left outside for years (or collecting dust in a garage), or a house that’s been poorly maintained or abandoned.

They both suffer from decay as the forces of nature naturally take their toll over time — metal rusts, wood rots, engines lock up, roofs wear out & collapse.

While this happens gradually over time in the real world, “digital decay” can happen at a much faster rate.

Content becomes dated or irrelevant, brand messaging and visuals grow stale, code becomes deprecated, algorithms change, new regulations roll out, interfaces change, new features are missed, communication slows, user behavior shifts by platform — all of these things act as “digital decay” forces.

The truth is there are likely many more forces that can cause your digital marketing to decay, but the point is simple – without attention & focus, “digital decay” in marketing is inevitable.

You’re going to be wearing many, many hats as a small business owner.

As humans, we really can only pay attention to one thing at time (at least competently).

Without someone there to give attention to your website, your content, your social media feeds and (worse yet) your paid channels, it’s really easy for you to get consumed by these activities.

If you do turn your focus on these activities, other (perhaps just as important) activities will decay — books/billing gets behind, projects clog up, service degrades, admin tasks pile up — you name it, without attention things will inevitably start to decay inside your business.

Attention & Focus = Increased Momentum, Relevance & Growth

I mentioned in a previous post about how important momentum is in the digital world, and how it helps keep your small business relevant.

What’s important here is that momentum can’t be built and maintained without attention and focus — whether from you or your digital marketing partner.

Your time is limited as a small business owner – and replacing yourself in your digital marketing efforts help ensure there’s someone there to keep an eye on your digital marketing: something that will help you grow over time – and more importantly – fend off “digital decay”.

Using Structure & Consistency To Improve Attention & Focus

Creating “attention systems” – another system in your small business system set – is a great way to improve your attention and focus on digital.

Starting with a structured schedule, create time blocks for each activity.

Maybe a time block for planning, a separate one for creating, another for posting and engaging and another for reviewing data & performance.

However your digital marketing infrastructure is setup, it’s vital that you’re able to spend time and attention in each area to keep the decay away.

As your business grows, those time blocks will naturally expand — but with that structure in place, it’ll be easier for you to delegate and (eventually) replace yourself in those tasks.

Growth Or Decay – Your Attention & Focus Will Decide

Growing a small business is hard by itself — fending off the forces of decay, whether digital or real, is even harder.

And the best way to fend off your “digital decay” is with your attention and focus — or having someone there to help keep tabs for you, as you focus on more important areas of your business.

You become what you put your attention to – as you put your attention and focus on more important areas, the better your chances of growing in 2025 (and beyond).