The Marketer’s Antidote for Consumer ADD: Reducing the Digital Distance
By Michael Weissman, chairman and CEO, SYNQY Corp.
To overcome the limitations of the Internet, marketers rely on practices that unwittingly feed consumer ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). It’s a scenario that both marketers and consumers have learned to live with but not necessarily like. Because third-party websites limit a brand’s presentation, marketers resort to enticing prospects to take a journey, leaving the site they’re on to visit the brand-owned website where they can receive a richer brand experience. The distraction, diversion and ultimate journey itself has “trained” consumers to act and react in ways that are not always desirable for anyone. But today, technology presents an antidote to the chaos, by providing an alternative to connect the brand and consumer in ways everyone will like.
The Current Model Invites Distraction
Marketers spend $100 billion annually banking on the notion that consumers want to journey to a brand-owned “destination.” But the process actually belies efficiency on many levels. Let’s consider the steps toward customer engagement: first, marketers will wave their arms and distract. Got their attention? Well good, because they’ll need a lot of patience for the next step. Second, marketers ask people to click on a link to take them away from what and where they’re currently engaged to the brand’s marketing site. Now here’s where it’s tricky:
- People don’t trust links. Think: dragged to a place they don’t like or worse
