Visit our sponsors
Aprilaire Humidifiers
Honeywell Air Purifiers
Moving, in or around Chicago?
Call Leslie Wagner Wasburn with Starck & Company 847-910-0010
BlindandDrapery.com
The Best Made Window Treatments
You'll Ever Own
If you build it they will come.
Unfortunately that only works in the
movies.
On Internet marketing - By Daniel Eaton
This is the second of a series of articles related to Internet marketing and promotion.
Banner advertising. If you been on the Internet you cannot help but notice the square, rectangular and even round annoyances on web pages that flash messages to click here to buy now. They are commonly referred to as "billboards on the information superhighway." The biggest question is do they really produce results? They key here is the word 'results'. What is your desired effect upon the reader? Do you want them to click to your site for some subsequent action or merely reinforce visual brand awareness of your product or service?
Getting a response from readers is more difficult than you think. A typical click through rate, that is when a reader clicks on the banner ad and actually goes to your web site, is typically 2% to 3% of the actual number of times the banner advertisement is displayed to a reader (impression). I place emphasis upon typical. Your click thru rate may be higher or lower depending upon your message, how the ad is displayed and the site that you are advertising on. There is a direct proportion between the number of impressions and the number of times someone actually clicks through to your site. It is very important determine the web site traffic before you enter an agreement to advertise. You should have already made the determination that the site will reach your target audience. It is this combination that determines value.
Your target market determines a web site's advertising value. For instance, if I have a list of 10,000 people and a list of 10,000 homebuyers in need of a mortgage, the second list is infinitely more valuable to a lender than the first. Now let's place this in perspective. Let's say that we know that 5% of the general public is looking for home loan at any one given time. In the first example, that list represents 500 actual prospects. Let's say the second list really didn't have the 10,000 people as they said. The traffic on the second site would have be greater than 500 to prove the site as a valuable advertising media.
Web sites are eager for your advertising dollar. Sales reps may exaggerate to entice you to advertise with them. Can you trust them with accurate traffic numbers? Ask to see web site traffic statistics. If they are audited, better yet. There are independent and unbiased third parties that audit web site traffic. www.ipro.com, and http://www.netratings.com are two independent auditors. Exercise caution in looking at traffic statistics. Don't be dazzled by fancy graphs, look a little deeper. Some web site traffic analyzers look only at the big picture and may include traffic that is not even relevant to where in the web site you plan to advertise. For example, some sites may host other companies on the same server. Their traffic numbers may be included in the overall report that you see. When in comes to banner advertising caveat emptor is the rule of thumb.
Web site advertising is based upon cost per thousand impressions (cpm). I have seen some companies pay upwards of $120 cpm, when they could have purchased a keyword on a major search engine for $85 cpm. When they overpaid they either didn't realize they overpaid or simply didn't ask the right questions. On the average, you can expect to pay about $45 per cpm.
Opt-In advertising programs. Is banner advertising right for you? Perhaps, but there are other alternatives. One is an e-zine sponsorship. E-zines are electronic magazines or newsletter that are broadcast electronically to members of the list. These lists center on specific topics. There are of few zillion e-mail lists on the Internet. They are opt-in programs that consumers may subscribe and unsubscribe freely. They are great tools to get your message to a very targeted audience. Many list managers will welcome the opportunity to place your message within their message for a fee. In addition to e-zines, a growing number of advertisers are using opt-in email. There is a company called www.yesmail.com who specializes upon this method of permission based e-mail marketing. They have a wealth of information on their web site. Not to be confused with spam, you know, the massive quantities of junk e-mail you get every day, the reader has given you permission to send them mail. They tout results upwards of 10%.
Whatever your marketing campaign may include, it is essential to provide a method to monitor results. It can be done without being obvious. Here is an example. If you place a classified ad in the Tribune you can place your telephone number and 'ask for Jane.' In the Pioneer Press, you can place the same ad with the exception of 'ask for Joe'. You can then track the number of callers that ask for Jane and Joe to measure how effective a particular media is performing. You can take it to the next level and place two different telephone numbers and then track the number of calls that come into each. The same principal can be carried over to the Internet. You can have the advertiser link to special pages on your web site to measure how effective the web site is performing. Each page can be named banner1, banner2, etc. and you can measure the click through rate rather than trust their numbers.
There are number of factors that influence the effectiveness of an ad campaign. Before giving up on a particular web site or media, work with them. They may have other alternatives or may offer suggestions on how to improve your results. Be certain to look at the quality of leads as well. One media may produce a greater number of prospects with a lower closing ratio, while another may deliver less leads with a greater closing ratio.
The bottom line is to use due diligence and do your homework before entering this new media advertising marketplace.
©1999-2005 Daniel Eaton, All right s reserved. Mr. Eaton can be reached at UncleDan@UncleDan.com