Let’s kick the week off with a conundrum.
Every day we are told of the protean capacity of social media marketing to reach hundreds upon thousands of highly targeted, ready to buy consumers.
Yet at the same time, we are also reliably informed that the average click rate for an online banner ad is 0.07
That’s 7 clicks per 10,000 ads.
How does that work, I wonder?
Fantastic Reach vs. Laughable Conversion.
Discuss.
In the two-cents saloon of social opinion, I’ve got a dollar to spend, so here goes.
Let’s suppose for a minute that the reach numbers touted by data-driven media really are all they’re cracked up to be – I have my doubts, but I’ll let that pass for now – how is it that so many eyeballs can be delivered to so little effect?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it’s because THE WORK IS CRAP.
In our rush to embrace this shiny new channel as the solution to everything, we’ve forgotten that delivery is only half the task at hand and that the real job begins the moment the ad is served up.
That’s when Data Delivery switches to Message Delivery.
Message Delivery requires a powerfully crafted message that communicates a single strategic thought persuasively and with impact. It will engage, intrigue, provoke, compel, seduce and, dare I say it, sell.
Dumping a bland message in the general vicinity of the viewer isn’t going to cut it.
Message Delivery is a whole different skill set from Data Delivery.
The knack for grabbing people’s attention is a learned discipline, and it’s one that the new generation of digital natives just don’t have.
The irony is that the folks who do – the seasoned ad pros who’ve seen it, done it a hundred times – are being laid off in vast swathes right now.
Replace the people who can with people that can’t.
Beats me why anyone would think that’s a good idea.
But that’s a conundrum for another day.
Blokewriter 
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