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Advertising.
We’ve spent years – decades actually – dodging it. If you’re old enough to remember VCRs (those things people used to record TV shows before DVR), you are also old enough to remember fast-forwarding through the commercials or sitting there with the pause button at the ready waiting to stop recording during the commercial breaks. More sophisticated DVRs these days do it for you.
We install software on our computers to keep from seeing ads on websites because we think they distract from what we’re browsing. Pop-up blockers date back to the late 1990s and have become more and more sophisticated over time. Clearly, there is high consumer demand for these applications.
It’s as if we don’t like advertising or something. The funny thing is, we LOVE advertising, albeit secretly. We pretend that it annoys us, but the simple fact of the matter is that we’d miss it if it wasn’t there anymore.
If you doubt what I’m saying, think about this: Imagine going on your next long road trip and never once seeing a billboard. “That would be heaven!” you think… until you realize that you’ve been on the road all day and you’re hungry but have no clue where to stop for a bite to eat.
Sure, you could get out at some random exit and go hunting for a burger joint, but who knows what you’d find? Even the signposts outside the restaurants are forms of advertising. Take them away, and golden arches aren’t even a thing you can look for to find a burger.
Now imagine that you’re at the movies. Without any preamble or introduction, the lights dim, the movie comes on, that’s it. As much as we say we hate advertising, we love watching trailers. Last year around Thanksgiving, when the new “Star Wars” movie trailer debuted, it practically broke the Internet. What are movie trailers? They’re a form of advertising… and we love them.
So, why do we have this love/hate relationship with advertising? It’s pretty simple, actually. It’s a source of information. Remember the restaurant example? We like being informed about anything that meets certain needs. Food and entertainment are great motivators, but anything that solves a problem is as well.
That is why I place such a heavy emphasis on hitting the “pain points” in your content. People like advertising because it provides them with security. They can see (or hear) problems they have being solved right there in front of them. Even movie trailers solve a problem: They satisfy curiosity. Why did that “Star Wars” trailer practically melt down any server hosting it? Because after 10 years and 3 previous lackluster installments, we all wanted to know if we could expect better this time. Even casual observers couldn’t help but be curious.
Now comes the part where I show you a few practical applications for this information. Do you want people to love your ads? Do you want them to look forward to your emails? Do you want them to click ON your pop-ups instead of clicking past them? Here’s how you can make that happen.
1. Keep the Pain Points in the Forefront
Different types of advertising will use different avenues for communicating the solution, but a uniform element of all great advertising is that it firmly establishes the problem or “pain” that the product solves.
2. Promise or Deliver a Solution
Sometimes the solution to the problem is presented immediately; sometimes you have to leave the customers on the hook for a little while to build curiosity. Either way, you can’t just leave them in pain. You need to at least suggest that there’s an out and that the way out is through your product.
3. Tailor Your Advertising to Match Your Content or Brand Message
In certain instances, this can be easier than others can. If you already have a product that you are using content to move, you and your marketing or copywriting company can come up with ads together that will appeal to your target demo.
If you are doing straight content marketing and running ads through services like Google Adsense, it might take a little time for the ads to line up with the content. That’s where well-researched keywords come into play. It will help the ad network find relevant ads to run with your content.
You can also research affiliate products that match your brand message and either use their promotional materials or create your own, customizing them to your site and brand.
4. Make Your Ads Part of the Conversation
Advertising that fits seamlessly with your content might not even be perceived as such. Make it fit with your content, and people will respond to it. Interactive ads are a great option because they directly involve the customer in the conversation. See our post on creating effective quizzes for ideas on how to incorporate interactive advertising into your content. There are some great ideas in that post.
Bottom line: You need to get past the idea of trying to sneak in ad content under the radar. Start looking at it from the perspective of giving your audience the kind of advertising they want to see. You will find it much easier to serve content that gets people’s attention when you become focused on giving them what they want as opposed to getting them to accept what they don’t. The latter never works anyway.