Why I like postal letterbox junk mail and Google ads!
These days we often hear people complaining about junk mail in their letterbox and Google ads. In fact, the lack of ads is listed as a benefit for some types of online services when you take up the paid version. To me, the removal of the ads is actually a negative! My ideal is to be able to show or hide them at will, should I be signed up to a service that hides the ads for a paid version.
Why is this so?
Aside from the more obvious informative nature of Google ads and postal junk mail; which I actually find very helpful and useful at times, a key point which is often missed, is that in some cases people have paid a very large sum of money to have the adverts designed. As such, Google ads, and especially some postal junk mail, are an educational tool that have been produced at considerable expense by someone else. Over the years, I have learnt a great deal about marketing from studying such material. And it all arrives in my letter box free of charge!
As a modern Internet marketer, I also find being able to view the Google ads very informative from that perspective too. For my own domain based e-mail I use Google Apps, which in simple terms is very similar to Gmail – users will be familiar with the adverts that appear off to the right hand side and many have probably noticed how the nature of the ads can be influenced by the words in the text of the e-mail. There is also a little bar across the top which shows a different website every now and again, though I am not sure what parameters it uses to determine which website to show.
Postal junk mail has also been a rich source of leads for potential customers too. This is especially pertinent because by definition of being a sender of postal junk mail, they are clearly very interested in marketing. Because I help businesses with their marketing as one of my services I am in effect receiving a shortlist of people who are very interested in marketing, have a marketing budget to spend and are currently active with their efforts to gain new custom.
So, instead of moaning about junk mail or Google ads, I see them as a rich resource of information and education from a number of perspectives. Much better I think than sticking with the status quo and having a good old negative moan! Dare I say even a sanctimonious moan!
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