iOS 9 launched last week and brought with it an unexpected problem – the sudden rise of smartphone ad blockers. Apple opened up their Safari browser to ad blockers, which immediately led to apps such as Purify, Peace (which has subsequently been removed from the App Store), AdMop, and Crystal becoming a success overnight.
This triggered off a wave of debate across the business world as millions of users began to entirely quash expensive digital marketing campaigns. Ad blocks have the capacity to block YouTube and other video ads, pop-ups, display marketing, Facebook ads, and numerous other cutting-edge techniques.
Whilst the apps are far from mainstream (indeed, AdBlock has been available for desktop users for years without affecting digital marketing results), iOS 9 and its new apps have set off industry-wide debate about the potential far-reaching results of ad blockers. We had a think, too, and highlight why your business shouldn’t be panicking.
Good VS Bad Advertising
The internet and advertising are ubiquitous – whether it’s a YouTube ad with a 5 second delay to “skip”, or display marketing following consumers around, digital marketing is cutting edge and allows businesses to get granular with their ad strategies.
This has irritated some users enough to download ad blockers. Whilst the sudden success of ad blockers startled many businesses this week, the software is nothing new. Ad Block, for instance, has 200 million users.
The controversy surrounding the issue has turned the debate towards the difference between good and bad advertising. It’s important to state there is a difference. Inbound and outbound marketing highlight this well, with the latter considered an invasive form or advertising which consumers dislike.
However, the popularity of ad blockers suggests outbound marketing has been overstepping the line over the last few years, with consumers becoming irritated by invasive advertising (perhaps most notoriously with video blocking YouTube ads).
How To Develop Your Businesses’ Marketing Strategy
Whilst some businesses may be concerned or even panicking, and the sudden rise of ad blockers this week won’t have helped that, it’s important to stress the issue isn’t a full blown crisis. Far from it, as despite the popularity of ad blockers they barely scratch at the surface of the vast audiences who surf the internet, many of whom are perfectly happy without the software.
There are, however, ways to go about advertising which overcome ad blockers, and even techniques which encourage people to steer clear from them. Whilst ad blockers can help block adverts users don’t want to see, they also have a habit of blocking vital information, a “false positive” as it’s known in marketing.
The best way to go about digital marketing is to be innovative, creative, and unique, and to develop this approach all the time. The following techniques can help your business along.
1. SEO
This update highlights the outright importance of quality SEO. If your content is well optimised with White Hat SEO and a well-structured strategy, the traffic your brand can gain organically is a match for any well-run advertising campaigns.
Simply put, hone down your SEO efforts and keep traffic coming to your site with clever outreach campaigns, brilliant use of keywords, and finely tuned title tags and meta descriptions.
2. Lead Generation
We specialise in lead generation and we know the many benefits it has to offer businesses. It’s an ideal way to generate interest in key areas of your site with CTA-driven forms, icons, and content.
Better yet, lead generation is based around proactive customers who are actively seeking out your brand’s products or services. It’s a cutting-edge concept and one which bagged the industry some £16.5 billion in revenue in 2014, making it one of the go-to marketing techniques as it’s not invasive.
3. Content Marketing
Through a mixture of native advertising, infographics, newsletters, and content outreach, businesses can produce evergreen digital marketing which is creative and informative. Content marketing is fantastic as it doesn’t tend to annoy internet users.
Furthermore, email marketing, press releases, and crowdsourcing are more tactics which can be developed as part of a content marketing strategy. Better still, several of these approaches can assist your brand with its SEO and boost social media activities with new copy.
4. Social Media
Don’t forget the power of social media! You don’t necessarily need to promote your posts for maximum exposure – you can develop a strong social media presence through the likes of Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and other more obscure services such as StumbleUpon.
Experiment to find which ones are the best fit for your business, as sometimes even unexpected formats can produce great results for your business.
5. Be Creative!
One of the main reasons for the success of ad blockers is the often repetitive, uninspired nature of digital marketing. Formats such as Instagram allow businesses to work around this, but brands can help their campaigns by being fun and friendly, driving engagement with a sense of adventure.
Today’s consumers are ultra-savvy and know exactly why ads are there – to make businesses more money. Give them a real reason to click on that CTA icon.
