The Truth Behind Online Marketing

Online marketing has created many possibilities and options for marketers, businesses, and consumers. It allows small businesses to extend their reach further than they could have in the past and provides consumers with more options and information when making purchasing decisions or looking for solutions to problems. But all this good isn’t without some bad.

Today, we’ll explore common tactics used by online marketers and how these can lead to positive and negative outcomes, helping us be more aware and discerning online—because the truth is that online marketing isn’t always in our best interests as consumers.

Tactics of Online Marketers

Online marketers employ many tactics to grab our attention and entice us to take a specific action. Below are some commonly used tactics marketers use.

Clickbait

Clickbait involves using sensational headlines or titles to grab our attention, pique our curiosity, and get us to click on an article, ad, or link. The ability to pique curiosity and create a desire to know what is being discussed is an effective way to drive clicks. Because it’s such a prevalent and often disappointing experience, it can do more harm than good if marketers aren’t careful about implementing this tactic.

Emotional Appeals

Eliciting emotions can help marketers connect with their target audience by highlighting pain points, using humor, or fostering nostalgia. These feelings make us more likely to engage with an ad or other marketing effort and take a desired action, like visiting a link or purchasing a product.

Social Proof and Influencer Endorsements

Social proof and endorsements are methods marketers use to create trust and credibility for a product or service. They can take many forms, including reviews, referrals, or influencer tutorials. As consumers, we tend to trust these things or want to hop on the “bandwagon,” often without realizing it, making this tactic effective.

Limited-Time Offers and Scarcity

Another tactic marketers use to drive us to make purchases is the concept of limited-time offers and scarcity. These create a sense of urgency around making a purchase, making it likelier that we will buy something because we feel the opportunity to do so will be lost.

The Positive Outcomes of Online Marketing

Online marketing can positively impact brands and consumers in the following ways:

Increased Accessibility and Reach

For small businesses, online marketing provides accessibility and reach that were previously unavailable to them. They can extend their ads or marketing efforts far beyond a local audience at lower costs, helping them increase their profits and create more sustainable operations.

Personalization and Targeted Ads

For marketers, the personalization of ads means they can create tailored ads that will likely be far more effective than generalized ads aimed at a broader audience. Depending on their perspective, the personalization and specific targeting of ads can also benefit consumers. For those shopping for a particular solution to a problem, these ads can help draw attention to options they may not have considered or inform them of deals on a solution or product they were considering, allowing them to enjoy discounted prices.

Educational Content and Value

A significant part of online marketing is creating educational and value-driven content people enjoy engaging with. This has created a plethora of content that delights, entertains, and teaches us new things online while helping businesses grow brand awareness and build lasting customer relationships.

The Negative Outcomes of Online Marketing

Just as marketing can produce positive outcomes, it can also have negative ones. Concerns surrounding misleading information and privacy are major negative outcomes of note. In addition, the sheer number of ads or marketing content we’re inundated with in our daily activities can be negative for consumers and businesses.

Misleading Information and Deceptive Practices

It’s easy for misinformation to spread online; for marketers, this can have multiple negative outcomes. Misinformation about a brand or product can hurt their bottom line and undermine marketing efforts. It can also erode the trust they’ve built with their audiences. For consumers, the potential of misinformation or deceptive practices used by marketers means that we may not be getting all the information or accurate information we think we are. As a result, we could fall victim to deceptive information delivered to sway our opinion in favor of a business, product, or idea.

Privacy and Data Concerns

Companies track and retain people’s data across platforms to deliver targeted, personalized ads. This leads to concerns about data security, use, and privacy. To mitigate these concerns, businesses and marketers need to ensure they’re taking steps to protect data and maintain consumer trust and regulatory requirements.

Overwhelming Ads

The overwhelming number of ads on digital platforms makes it difficult for marketers to earn high-value ad positions. People’s attention is drawn in many different directions online, making capturing and retaining it through marketing efforts difficult. For consumers, the number of ads and marketing content we face daily can be exhausting and frustrating. Consequently, many of us simply tune them out.

Balancing the Good and the Bad

Seeing the good and bad outcomes of online marketing shows us that it’s not about vilifying marketers but about striking a balance so that the good impacts outweigh the bad. Marketing efforts must be more honest and transparent to avoid misinformation, including inadvertently spreading it. This may require more stringent policies and regulations implemented by governments to ensure that all marketers and businesses adhere to them.

In addition, it’s important that we, as consumers, learn to identify signs of misinformation and unethical marketing practices. Engaging with online ads or marketing materials involves the same discerning approach we would take when gaming online, whether playing live dealer games or the newest pokies. Just as we’d check if an online gaming site provides the necessary regulatory information, responsible gambling resources, and security protecting our personal information before playing, we should look to ensure marketing materials are from a reputable site before we share our personal information or accept their content as true or reliable.