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People Only Buy What They Understand
by Hannah Paramore in General on Mar 12, 2009
I’ve noticed something over the years. Confusion and complexity muck up a sales process. Ever try to get somebody to buy something they were totally confused about? Doesn’t work too well, does it? This is particularly true when it comes to digital marketing.
And it’s our own fault. For years, those of us in online marketing have been making it hard for clients to make the decision to work with us. We use terms they don’t understand to describe an industry that is still brand new and ways of connecting with clients that they’ve never experienced.
Just like it’s impossible to research something that has never existed, it’s also impossible to make somebody feel confident about purchasing something they have never experienced by using terms they don’t understand.
For instance, we use the words leaderboards, rectangles, badges, skyscrapers and slates all to describe one thing - banner ads. Yes, I know they mean different sizes and shapes, but really, somebody just woke up one day and said, “Let’s make this as confusing as possible by naming all our ad sizes different things!“ Print doesn’t do that. They call it a quarter page, half page, or full page AD.
Then there’s the measurement. We talk about impressions, CPMs, CPCs, CPLs, click thrus, view-thrus, opt-ins, opt-outs, open rates, sign-ups, and roll-overs all to describe a consumer’s response and how we charge for it. No wonder we aren’t ruling the world yet.
What to consider
What marketing folks need to know when making a decision to run a digital media campaign is pretty simple:
- Will I reach the audience that is most likely to buy my product?
- Where will my ad be and how do you know it will be there? Will I be able to see my ad online?
- How can they respond to my ad?
- What am I paying for? Impressions, clicks, sign-ups?
- What do I know about the person who viewed my ad at the point at which I pay for the media?
- What is a good response rate?
In businesses all over America, marketing directors who answer to marketing VPs who answer to presidents who answers to boards of directors are listening to your pitches and trying, really trying to make a decision that will not only be good for their companies, but will also (and probably mostly) make themselves look smart. Are we helping them do that?
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I totally agree with this article from my own experience in business. When I first set up and advertised myself as a Home Visit Tonsorial Artist I got no work at all. Then by simply changing that description to Hair Dresser, things changed over night.
I think the point is to keep things simple as most people are dumb.
Yeah, nevermind the leaderboard-lingo. I actually like calling them web ads. To bring print back up again, people are used to buying an ad that runs in every copy of the magazine. So it’s no surprise that new online buyers get confused by impressions. For those buyers, I find it helps to present it this way, we can create a custom “circulation” plan based on your budget. Just remember, if you don’t spend any money, don’t be surprised when you refresh your screen 20 times and still don’t see your ad.
Ben, you made me laugh. And your philosophy is the same as mine…
Simple, Clear and Focused on Results.
Now, you made me want to call my hairdresser/relationship counselor/style advisor.
It’s also important that we differentiate interactive- which clients often don’t know, from print- which they often do know.
For example, a client asking us what a good response rate will be for social media, requesting stats like- expected x amount of twitter followers by this date.
We know a lot, good open rates, good click thru rates. But we still don’t have the historical data that print does.
What is the average conversion rate for a PPC campaign where we’re advertising a whitepaper on outsourced payroll? Conversion rate for a transplant consultation request? Conversion rate for a tanning eNewsletter subscription?
Well, I can guess 3% but there’s probably only been 10 campaigns in the whole world like this so I really don’t know in comparison to a print direct mail piece that has been in distribution for decades.
Online marketing isn’t the wild wild west that it once was. But it has still only been around for 15 years. Luckily- we’ve been in it since the beginning!