A survey of people who use the internet has shown that they are much more likely to read and act upon articles on web sites that include brand information than they are to take any action over banners, pop-ups, email offers and sponsored links.

The survey from Adfusion says that 51% of respondents are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and act upon relevant material in articles – and the figure gets higher as the salary goes up.

Pop-up ads are least likely to be read or acted upon by all demographic groups and audience segments.

The survey asked respondents to rate their likelihood to read and act upon five types of online advertising: banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers, articles that include brand information, and sponsored search engine links.

The results in terms of likelihood to read…

Articles that include brand information: 51%
Email offers: 47%
Sponsored search engine links: 39%
Banner ads: 25%
Pop-up ads: 13%

Pop-up ads are universally the least liked option for everyone.

The survey focussed on consumer ads, but there is no reason to believe that this is different for B2B advertisements. As an example of how this system might work you might care to have a look at several ways that Hamilton House has used this.

We publish short articles (indeed like this one) as blog reports.
These may be developed into articles and held on our web site, see for example, http://www.hamilton-house.com/marketingminute.html
Whole series of articles can then be brought together onto web sites of their own as at www.theory.bz

If you would like to talk about building up articles in this way, do give me a call on 01536 399 000