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The internet has not only made information more accessible but made it impossible to avoid. In a world filled with content on every platform, attention is the most valuable but a scarce resource. This is the attention economy, where the task isn’t just to produce content, but to ensure it is heard above the noise.
Figure 1 : Social Media User Growth in Bangladesh between 2023-24 (Source : BBS)
In Bangladesh’s digital space, where 50.4% of households had internet access in mid-2024 and social media users grew by 22.3% in a year, the battle for attention is fiercer than ever. While there’s constant debate about declining attention spans, research suggests that the real issue isn’t shorter focus but higher selectivity. As McKinsey in a latest newsletter points out, it’s a myth that Gen Z can only focus for eight seconds. In a world overflowing with content, their attention isn’t disappearing, they are simply more discerning about what deserves their time.
For knowledge-based service providers, capturing attention requires going beyond just publishing reports or research findings, especially in an algorithm-dominated world. Economic growth in Bangladesh has dramatically slowed to 5.2% amid a policy shift and uncertainties of an election year. Decision makers, particularly in Bangladesh, are inundated with content. Businesses in the market are craving for dependable, real-time content to help them manage the drastic shifts.
According to DataReportal’s 2024 report, Bangladesh’s social media landscape is rapidly growing ,with Facebook leading the pack, with around 59.2 million users, followed by Instagram at 6.5 million and LinkedIn at 7 million. Twitter’s user base remains more niche at just 1.05 million. This report paints a picture of Bangladesh’s social media ecosystem having a sizable base of prospective consumers. On the contrary, the sheer quantity of content available is paradoxically becoming the bottleneck to many users’ engagement and desire to explore more.
Figure 2 : Social Media User in Bangladesh across Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube and TikTok in 2024 (Source : DataReportal)
In response to battle the declining digital audience retention, most brands shift their strategy and commit to double down the content volume with the hope that more frequent posting will garner user engagement they seek. As it turns out, this is often counterproductive. According to HBR, social media fatigue caused by incessant adverts and sponsored content has come to the forefront and is now driving brands’ audiences away. For the average Bangladeshi user, already navigating a rapidly changing digital landscape, the doubling down content strategy can feel less like value and more like digital clutter.
This content-dumping problem is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it saturates users’ cognitive bandwidth, leaving them exhausted and less receptive to thoughtful, value-driven content. On the other hand, it damages brands themselves, diluting their message and making it harder to build a lasting mindshare. When brands focus on quantity over quality, they risk eroding consumer trust. In fact, Bangladesh ranked poorly in disinformation risk in the Disinformation Risk Index, with no site achieving a low-risk rating which is a stark reminder that careless content production can inadvertently amplify false narratives, further fragmenting audiences and diminishing brand credibility.
After understanding the context of the attention economy and analyzing how brands and industries are affected by the content flooding approach, It’s time to discuss the blueprint of achieving sustainable and impact-driven content strategy. As we move into 2025, content marketers need to rethink their approaches and know the do’s and the dont’s while curating and optimizing a content strategy.
Beyond the Marketing Funnel: Building Adaptive and Personalized Content Journeys
Older marketing frameworks such as ‘AIDA’ (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) or the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) were designed with an idealistic consumer journey in mind. These models support a stepwise progression where consumers move through a predefined demographic mark funnel center made of age, gender, or geographical location.
In a digitally-first society, consumer behavior is anything but straightforward. AI powered analytics and behavioral tracking has completely reshaped the narrative of segmentation. Rather than relying on broad group-based demographic information, modern marketing is focused on preference driven micro segmentation. This is the grouping of consumers based on real time interests, interactions, and purchases.
McKinsey research supports this shift, revealing that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% feel frustrated when they don’t. When done right, personalization doesn’t just improve engagement, it creates significant value for both consumers and businesses. A data-driven approach allows brands to move beyond assumptions and instead craft hyper-relevant experiences that drive loyalty and conversion.
This shift means that a 23-year-old from Dhaka and a 45-year-old from Chittagong might belong to the same marketing segment if they share similar online behaviors and product interests. Instead of targeting by assumptions, brands now target by behavior, ensuring content is contextual, relevant, and personalized, which is the key to cutting through digital noise and driving real engagement.
In the content curation journey, effectively delivering the contents across all the mainstream platforms is the harder part than churning out good content. Because what works on LinkedIn might fall flat on Instagram, while the hashtags that are fuming on “X” (formerly known as Twitter) can get buried on Facebook. The user base of Bangladesh’s social media landscape is an ideal example for this because it has 59.2 million Facebook users, 33.6 million YouTube users while only 7 million LinkedIn users.
The evident gap between LinkedIn and Facebook users highlights why a one-size-fits-all content strategy is ineffective. Each platform comes with its own audience dynamics, consumer sentiments, and expectations, demanding tailored content strategies to make an impact.
The brands that truly stand out are the ones that understand how to rhythmically fine-tune their content to each specific platform. This precise targeting can greatly influence brand sentiment – tools such as Buffer and Hootsuite allow marketers to strategically schedule posts for optimal audience engagement, amplifying business goals and productivity levels across social media platforms.
Figure 3 : Number of active users across various platforms from 2017-2025 (Source : Statista)
The sudden accelerated growth of Tiktok , as shown in the chart above, is not achieved by inventing the short viral content format but a fundamental shift in how the content was being distributed. The fundamental shift was the introduction of the interest graph, an algorithm that prioritizes content based on user behavior which outdated the traditional social graph which is based on the conventional segmentations which connects the audience based on their demographic attributes (age, gender, and location). As of 2024, this algorithm leap helped Tiktok reach 1.8 billion monthly active users who spend an average of 53.8 minutes daily on the app, with the typical user opening it 19 times per day.
This shift played a big role in the evolution of content marketing platforms. While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter built their ecosystems around who you know, TikTok’s algorithm analyzed watch time, engagement patterns, and content preferences to curate a hyper-personalized feed. And within 5 years, TikTok had amassed 1.7 billion users in 2022, surpassing platforms that had dominated for over a decade.
The case of TikTok gives out valuable learnings for the content marketing industry that interest-driven content wins over follower-driven content and optimizing the content distribution and segmentation strategy is more crucial than chasing a bigger audience base through shortsighted viral content strategy.
As platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin are also adapting to similar interest-based recommendations engines, the new thumb rule for brands should be leveraging the user data they receive for curating contents that involves prioritizing high-retention formats, niche storytelling that appeals to particular interest, and a constant testing of content hooks to match evolving user behavior.
Nowadays, the role of a content marketer is no longer about maintaining brand visibility, it is about representing the ethos and aspirations of the brand as well. While blog posts, CTAs and other content augment investment trust in products or services, true leadership of thought requires a more deeper and intentional approach. If a particular brand wants to play on the grounds of trust must clearly understand that intention is not a marketing tactic but a fundamental step of earning trust and credibility.
Purpose serves as a differentiator and can be the strongest foundation for a brand’s inconsistency when its purported values conflict with its actions. When encapsulated within each content piece, purpose becomes the differentiator that can reinforce and strengthen connection, authenticity and trust.
The activation of the content purpose progression mark strategy requires a 360 degree shift regarding content as an investment to build brand identity and distinguish themselves from the movement-driven marketing herd. Sustained thought leadership is not routine engagement, and instead is consistently adding credence, insight, and wholesome value over extended periods.
According to Market Insights, Bangladesh’s advertising market is set to hit $669.10 million by 2025, with 78% of ad spending expected to come from digital sources by 2030. As brands compete against each other to garner attention, the need for capturing content that entails creativity and high-impact messaging to meet demand at scale becomes a necessity. However, marketers are still uncomfortable adopting AI, fearing that machines might get rid of creativity or authenticity. The fact is, when applied correctly, AI technology does not eliminate innovation; it enhances it.
Think about automatically removing the low-level repetitive work that creative teams have to do such as scheduling social media posts or creating basic ads. It is not about eliminating content creators; it is about giving them more time to work on strategies and storytelling. Additionally, AI technology enables brands to increase production without exhausting their workers, allowing them to create content more and more efficiently than before. In a world where distractions are endless, being quick and flexible becomes extremely valuable.
Far from diluting creativity, AI can actually spark new ideas and inspire innovation through replacing monotonous desk work, draft content outlines to build better narratives, or even create visuals, acting as creative collaborators rather than replacements. This allows marketers to experiment more freely, test new concepts, and iterate rapidly without draining resources.
In Bangladesh’s evolving digital ecosystem, content marketers face an uphill battle for attention. But this challenge is an opportunity in disguise. By moving beyond content dumping and embracing hyperlocal insights, personalized experiences, and platform-first strategies, brands can build sustainable influence rather than chase fleeting trends.
The attention economy rewards brands that consistently deliver value, foster trust, and shape discourse. Those who can rise above the noise — not through volume but through thoughtful, strategic content — will not only capture attention but keep it. As digital spaces become more crowded, the brands that survive and thrive will be the ones bold enough to innovate, smart enough to adapt, and relentless enough to keep creating content that truly matters.
This article has been authored by Ishrat Ashique, Marketing and Partnerships Specialist at LightCastle Patners. For further clarifications please contact here: [email protected]
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