Failing Internet advertising
Eric Clemons - Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania - explains on TechCrunch a number of reasons why advertising is failing on the Internet:
- Consumers do not trust advertising
- Consumers do not want to view advertising
- Consumers do not need advertising
The same reasons should apply to businesses:
- Do businesses trust advertising?
- Do businesses want to view advertising on the Internet?
- Do businesses need online advertising?
Do you click on online advertising?
Probably not as you are reading this blog.
The Economist published similar remarks about the online advertising that was supporting the web 2.0 growth and predict the end of the free lunch (free online content)
Advertising and media
Traditional media was a one way communication: radio, movies and television.
This allowed:
- Pushing messages and content in one way.
- Preformatted sequential access to content.
The Internet has become a two way media:
Although the Internet website originally started out as just a display of content, changes have taken place over the years:
- Content with interaction from the Internet surfers.
- All people can publish content too on the Internet: forums, articles, reviews.
- Simple and convenient to interrupt the content stream and change from content source.
The internet is information and entertainment on demand. It has become the easiest and trusted source of products and solutions information using professional reviews and peer reviews.
If online advertising is failing to meet its' objectives, then other means are needed, as businesses need to get traffic to their website in order to get leads - to get sales - in order to survive.
Email marketing is not the solution
A first possible solution could be email marketing campaigns.
These campaigns require sending thousands of emails in order to generate one lead.
However obtaining thousands of email addresses is not possible for most companies - thus a company would need to buy email lists.
Not exactly the best or most appropriate solution as you will be addressing to people you don't know.
Moreover companies need to keep buying new lists for ever, thus not a sustainable business model.
Publishing content
As a company cannot control professional reviews or peer reviews, then apparently the only solution left is providing content and distributing your content over the Internet.
Content that can be indexed by search engines in order to get your website found. A part of the visitors on your website will be interested and read your business proposition.
Thus you need to create content that you publish on:
- Your website
- Your blog
- Your press releases
in order to get found on the Internet.
The more content and the more unique content: the better for getting found on the Intrnet.
Just avoid publishing duplicate content as that gets penalized by the search engines.
What's your take on less effective online advertising?
Spending more or looking for an alternative?