Now, whilst I never thought I’d be ‘one of those’ who sits here and bemoans other marketing channels, there is something to be said for the survey results carried out by Opinion Matters on behalf of How TO that show 73% of people have left a favourite website due to “intrusive and irrelevant” advertising. This is up from 50% in 2007.
Major irritations for users were ads with loud noises, pop-ups that cover information and ads that were difficult to close. The figures also show that 59% of users have stopped returning to a website because of problem advertising, with that figure rising to 70% for 25 to 34 year olds. That’s an increase from just 16% and 14% respectively just one year ago.
So what does this mean exactly? Well, in short, the human eye has become saturated to flashy, whizzy, bangy ads. There are just so MANY! Whilst some companies such as Google Adsense will aim to help optimise impressionism, it is merely this: impressing upon the subconscious.
And, that users are there for content, perhaps it’s time for marketeers to realise that there is life beyond the banner and take up the principles of marketing within the content - the social media way. Making sure you are Social Media Optimised on-site and Social Media marketing externally will ensure better SEO ranking as well as mightier and more successful consumer (and B2B) conversion.
We call this the Push and Pull mechanism which, as any marcomms person knows from marketing 101 is about pushing your message out there and drawing people back in. But gone are the days when one could simply push a message out there and they will flock to you - consumers are demanding blighters and want to be talked to, as write Ahonen and Moore.
The age has come, communities dominate brands, engagement marketing is on the up and, importantly, as put by Seth Godin, consumers want to trust you, and will, if you talk to them in the right way.
