The Pervasion of Disrespectful Marketing

I recently wrote an article that was featured on the SiteProNews website a couple of days ago titled, The Pervasion of Disrespectful Marketing. The article was basically a rant against intrusive marketing techniques. I don't like them. I personally think it's disrespectful to your visitors to have intrusive little windows suddenly popping-up, opening up or floating across your web page, interferring with your visitors web experience.

My question to you is this: How do you feel about intrusive marketing? Do you like it, dislike it? Or are you neutral on the matter? Also, do you use intrusive marketing on your website?

David Jackson

Neutral? Hell no, I'm probably more stirred about this than you are David!

We are still in the days of the "Wild West" of the Internet and it shows...

I hate pop ups, hover ads... whatever and that of course means they don't work. This simple realisation does not seem to penetrate the thick skulls of so many online sales staff - yeah not really marketers, but pushy sales staff.

They seem to be in some kind of "arms race" and think that with enough php scripts and "hypnotic copy" or "killer copy" they can trick their way to "Easy Street".

And no, I don't use this stuff!

All The Best - and thanks for raising this!

Alex

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Originally Posted by AlexNewell

I hate pop ups, hover ads... whatever and that of course means they don't work.

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Unfortunately, Alex, they do work! Millions of people click on intrusive ads every single day. Otherwise, advertisers and marketers wouldn't continue to use them. So as much as I hate to admit it, yeah, they do work. The problem is not enough people give a damn. They won't complain, they won't object, they won't speak out. They'll just take it.

Take this thread for instance. Except for you, members are avoiding this thread like the Bubonic Plague. No one wants to speak out against this crap - and that's fine by me. I can fight my own battles.

But here's the really sad part. Speaking out can make such a difference. About.com's visitors spoke out in such force, it was forced to significantly reduce the number of intrusive ads on its sites.

David Jackson

I think the market will determine what happens with this kind of advertising. I typically pay no attention to it. If people stop clicking on the ads, they'll go away. As long as they are working though, we'll still see them.

It's like telemarketing. It annoys the crap out of me, but it has to be working somewhere for so many companies to be dumping so much money into it.

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Originally Posted by MikeF421

If people stop clicking on the ads, they'll go away.

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People aren't going to stop clicking on them, and as a result, they're not going away. In fact, you can expect the ads to get even more intrusive. I'm predicting, in the near future, the ads are going to reach right through your computer screen, grab you by the collar and scream, "Click on me!" And of course, millions of people will click on them. :rolleyes:

David Jackson

But the very fact that, as you say, people will continue to click on them, means that people in general don't hate them. They might find them to be a minor annoyance, but not enough to backpedal out of a site that uses them.

I think the real issue for marketers is that we see so many of them, they become offensive. The average Internet user doesn't have the same experience.

Do I use them? No. But depending on the niche, I might.