Men are more responsive to online ads than women, according to an eye-tracking study by picture provider Shutterstock. Men looked at the ads for 0.4 seconds longer than females (0.9 seconds vs 0.5 seconds) while noticing a third of the ads in the study, compared to a quarter for women. This is an example of useless research and is a clear indication that some research companies don’t have any common sense.
First, let’s try and discount the fact that this study was funded by a website that sells images to the public. Every marketer should know that men, in general, are more responsive to visuals than women. Women tend to read content and explore, sometimes in depth, marketers’ claims, but men..well, we like to look at pictures.
When we first take on a new client, we tend to go back to square one and ask common sense questions like..
- What do you know about your customers?
- Where do they go online?
- What is your compelling reason to convert a prospect into a customer?
- What is your brand objective?
Believe it or not we often have clients who have a hard time answering these questions and there are clients who give different answers by department. There is so much big data out there now that there are vendors offering to translate big data into actionable insights, but [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]big data can be a huge way to lose sight of your customers.[/inlinetweet]
Then there are the published studies all over the Internet that try and convince marketers that they absolutely have to do something or be somewhere. Guess what, [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]consumers want you to butt out, which is why ad blocking software is becoming more popular.[/inlinetweet]
There should be a course taught in college called “common sense vs. common garbage”. Marketing is not complicated if you do two things really well:
1ne: [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Put yourself in place of the consumer and ask “what’s in it for me?”[/inlinetweet]
2wo: [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Treat your employees better or as well as you treat your customers because they are your brand whether you like it or not[/inlinetweet].
Big data is meaningless unless it results in your brand getting closer to your customers or telling you why someone chose a competitor over your brand. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] By the time it takes to collect, analyze and build consensus on what big data is telling you your competitor is selling more product.[/inlinetweet]
Next time you see a headline that should be common sense just ignore it. If someone wants you to download a white paper, but requires you to give your personal information pass it by because you’re just going to be disappointed and bothered by spam or calls from another potential vendor.
Common sense has left the building…
