After a couple decades in advertising and marketing I think I've seen, at one point or another, every mistake made by man. Sometimes it is huge - the "new" coke comes to mind or the McDonalds' rapper commercial in which in the original version (pulled after 2 days by the way) you couldn't understand a word said - not one. These are big mistakes dealing with the brand identity and the clarity of message. Then there are the little things - big mistakes also but in miniature.
A client recently asked me to look at his "online" presence and write him a "think piece" about how to improve his efforts, what was good, what wasn't, etc. So I went to his site to start and kept coming to "dead end" pages. Think of these pages as one way roads that simply end and there is no way to turn around and get back to the highway. The back button didn't work. I asked him about it straightaway because this is such a huge mistake in advertising as to make the gods weep in shame. He told me it was planned to be that way and not a programming mistake because it was always a page that urged the reader to buy the product. Aside from it being like getting caught in a phone booth with a used car salesman I asked him how many sales came from these pages to which he answered "well none so far, we are just trying it out, and it has only been this way for a month". Oh my.
The essentials of marketing a product - particularly on the Internet - could have (and should have) been learned with your mother at the supermarket when you were three years old.
1. ALWAYS be helpful
2. NEVER get in the way
3. ALWAYS say thank you no matter what
These rules of civility are observed by good Internet marketing folks and ignored by the bad ones. Being helpful is presenting the reader what he/she is looking for. If she is looking for sweaters for her mother don't keep pushing her toward toys for the kids. It isn't helpful. Giving her what she wants in a straightforward manner is your obligation to helping her. Shoving a toy in her face at every opportunity isn't.
Getting in the way on the Internet is constant mistake. Yahoo does it all the time with what are called "pop-up" ads. The reader sees a article or news flash of interest and when he/she "clicks" the link, some big Ford Truck drives on the page. Most people just accept it but studies have shown that it aggravates others to the point of being a negative. The advertisement "got in the way" as much as a three year old stood in front of the shopping cart in the supermarket.
About a decade ago I was doing some work for and ISP/ASP start up in silicon valley and was brought in to figure out and build a new form of advertising. The solution was that depending on "who you were" - your profile filled out in registration and what you were looking for on the site, advertising appropriate to "you" would be shown and instead of shoving an ad in your face we gave you a commercial that followed you page to page in the same location for 30 seconds - very much like a movable TV commercial so if you hit the main page it started because we knew who "you were" so it was appropriate and when you clicked over to the sports section it would still be there in the same position on the new page and stay there for 30 seconds then a new ad would appear but again linked to YOU and who you were. .The NYTimes had just launched its real deal digital department and asked us about it so we went to NYC and sat with them and showed them how it worked and why it was far more profitable and an easier sell yada yada so they said they would try it and they did to great success while times were good in digital advertising. I was very proud. Unfortunately our guy was replaced by another fellow who had other ideas and we were back-burnered in preference to what are called interstitial ads - that means full pages that pop into the viewing stream when you go from one section to another. A real "oh my gosh" moment in advertising.
There is a somewhat famous Nielsen study (the folks who put out ratings for TV shows) that showed the same commercial to test groups except that version "A" contained the words please and thank you while version "B" didn't. It was a voice over for a consumer product and the inclusion of these words was not stressed or reinforced in any way. The "thank you" version was light years ahead in audience perception. A perfect example is in the Cranberry Bog commercials where the end line is "thank you for your time". It makes a real difference.So why am I ranting about this on a beautiful Thursday morning? Because I just went to a local newspaper to catch up on what is happening in the area and I saw an advertisement that I want to know about and clicked it and the link didn't work so I back-tracked and tried another route and got dead-ended on a "subscribe here" page so I reloaded the site and went to the "contact us" page (it took my highest power eyeglasses to find it) and submitted my ire to which, after the send button was clicked, I got the following note:
"Your comment has been received. Comments of importance will be answered if they are of importance to our general readership. If you do not receive a response within 3 business days you may submit a comment again on this page. Emails to our publisher will not be answered".
It is just the little things that drive people crazy. I feel better. Sorry you had to hear it. Please come back.