I repost my old post about desktop marketing.
We all heard about email marketing, web marketing, direct marketing and many other names and types of marketing. Desktop marketing is pretty old and new at once. It had been used for a long time since we all got VGA displays and graphical user interfaces. It’s new because it becomes more and more popular nowadays. All kind of marketing catching us everywhere in our mailboxes and e-mailboxes, in mags and newspapers, on TV and radio, on web pages and on billboards along the home-work-home roads. It’s everywhere and fulfils all the blank space in space. I mean on Earth.
Computer desktops still quite silent places. But why they are so delicious for marketers? Desktops have one very unique quality – they are always behind user’s eyes.
I hear a lot of grumbles frequently: “It’s not possible. The users don’t want and won’t allow your brand on their desktops.” Nonsense I must say. We all have Microsoft (or Apple) brand on our desktops, right in the left (sorry for another one pun) corner, on the start button. Look at that, it’s a Windows logo. I have wallpaper with my notebook vendor logo on it. Why? Because it was pre-installed and it looks very nice to me, I like it much more than Windows wallpapers or sort of very widespread photo-wallpapers.
You’ve got the idea! Give the user something he need or like and he put your brand on desktop with appreciate for this kindly gift. I’ll put it without any objections if:
- This is helpful or nice to me
- I like it
- It doesn’t look like a trick
Here is great example of desktop alert: Livemint Desktop Alert. It’s small utility that allows you to receive business news, stock prices and other useful information. That’s obvious that if you are in the business this information is very valuable for you and receiving it right on desktop just on time is a big benefit. 