Getting people to actually notice and engage with your communications can be challenging.
Residents are exposed to thousands of messages every day. Emails, social media posts, notifications, ads, signage, news alerts. Most of it gets filtered out almost instantly.
That means even important updates can easily be ignored, or slip through the cracks.
This is why the awareness stage of the marketing funnel matters so much. Before someone can engage with a service, attend an event, complete a form, or change a behaviour, they need to notice the message in the first place.
In the first blog in this series, we introduced the idea of marketing psychology and how understanding behaviour can improve communications. This time, we’re focusing on the awareness stage, specifically, why some messages grab attention while others disappear into the background.
Attention is limited
One of the key ideas from HubSpot’s marketing psychology guide is that attention is selective. People naturally filter out information that feels irrelevant, repetitive, or low priority.
That means simply publishing information isn’t enough. Visibility doesn’t guarantee attention.
This is something we see regularly across government communications. Important updates are often technically “available”, but buried in crowded newsletters, hard-to-scan web pages, or social posts that look identical to everything around them.
The challenge isn’t always the information itself. It’s whether the communication gives people a reason to pause.
Why familiarity matters
In the first blog, we touched on the idea that people are naturally drawn to things that feel familiar and recognisable.
This becomes especially important during the awareness stage. When communications are visually consistent and easy to recognise, people process them faster and are more likely to pay attention. Over time, that familiarity helps build trust and recall.
You can see this clearly with brands like Coca-Cola, where colours, typography, and tone remain highly consistent across campaigns.
The same principle applies in government communications. If messaging, branding, and visuals constantly change, residents need to work harder to recognise and process the information. But when communications feel familiar and consistent over time, engagement becomes easier and more intuitive.
Familiarity alone isn’t enough
While people are drawn to familiar things, our brains are also wired to notice what feels different or unexpected.
That’s why unusual headlines, bold visuals, or unexpected wording can interrupt scrolling behaviour online.
In psychology and marketing, this is sometimes called a pattern interrupt, something that briefly breaks people out of autopilot.
You see this all the time in advertising. Netflix thumbnails use exaggerated expressions and strong contrast to stand out while scrolling. Road safety campaigns often use emotionally confronting imagery because they need to break through habitual behaviour.
Government communications can use this principle too, without becoming overly sensational.
For example:
- Leading with a surprising statistic
- Using plain, direct language instead of corporate wording
- Simplifying visuals instead of overcrowding them
- Asking a question instead of making an announcement
Small changes in presentation can dramatically improve visibility.
Why clarity matters more than cleverness
One mistake many organisations make at the awareness stage is trying too hard to sound polished or professional. Attention is often driven by clarity, not creativity.
People scan quickly. If they can’t immediately understand what the message is about, why it matters, or what they need to do, they’ll usually move on.
This is especially important for government communications, where audiences are broad and attention spans are limited.
A clear headline like:
“Changes to bin collection days this Easter”
will usually outperform something vaguer like:
“Important seasonal service update”
even if the second option sounds more formal. This also supports the concept of email SEO, which we wrote about in a previous blog.
Clear communication reduces effort, and people naturally gravitate toward information that feels easy to process.
The role of emotion
People are far more likely to remember information that creates an emotional response.
That doesn’t mean every campaign needs to be dramatic. But communications that feel human tend to perform better than those that feel purely administrative.
Think about the difference between:
- Listing facts and figures
- Showing the real-world impact on people
A community program announcement becomes more engaging when it focuses on outcomes, stories, or lived experiences, not just logistics.
This is one reason storytelling remains so effective across marketing and communications. Humans are naturally wired to pay attention to stories.
Awareness isn’t about volume
When engagement drops, the instinct is often to communicate more. More posts. More emails. More reminders.
But awareness isn’t necessarily about volume, it’s about recognisability, clarity, and relevance.
The organisations that cut through consistently tend to:
- Communicate clearly
- Maintain visual and messaging consistency
- Simplify information
- Understand what actually captures attention
Not every message needs to be big or highly creative. It just needs to feel noticeable and easy to process.
Putting the theory into practice
If reading this has got you thinking about your own communications, here’s a simple checklist to work through when reviewing your content and campaigns:
- Would this stand out in a crowded feed or inbox?
- Do our branding, tone, and visuals feel consistent across channels?
- Are headings and key messages immediately clear?
- Are we overwhelming people with too many actions or competing priorities?
- Could layouts or content be simplified to guide attention more clearly?
- Do our communications feel human and engaging, or overly formal and administrative?
- Are there opportunities to use storytelling, emotion, or real community impact to make messages more memorable?
Small improvements in clarity, consistency, and presentation can have significant impact on engagement over time.
What’s next?
In the next blog, we’ll move into the consideration stage; the point where people start evaluating options and deciding whether to engage further.
We’ll look at:
- Why too much choice can reduce action
- How social proof influences decisions
- What helps build trust during the decision-making process
Because getting attention is only the first step. The next challenge is keeping it.