Trends Report: Netiquette Considerations in Online Advertising
by Sam Harrelson
A
consistent trend in advertising online is the considerations
which must be weighed when attempting to acquire leads or
sells. Brand reputation, lead quality and consumer
perceptions of marketing strategies all must be weighed when
generating actions online. However, advertisers must
generate sales and leads to stay profitable, so where is the
balance to be found?
In a
previous issue of the DM Confidential, the value of the
Netiquette gray area of marketing online was discussed.
The concluding paragraph stated:
“Both netiquette and the spirit
of the CANSPAM law point to the primacy of the consumer in
the advertiser-marketer-consumer matrix. If the consumer
doesn’t want to receive mailings or information from a
certain advertiser, they have the power to do so. The power
of the relationship has shifted to the consumers, and it
will be interesting to see how online marketers continue to
use ideas such as netiquette and the spirit of the CANSPAM
law in their campaigns.”
Pops,
emails and banners have all continued to loose their ability
to produce sustainable volume. Along with that, all three
of these mediums have consistently made consumers’ lists for
most annoying ad formats. The primacy of the consumer is
still an important issue for advertisers to consider, even
if they aren’t utilizing email as their main form of
marketing.
With
consolidation in the online space, this is especially true.
Inventory rates are being kept at levels artificially high
for market considerations, and advertisers continue to look
for new or improved ways to make the sales and lead
generations that they need to survive in a paltry market.
Traffic must be garnered, and the central question of how to
get traffic in a way that complies best with netiquette
remains. How do you get traffic without annoying
customers? In other words, should an advertiser have to
rely on the ubiquitous “Grab the Monkey” flash banners to
drive traffic at high CPM costs (no matter what quality of
traffic those sorts of banners may bring)? If you are not
aggressive enough with creatives or strategies, traffic will
remain low. If you are too aggressive in your marketing
campaign, you loose a sense of consumer trust, brand
viability and ultimately do damage to your long term future
in the online (and offline) space as an advertiser.
Contextual
advertising utilizing technological developments, such as
adware, have become hot topics in the affiliate and consumer
realms because of advertisers’ reluctance to turn away from
the traffic and sales they can generate.
By relying
on marketing models reviled by consumers such as contextual,
email, pop and banners, advertisers are placing themselves
in a peculiar situation where the primacy is placed upon
their bottom line and their total sales or lead generation
rather than their relationships with consumers (past,
present and future).
As 2004
unfolds, watch for the use of these models as well as new
and developing models, to determine which advertisers have
their ear to the ground in terms of consumer and netiquette
concerns. Those are companies which provide a valuable
service and which have long-term solubility in this space.
Sam Harrelson is the Co-Editor of the Digital
Moses Confidential. He can be reached at
sam@digitalmoses.com
