If your business uses online or digital advertising of any kind, you may need to re-think your strategy. Recent research shows – once again – that people simply do not like adverts. Indeed, one in five people subjected to advertising they do not want will go out of their way NOT to buy things from the advertiser and 11% of individuals would even write negative Tweets about the company. Advertising can be beneficial for business, but it is also a significant risk, it seems.
The study shows that excessive digital advertising is simply irritating to people. The reason is almost certainly down to the fact that online advertising is more intrusive than other forms of adverts. Printed advertising in newspapers, for instance, you can ignore. On TV these days, adverts can be skipped using SkyPlus or TIVO. But online the adverts are “in your face” much more. And with pop-ups, or “in text” hover-style ads, they just interrupt you too much at times.
Advertisers, it seems, have yet to learn that digital advertising cannot be approached in the same way as offline adverts. They need to be more subtle, less intrusive and interrupt less. Otherwise, they will work against your company. The research already shows that two-thirds of people say there is “too much” digital advertising – and the problem is worse on mobile devices where adverts are even more “obvious”.
Yesterday I was at the Internet World exhibition in London’s Earl’s Court where I noticed several firms offering digital advertising solutions, in particular mobile ones. Yet, the research shows that mobile adverts are the least liked by people. In fact, they would rather not have them at all. So, once again, the advertising industry appears to fail to understand advertising – a familiar story.
However, there were some companies at the exhibition who clearly do understand digital marketing – because the research shows that the MOST FAVOURED way to receive digital marketing messages is via email. Those exhibitors offering email marketing did not have many people visiting their stands when I was at the exhibition, which is a shame because it seems they are most in-tune with what companies need to do online. Once again, this research confirms that email marketing is the MOST EFFECTIVE solution for advertising. Why might that be? Because it puts control back in the hands of the recipients. Do that with your advertising and you will succeed.
Related articles
- Advertising on Google works offline too (grahamjones.co.uk)
- Online advertising is best if it is local not global (grahamjones.co.uk)
- Is Traditional Advertising Dead? (phillthedill.com)
