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I remember when I first realized I had a problem, when it came to being online. I'd spend hours on my favorite site, agonizing over getting the wording just right. I cared way too much about what a specific girl would say about what I wrote. I disrupted my sleep schedule, engaged in the usual hyperdriven levels of teenage drama, and frequently valued the relationships made online more than my immediate friends and family.
The year was 1985, and the medium was bulletin boards, the CB radio level precursor to the Internet as most people knew it. My addiction was to a monochrome screen, download times that were barely faster than a very fast typist. But still, strangers on a screen, potentially from all over the world, reacting to what you write. Magic.
The point? Addiction to screens is not exactly a new phenomenon. At least when I was a teen, I had to be in front of my monitor, in my room, with no one else on the house telephone. (Woe to the kids who used pay sites, or dialed in to boards that were long distance calls. That led to spectacular levels of Parental Trouble.)
Today? It's in your pocket, fast, with mutli-media and so much more. You can check it hundreds of times a day, and many do, without ever thinking about it.
How does anyone say no to it, really?
The answer is that, honestly, they don't. Which also means you have untold opportunities to make a buck off them.
The best time to send your commercial email... is probably when no one else is, particularly if you've got a solid offer and an algorithm that's pushing out relevant goods. I've seen big bursts of clicks on 11pm local sends, because we can't say no to the phone or tablet, and looking at the email is nearly as easy as ignoring it.
How about your content piece? Many of the best that I read are sent in the very middle of the overnight, so they aren't above the radar. Others sprinkle them out during the work day, and avoid falling under the waves in the in box by avoiding the channel entirely.
Your marketing and advertising messages exist in a sea of other moments of interruption. Tests are being co-opted by competitors, search, social, direct mail and more, and nothing ever, ever stops. Particularly if you have consumers spread over many time zones, all of them with the ability to always be on. Especially now, when you not only have the ability to receive the message at any time, but the data shows that many, well, are.
I don't know if it's doing anything good for us as a species. I worry about attention spans, sleep schedules, the damage done to personal relationships, the ability to be truly present and focused. I've seen adults pay very good money to play beautiful golf courses, but still online. I've seen others gambling big sums of money, making decisions at a poker table, still online.
We have the ability to market and advertise to these people all the time.
And if we don't, someone else will.
That's a problem, right?
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Another problem: I need you to like or share this column. Feel free to also connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes on the top right. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.
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