There’s no such thing as low-hanging fruit

February 9th, 2009 Jackie

The phrase “low hanging fruit” comes up a lot in marketing, particularly in online marketing. I guess this is because people think that online marketing automatically attracts the most obvious of consumers - those who are active participants in their media. And maybe this is true - maybe we’re most engaged and apt to buy when we’re online searching, or reading, or watching a YouTube video. Or maybe it’s just that the BUY NOW button is right in front of us, in all it’s shiny, rounded-edged glory.

Or maybe we’re kidding ourselves.

Are consumers who go online really the low-hanging fruit? Is it even okay to use that phrase when talking about our customers at all? Isn’t it somehow…demeaning? (and don’t get me started on the term “consumer” - but that’s another post).

I think there’s a common assumption that the online audience is easy pickings because they’re doing things like clicking on banners or search ads, watching video content, and, in general interacting with their media rather than passively being exposed to it.

And this may be the case for someone who is just about ready to buy that new t.v., or ipod, or $5000 treadmill. Still, how do we know much legwork other media has done before that low-hanging fruit was primed and ready to respond to that banner ad, text link or BUY NOW button? I mean, I’m no gardener but it seems to me that a lot happens before the fruit dangles low on the branch to begin with. If you’re planning media and you ignore that fact, then your bound to be dissapointed.

Take search, for example (of course we’ll take search. I live search. I breath search. I AM search…)

All too often I’ve been in meetings with clients or prospective clients who scratch their head(s) about their disappointing search results. They’re not getting converions, the cost is more than they expected, is this because of the competition?

But with search, like other forms of media, there really is no low-hanging fruit (unless you count brand terms - and even then, it’s with established brands, and how does a brand become established - lots of care and feeding…)

When a search campaign horribly disappoints it’s generally because the keywords are too broad, or the landing page falls terribly short of consumer expectations or half your traffic is coming from parked domains and error pages. So yes, lots of people may have found you by typing “blue suede shoes” into Google, but they left without those shoes because you sent them to a landing page filled with hot pink platform sandals.

And don’t you see? I don’t want hot pink platform sandals! I don’t care that you also sell blue suede shoes. Send me to a page that speaks to me!

But redesigning your web page, or creating landing pages, or culling a keyword list so that you’re getting rid of unwanted clicks suddenly turns low hanging fruit into high maintenance gardening. And that’s just as it should be. Because low-hanging fruit always starts off way out of reach and under-ripe. Plus it gets offended if you call it low-hanging fruit without really understanding all it went through before it turned plump, ripe and ready to pick.

If anyone can overuse a metaphor, tis I..

Entry Filed under: E-Marketing Advice