Dear Santa: Please read my Internet Marketing Christmas List
Drum roll please.
Here’s my 2013 Internet Marketing Christmas wish list.
My Internet life would sail stress-free in 2014 if these wishes came true.
Less spam mail. Please deliver me more relevant, timely, targeted mail. I don’t mind opening and reading your e-mails if they mean something to me. Yes, I could unsubscribe, but I am amazed at some business, especially retailers, that keep sending me similar messages when I haven’t clicked on a link in months. Can you say round peg in a square hole? It’s it funny how I know look to my postal mail box for sometimes the most relevant, personal, long-lasting messages.
No window shade advertising: It’s been years since I’ve clicked or even acknowledged a pop-up advertisement; it’s now become a race to see how quickly I can find the CLOSE button. I know advertisers are pressed and stressed to deliver eyeballs, clicks, conversions in an ultra-competitive market, yet there must be a better way to build brand equity than force me to go X hunting.
No video auto-start: Call me old fashioned, but I visited a Web page to read an article not watch a video recap. Publishers: clearly label links that include video, and don’t auto-start videos. I know you want to get an advertiser some coveted eyeball, but my eyeballs close when the video ad starts. And with many Web surfers also mixing media by listening to television or Web radio, you’ve just created more friction.
A better way to manage Twitter: I love Twitter because of its constraints. You have 140 characters to persuade, excite, motivate, inform – no ifs, ands, or buts. My follower list, however, has become too large; I can’t see the forest amongst the trees. And the same people, some of whom are saying too much, too often, are clogging up my information stream.
And I close with an ode to my Christmas favorite: “Twas the Night Before Christmas”: (with a technology spin)
On Bezos, On Zuckerberg, On Cook, On Page
To the top of my browser! To the top of my smartphone!
Get smarter. Get leaner. Get more customer-centric.
Until next time,
Dan Naden
