Imagine, if you will, the following scene:

I am a member of your key demographic. I am web-savvy and spend between 10 and 15 hours a week online. I have been using a prominent search engine to research products and services your company offers. Due to the search engine optimization efforts in which your company invests, links to your website are featured prominently in my organic search results. I click on one such link…I am taken to your primary landing page…and your online sales video auto-plays, replete with background music and voice-over at full blare.

Congratulations! You have just alienated a member of your target audience. In fact, you have created a monumentally bad first impression that will greatly reduce the likelihood that I will ever click through to your URL again.

How have you accomplished this so quickly? By attempting to seize control of our interaction and dictate the terms of our online conversation. In the above scenario, your decision to force-feed me your online sales video via auto-play is akin to someone attempting to dominate a real-world conversation by yelling more loudly than the other participants. At best, this tactic is ineffective. At worst, it is downright insulting.

Don’t be rude. Don’t be that person who attempts to dominate the interaction. Allow your site visitors to control their experience on your website to the fullest possible degree. After all, you are paying for each and every visitor (through SEO, SEM, web design, online promotions, banners, etc., etc.). Why in the world would you risk alienating them when you finally get them to your site?

According to the poet John Donne, there are those who listen and those who wait to speak. Your online marketing efforts will perform better if you are one of the former.