Web Behavior And Better Digital Marketing

There are lots of digital marketing campaigns out there that look great flashing on a page, but in the end, never really seem to connect with consumers.

The main problem is that marketers are trying to shoehorn traditional marketing tactics onto digital mediums.  In this post that appeared in Ad Age, David Armano of Logic+Emotion has a great term for this in between approach to digital; he calls it “Tradigital” marketing:

“Tradigital, in my opinion, means using traditional marketing methods in the digital space. For example, creating an advertising campaign and “extending it digitally” usually ends up as a checklist. Micro-site? Check. Online banners? Check. Social media? Check. Mobile? Check.”

His answer to better digital marketing is a staple of what good marketers have done well in the past, which is understanding consumer behavior, this time in the digital space:

“It’s time to come to terms with how people really use the web (hint — it might not be to figure out your experimental navigation) and how we can harness the true power of digital.”

The way most people use the web, in contrast to something like watching TV, is as an active medium, rather than passive.

Whether it is asking questions through search, uploading family photos to Flickr, or communicating with friends through social networking, most of the time spent on the web is spent doing something.  Or, as Armano puts it, solving problems.

Which is why traditional interruption marketing like flashing banner ads, are not only ineffective, but in most cases, very irritating in their distraction.

A solution to better digital marketing would be to look at the top reasons why people use the internet and then ask how your digital marketing efforts can enhance their activities rather than distract:

• How can your digital marketing help people better connect with their friends or people with similar interests?
• How can your digital marketing connect your core consumers with the music or video content they really want to see?
• Are your digital marketing efforts genuinely entertaining and are they something people would want to share with their family and friends?
• How is your digital marketing helping people search for information quicker or more reliably?

I know it seems odd to ask digital marketing to simply lever what Facebook or YouTube are doing already.  It doesn’t seem groundbreaking or that creative.

But therein lies the point: how effective do you think your flashing banner ad is when it only serves to stand in the way of what people really want to do online?