It’s tough out there for a brand.
There are so many potential customers who would love your product or service, and you want to share the story of how you can help them, but none seem to have a spare second to listen. This leads to some desperate clamoring for attention by a myriad of companies, prompting even more brazen tactics to stand out, resulting in unwanted interruptions for the consumers and a persistent humming in their ears from the sea of ads that have become nothing more than a background signal of white noise.
Consumers are fed up and they are fighting back against this onslaught of messaging. That’s why CPC’s keep going up while ROI continues to decline. It is enough to make a CEO throw his hands up in the air and say, “What else can I do? Do I really have another choice but to bombard the public with ads?”
The good news is that you do have another option. There is a solution out there that enables businesses to cut through the clutter and connect with consumers on a level that preserves their dignity and sanity.
But before we can get to that, we have to examine why the current method is broken.
No Consent & The Rise of Ad Blockers
Brands never ask for permission to communicate with the public, they just blast their message loudly in the hope that somebody out there is listening. But it is precisely this incessant noise that has provoked consumers into downloading ad blockers.
In North America alone, 38% of internet users have installed and utilized an ad blocker on at least one of their devices. That is over 200 million users proactively taking steps to avoid online advertising. Ask yourself, do you really want to continue to invest so much money and effort into an advertising medium that is being increasingly nullified?
The power of choice cannot be underestimated. When we don’t have a choice, we end up hating the one that is made for us; but when we are given a choice, we will defend it fervently.
So, could it be that if you only asked for permission and gave a reason to spare a moment of his or her time, you would have an attentive prospect on your hands instead of a disinterested chump?
The Lights Are On, But Nobody Is Home
An ad pops up onto your screen, taking valuable real estate for the content you’re trying to read. Then another, and another, and another. Shoppers are getting burned out by seeing ad after ad after ad, so by the time they see a product that might actually help them, they just scroll past, blind to yet another ad.
What these advertisers fail to grasp is that just because a person has physically seen an ad, that doesn’t mean that it was mentally registered at all. The unconscious mind may just filter it out so that the conscious mind can focus on the task at hand. Marketers are working so hard just to get eyes on their ads, they forget what the whole point of advertising is: To communicate a message.
That message could be, “Buy our product” or as simple as, “Learn to recognize our brand.” The point is, if a person sees an ad but doesn’t mentally register the message, then it was ultimately a pointless ad. Advertisers need to learn to move the goalpost to what the real objective should be: Having our message understood by the consumer.
By now you are probably thinking, “How am I going to reach this new goal post when I struggled so hard just to get my ads seen?” Well, you might want to try giving them a reason to engage so that they are mentally present.
Opt-In Value Exchange
Initially, only pop-up ads were being blocked by ad blockers. This has now evolved to nearly all kinds of ads being blocked by programs that learn how to detect and prevent intrusive marketing as you browse. Some websites are fighting back by locking down their content unless all ad blockers are disabled, but data shows that this has only backfired. Sites using these ‘whitelist blockers’ see significant reductions in traffic and increased complaints by users, creating a lose-lose situation for both sides.
Advertisers are now locked in this war with the public and ad-blocking software. So what is a brand to do? How do we get consumers to truly absorb our message? What can we offer them as a reason to engage and give their consent to be marketed to?
The answer is to quit the war altogether and pivot to something new: Opt-In Value Exchange.
Permission’s Opt-in Value Exchange is advertising and marketing redefined into an experience that consumers feel in control of and are compensated for in ASK cryptocurrency. Using this model, users control which advertisements they see and how their data is used. This provides a more relevant advertising experience for the user and higher engagement, as these users are actively choosing to view the ad.
This all results in a win-win for brands and consumers. Brands get to communicate their message to a targeted and attentive consumer, while consumers get compensated in ASK and feel at peace because their consent was given and they know that their personal data is safe in their own hands.
So stop trying to find new and innovative ways to annoy consumers into becoming customers. Instead, treat them like a real person and communicate a real message after asking for permission. For more information on Permission and Opt-in Value Exchange, we encourage you to read our whitepaper.