The previous article, Banner Blindness Part 1: Distrusting banner ads to the point of oblivion, explored and emphasised the dire crisis that online advertisers are facing when it comes to a mass audience failing to take notice of banner ads. While many seek a solution to combating this consumer condition, we do not, but simply suggest four substitutes to banner advertising which forms part of the realm of inbound content marketing.

Should an online consumer be posed the question as to whether they have any reason, whatsoever, to trust a brand to deliver on their promise message posted on a flashy banner ad, the answer is likely to be no. The statistics in Part 1 seem to support this latter claim. Trust in the credibility of a brand is gained by their establishing themselves as experts in their fields through providing valuable knowledge to their audience, and so being a credible source. A company blog – bursting at the seams with quality content – makes this possible.

It encourages loyalty, or in marketing terms, "brand love". The curated article below offers a concise list of everything needed to ensure the use of a blog to promote your brand, be it a company offering a service or a product.

The 13 Dimensions of a Company Blog: The Centre of Your Marketing Universe by Carina Claasens

Two: Tweet

Twitter allows you to motivate real engagement with an inviting audience. Having Twitter followers means that specific persons have made themselves open to receiving content and communications from you. This however leads to a different challenge in that unlike a blog, where engagement is won through credible content, you now have to win attention through the consistency in your representation of what you offer through headlines alone. Holding your open armed followers is as important as drawing them in. None of the above can be said for banner ads; you are not engaging a neccesarily inviting audience; you are not able to “hold” this audience; and quite frankly, considering  banner blindness, you are not even drawing them in.

The following article explains why and how to make Twitter a part of your promotion strategy,

Sponsored content is when a brand affiliates itself with another brand, person, cause, event etc. Recognition through association is not a new trend and has been used in traditional advertising before. However, in digital marketing where quality content reigns, being a sponsor of great content definitely counts points. If the association is one that will bring credibility and a sense of respect to your brand, it is always a good idea. Marketing fails when it cannot be trusted. Sponsored content can be a way of using affiliation to endorse assimilation. The mutual value of two brands collaborating could prove highly effective provided it is seen by the digital content consumers as subtle, humble and professional.

See the following article for more on this topic and more.

Defining Sponsored Content and Native Advertising by John Denny

I am not reffering to video adverts, especially pre-roll YouTube adverts. Definitely not. I am talking about interesting videos that serve a precise purpose and have the possibility of adding value to the consumer’s everyday life such as video clips that are informative or demonstrational in nature.

The two articles stated below emphasise the importance of marketing your company’s services or products though video, and how to go about doing so.

As I have said previously, we have no interest in combatting banner blindness, or to find some sneaky way to actually make banner ads work. We instead wish to take the “ad” out of the “banner”. The four content marketing solutions mentioned here are but a few that we have tried and tested, and are now excited to testify to its success. There are many other ways to market digitally and those options should be explored before another lump-sum of one’s marketing budget is wasted on banner ads that fall in the blind spots of the majority of web browsers. Digital content consumers are not as gullible as advertisers may think. They should not be underestimated.

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