How to “Rush Limbaugh” Your Audience Online

As of yesterday morning, the exodus of advertisers from the Rush Limbaugh radio program reached a new high: Forty.

After publicly calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a 'slut' and 'prostitute' who should have to post video of herself having sexual intercourse on the internet in order to go before congress to argue that health insurance should cover birth control, Limbaugh's radio program is watching sponsors sprint away from their advertising commitments.

Which made me think ...

Is it possible to be a 'Rush Limbaugh' advertiser to consumers online?

Here are a few ways you could offend your target audience, online consumers and internet users as a whole when advertising online:

• Ignore Frequency Caps: Delivering thousands of impressions a day to users who are not taking action on your message is a quick way to infuriate online consumers.

• Try implementing a frequency cap to avoid this gross over-communication.

• Speaking Down to Your Audience: Look in the eyes of your target audience -- is the message your brand is using to communicate demeaning, ignorant or in poor taste? Yes, we know that Old Spice & Dos Equis style humor is all the rage right now, but be careful how you speak to consumers.

• Poor User Experience: You deliver an impression to an online consumer, who takes action by clicking on the ad, leading them to a Iowa-style corn maze landing page where they have no idea how to obtain the offer they clicked on or where to find support for their questions.

• Click on your own ads and go through the user flow of your conversion funnel, just like we recommended in this blog post.

Feel free to share your own thoughts on Rush Limbaugh-esque advertising situations.

PS -- MKG Media has no political ties, religious discriminations, gender / sexual orientation biases or satanistic views. We're from San Francisco, so all we ask is for a happy and healthy world to surround ourselves with. Thanks for recycling!