We cannot escape advertisements, advertorials, infomercials an other assorted marketing communications we are exposed to every time we use the internet. Very few of these ads are worth a read, and fewer still are the ones that we may choose to click. We have developed ad blindness, and unless an advertisement or a marketing campaign is truly memorable a.k.a “sticky”, we forget it within seconds of viewing it. On similar lines, websites that manage to retain viewer interest and have low bounce rates are referred to as “sticky”. This stickiness is a prized attribute and requires a slightly different route to that taken by most web marketers.

A simple and memorable message is at the heart of sticky campaigns. The message is further reinforced through a catchy tagline. This approach requires that marketers eschew listing all the salient features of their product or service, and instead focus on one strong selling point that also has the ability to make an emotional connection with the audience. For example, if you’re selling a budget-friendly air conditioner, then stress on low power bills even during peak summer. When crafting copy for a campaign to make it stick in the minds of the audience, you may have to remove other details so that only one strong feature stands out.

The ad has to strike a chord at an emotional level. You need to appeal to the brain and the heart. A novel or an unexpected twist in the ad that reaches out at a personal level to the audience will enhance the ad’s stickability. In the example mentioned above, it could be a good idea to suggest that the savings accrued can be used to fulfill other dreams and expectations.

Traditional marketing accentuates a product’s features and hopes to create a desire for those features. A sticky ad considers a customer’s requirement and highlights that singular feature of a product that is most likely to fulfill that requirement. A sticky advertisement is less about enhancing a brand’s image and more about telling customers how a product can enhance the quality of their lives. Every opportunity to interact with an audience should be used to inform them about the tangible and intangible benefits of using your products or services.

There are technical and non-technical aspects to creating a sticky website. Easy navigation, quick loading pages, and automated emails to ensure regular engagement with an audience are examples of technical things that webmasters need to take care of. Useful content that ranks high on the search engines, clever placement of links in the content to keep the reader on the web page, and using social media to drive traffic and reinforce the marketing message are examples of the non-technical part of creating a sticky website.