Cold Callers & Advertisers Begone!
If you are anything like me you will get people calling on your phone, trying to sell you on one thing or another. Products, holidays, cars, competitions, charity, services, politics.
I get annoyed, and sometimes quite cross at a lot of them, because:
I do not know them from Adam
I did not request anything from them
They are wasting my time
Most often I have absolutely zero interest in their scripted presentations
We have less, and less tolerance for uninvited advertising it seems. I really don’t think I am unique with this. Anyway, I came on this advertised item in my Facebook feed recently, and it got me thinking. This can be dangerous stuff, thinking because it sometimes leads to ‘acting’ 😉
The Facebook ad said: “Stop Nuisance Callers” and what it is about is another ‘Don’t Call’ list which you subscribe to, and it purports to remove you from the hundreds of cold calling and telemarketing lists which we all seem to be on these days.
It is ironic, we all know this stuff is annoying, and we all know it is becoming less, and less effective but people still purchase telemarketing services, and obviously there are lots of business owners who think this is a legitimate approach.
As I said, it has me thinking, because there is always the very real need for people to communicate what they offer, we all have some kind of ‘thing’ which we make our living from, A medical doctor still needs to market their practice, a Plumber, an Electrician, a Builder, a Hair Salon owner, e.t.c
From Fortune 1000 business, to tiny 1 person operations we have to get our message across to the right people. Obviously there is a huge disconnect between what people do, and what they personally hate.
Adblocking Is Now Extremely Common
Adblocking software is freely available these days. I use this, and it works very well – basically it removes 95% of all advertising from your web pages. You can browse and view videos on YouTube, all of those ‘Clickbait’ sites have their claws removed. The statistics are interesting:
It seems the more savvy internet users tend to choose Adblocking solutions, it has grown exponentially and continues to grow, over 20% of desktop, and a similar number of mobile users are blocking ad servers.
We have to look at becoming ‘Media Companies’ in order to build our visibility.
People are likely to want to look you up if they come across an article under your brand, and this article helps them or informs them ,or even challenges them to think. How about a video that also helps your audience, there is a thought, videos which actually help people!
I think we need to understand that digital culture has matured, that people are now much less tolerant of time wasting, empty sales pitching.
Quality is an Event, Not a Thing
If we can embrace this idea of ‘Quality’ in what we produce, and turn away from the empty, hollow loud message of conventional marketing we can begin to see a path where we can be effectively making contact with people, and providing the means to enhance our business image at the same time.
The media that is available to us all is rich with possibilities. The economic basis alone should give you plenty to think about. T.V advertising is extremely expensive, and not many people are receptive to its intrusive call on our attention. Fast forwarding T.V ads is a great sport!
NetFlix, and other subscription services allow us to binge watch movies and television series minus the ad-breaks.
The culture is changing, phone calls and in-your-face advertising is now pretty much despised universally; being a media company is the way forward.
Business owners are starting to see the truth of this. It is amazing how the cold, hard reality of monthly numbers motivates us to consider alternatives!
What used to be regarded as being a ‘nice to have’ option, namely operating a fully functional blog on your main website and syndicating your content is now a major conduit of marketing. Adblocking does not block good quality articles, and videos. We do not come over as being sales driven when we are offering genuine value to our people.
If you are interested in exploring this approach, if you are tired of the endless advice and second-hand rumor regarding how best to frame your social media, your blog topic publication, let’s have a chat.
