Website Advertising - January 2004
Advertising agencies tend to design ineffective websites because they are obsessed with getting attention.
They don't realise that because of their flashy graphics they never list well in the search engines. When people come to your website, you have already got their attention.
They want to do something. They want detail. They want facts.
The thing they value most is their time. So don't waste it!
Advertising is about standing out in a crowd. It's about getting a clear signal through a world overwhelmed with noise.
You don't turn on TV specifically to watch ads. You don't read a newspaper to look at them. So, advertising is like an army unit entering behind enemy lines to win that vital prize: your attention. Read more about choosing a website designer.
Advertisers tend to think in intervals of 30 seconds or less. This has a huge influence on the type of communication. It becomes much more emotional and visual. The Web is a very different world. The Web is a result of an increasingly literate consumer. It is no surprise that the Web started off in universities. The Web works better with facts rather than emotions.
What was the first e-commerce success story? Books. People who buy books like to read. Why do people go to a car website? To find out what sort of safety rating the car has. To find out if there are any deals going.
It is more difficult to deliver emotion on the Web. A website is a place where information thrives. In many ways, the products that sell best through traditional advertising don't do well on the Web. My kids love Coca Cola. They have never once visited the Coca Cola website. Why on earth would they? To find out what 'the real thing' actually means?
Humans are much more visual than literate. For millions of years we have understood our world through images. It is only in the last couple of hundred years that the written word has achieved any sort of mass market reach.
However, the primary activity on the Web is reading. It's very fast scan reading by impatient people who find web reading harder than print reading. Therefore, a foundation of web design success is to ensure that all your pages are as readable as possible. It's not that the look is not important. Just that, on the Web, words come before looks.
This is info on advertising direct from Wikipedia:
Advertising is a form of communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Frequently it communicates a message that includes the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer. Advertising often attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume a particular brand of product or service. Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Different types of media can be used to deliver these messages, including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, billboards or direct mail. Advertising may be placed by an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization.
Organizations that spend money on advertising promoting items other than a consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Non-profit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement.
Money spent on advertising has increased in recent years. In 2007, spending on advertising was estimated at more than $150 billion in the United States and $385 billion worldwide, and the latter to exceed $450 billion by 2010.
Advertising is communication used to influence individuals to purchase products or services or support political candidates or ideas. Advertising can be displaced on billboards, newspapers, T.V., websites, movies and more.
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