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Hub You - Chapter 13 - Online Advertising - Throwing a Banner into the Works
If you sell your own services, you must have an elevator speech that tells others what you do. The idea is that if you find yourself sharing an elevator with someone who might be a potential client, you need a way to tell what you do before those elevator doors open up.Here are a few ideas that might help you create the perfect elevator speech: Dont try to tell everything. You just cant tell it all. You are giving a 30 second commercial about yourself, not a 30 minute infomercial. Pick out the most important things from the clients perspective and save the rest for later. Heres my example, I am a freelance copywriter. I write the words on websites and ads that turn casual visitors into buyers. Guess what? I actually write a lot more than just web content and ads, but those are the two categories that get the most attention, so I just save the rest for future conversations.Focus on you primary benefit (or two). Again, you must look at your business from the point of view of your potential client. How can you help them? What improvements can you make in their business?Always, always, always construct your elevator speech by imagining your cornered elevator companion has just
A few years ago, flash micro sites were all the rage - now the same functionality can exist right within the ad
Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or "send to a friend" functionality - again from right within the ad
Video - check out video previews from within the ad
Targeting
Online ads can further directly target your intended market by various means:
Geo-Targeting - Online Advertising has the ability to target by country, province or city, and can even drill down to IP address
Network / Browser Type - Markets can further be targeted via networks / browser types such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, MAC etc
Connection Type - Users can be segmented on broadband or dial up connections
Day and Time - Chose any time of day, any day of the week. This usually depends on the client objective of the campaign or the product itself
Capping - Limiting the amount of times a user sees a particular ad
Measurability
Banner ads, like all eMarketing tactics, are measurable. Track click-through rates and you get an idea of exactly how many people are responding to your call to action. Some publishers even have the ability to do post-click tracking i.e. you can track the user all the way to a sale if that is the purpose of the advert.
Similarity with Traditional Media
eMarketers regularly bemoan the fact that it's sometimes difficult to educate the market on the value of Internet marketing techniques. Traditional buyers of advertising have been conditioned in a certain fashion and have come to understand advertising in a certain way.
Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Ads
Free classifieds sites are everywhere on the internet. What are they, how do they work and are they really a place that you should advertise in? A free classified website is just what it sounds like.A place where you can advertise for free, and other people can see your ads. That sounds like a great idea, and it is sometimes. The people that are advertising on free classified sites don't have to pay anything, and the people who run the sites get lots of free visitors that they would not have received otherwise.The way they work is very simple. People come to the website either looking to buy a product or looking to advertise one (Most people just want to advertise). People who want to place ads can either do so directly, or they are required to log into a password system that gives them a free membership.After you receive your free membership, you can place your ad. The webmasters who run the sites really have the best deal though. They can sell banner space in the site, or collect the e-mail addresses of the advertisers, and then turn around and sell them something else (Really a sweet deal if you think about it).Think about it for a second. Most of the people who want free ads on your site probably aren't
The Multi-Purpose Nature of Advertising
Advertising, whether online or offline, always has a number of objectives:
Building brand awareness
Creating consumer demand
Informing consumers of your ability to satisfy that demand
But when you really think about it, they can be distilled into just one action: Increasing Sales!
Advertising is based on the simple economics of demand and supply. Advertisers aim to stimulate a consumer need and then satisfy that need. Create the demand. Then satisfy the demand.
Building Brand Awareness
Making people aware of your brand or product is an important long-term goal. Once customers know about you, you've taken that first big step towards gaining their trust... and their patronage. It's a simple fact that the best known brands do more business. And therein lies the rub.
The ultimate goal is to do more business and sell more.
Building brand awareness is perhaps the key strong point of online creative advertising. It's largely visual, making it an ideal channel for promoting brand collateral.
Creating Consumer Demand
Brand and product awareness is also about creating demand. Advertising needs to convince consumers about what they should want and why they should want it. Modern online advertising can provide a great way to communicate the USP's of your product, thereby helping stimulate demand.
Aspiration is a function of knowledge. You can't want what you don't know about.
Satisfy Consumer Demand
Once your consumer wants something, they need to know of your ability to satisfy that want. If your brand building has been effective, they know you exist. Now tell them how you can deliver what they need.
Driving Traffic and Sales
If your Online Advertising campaign doesn't drive traffic, then there's really no point in it, is there? All forms of online marketing need to drive traffic in the long term. But what about the short and medium term?
That's where the immediacy of Online Advertising comes to the fore. Unlike traditional media advertising, Online Advertising can turn the potential customer into an actual customer right there and then. What's more - you can track exactly how effectively your campaign does this.
Payment Models
Depending on the primary goal of the campaign, different payment models can be used:
CPM or CPI
Paying for exposure. CPM refers to Cost Per Thousand and CPI to Cost Per Impression. This is usually how a campaign would be priced when brand awareness is the primary goal. It's also how most banner ads are priced in South Africa.
CPC
Paying for clicks. CPC stands for Cost Per Click. Normally associated with Paid Search Marketing, banners can be priced this way when the aim is to drive traffic. This is seldom used in South Africa.
CPA
Paying for acquisition. CPA refers to Cost Per Acquisition. This model means the publisher carries all the risk. The advertiser only pays when an advert delivers an acquisition.
If you're into buying banner advertising, this is the best way to pay - if you're selling it, it's the worst way to charge. Not surprisingly, the CPA model is not commonly used for banner advertising and is generally associated with Affiliate Marketing. Of course, the lines blur when you're publishing an affiliate banner.
Flat Rate
Sometimes, owners of lower-traffic sites choose to sell banner space at a flat rate i.e. at a fixed cost per month regardless of traffic or amount of impressions. This would appeal to a media buyer who may be testing an online campaign generally targeting niche markets.
So What Exactly Are Banners?
In simplest terms, a banner ad is a hyperlinked image. The image carries the message and the hyperlink takes the visitor to the advertiser's landing page.
Of course it doesn't have to merely be an image. In fact, this form of advertising has come a long way since the early days of images that say "click here!" and drop you off at the homepage of the advertiser's website.
Banners can contain other forms of rich media as well and many use interactivity and sound to draw attention. The use of action scripts and technologies like Flash has taken this form of Online Advertising to a whole new level.
Types of Banner Ads - Size Matters!
As mentioned before, "banner advertising" is something of a misnomer. Banners come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Perhaps calling it "rich media advertising" or "online creative advertising" is more descriptive.
If we break it down traditionally, banner advertising can be separated into various categories according to their size and shape:
Banners
o Full Banner: 468 X 60
o Half Banner: 234 X 60
o Micro Bar: 88 X 31
o Vertical Banner / Mini Skyscraper: 120 X 240
o Leaderboard: 770 X 60
Buttons
o Button 1: 120 X 90
o Button 2: 120 X 60
o Micro Button: 80 X 15
o Square Button: 125 X 125 / 120 X 120
Rectangular ads
o Medium Rectangle: 300 X 250
o Square Pop-Up: Any size, but 200 X 200 is common
o Vertical Rectangle: 240 X 400
o Large Rectangle: 336 X 280
o Rectangle: 180 X 150 and other variations
Skyscrapers
o Wide Skyscraper: 160 X 600
o Skyscraper: 120 X 600
o Half Page Ad / Super Skyscraper: 300 X 600
While the sizes above indicate the generally accepted dimensions of ads, rich media technologies mean the ads themselves can expand beyond the allocated area of page real estate. Expanding ads, that "pop-out" on mouse-over, overlay ads that appear on top of site content, and ads that incorporate interactive elements have become very popular.
But Why Banner Advertising?
In previous chapters we went on and on about the value of marketing tools that focus on giving consumers what they want when they're looking for it. Now, all of a sudden we're changing course and suggesting a method of interruption marketing? What's that about then?
Horses for courses - and some campaigns are just better suited to visual means.
You're promoting travel packages. What stirs more emotion - an image of a tropical paradise? Or the words "tropical paradise?"
Want to build your brand within a specific sphere? Why not brand, through banner advertising, the websites of every major player in that niche?
Running a competition? Keep your target market's eye on the prize
Launching an exciting new sports car? Images with a call to action - "test drive it now" - or interactive rich media that highlight all the exciting new features as you mouse-over that part of the car on the image
Interactivity
Since banners can contain rich media, they offer levels of interactivity that other forms of advertising can't reach. Get your target market to not only see your banner, get them to play with it too. Interaction builds a bond and improves the chances of the consumer remembering your brand tomorrow.
Animations, games, video, flash - and you thought banner ads were just hyperlinked pictures. Modern Online Advertising is able to bring together a number of other online marketing tactics:
A few years ago, flash micro sites were all the rage - now the same functionality can exist right within the ad
Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or "send to a friend" functionality - again from right within the ad
Video - check out video previews from within the ad
Targeting
Online ads can further directly target your intended market by various means:
Geo-Targeting - Online Advertising has the ability to target by country, province or city, and can even drill down to IP address
Network / Browser Type - Markets can further be targeted via networks / browser types such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, MAC etc
Connection Type - Users can be segmented on broadband or dial up connections
Day and Time - Chose any time of day, any day of the week. This usually depends on the client objective of the campaign or the product itself
Capping - Limiting the amount of times a user sees a particular ad
Measurability
Banner ads, like all eMarketing tactics, are measurable. Track click-through rates and you get an idea of exactly how many people are responding to your call to action. Some publishers even have the ability to do post-click tracking i.e. you can track the user all the way to a sale if that is the purpose of the advert.
Similarity with Traditional Media
eMarketers regularly bemoan the fact that it's sometimes difficult to educate the market on the value of Internet marketing techniques. Traditional buyers of advertising have been conditioned in a certain fashion and have come to understand advertising in a certain way.
Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Ads
A gatekeeper is defined in the dictionary as someone who controls access to something.If you're entering an exclusive gated community, the gatekeeper is the person who gives you access to that community.When it comes to marketing, gatekeepers play the same role.They have the power to give you access to a community of your ideal clients.And not only can they give you access, they can also give you an implied endorsement. This means those prospective clients will think more highly of you and your business than if they just happened to bump into your marketing on their own.Pretty powerful stuff.Here are 3 steps you can use to put this powerful marketing strategy to work for you.Step 1.The first step to employing the gatekeeper approach to marketing is to identify organizations, industry associations, businesses, or even individuals who already have as clients or members, large numbers of your ideal clients.Step 2.Make sure you have something of value to offer the gatekeeper. You might be able to offer them a free talk or teleseminar for their audience. Or, you could offer them a commission on all sales made to their members or clients.
Driving Traffic and Sales
If your Online Advertising campaign doesn't drive traffic, then there's really no point in it, is there? All forms of online marketing need to drive traffic in the long term. But what about the short and medium term?
That's where the immediacy of Online Advertising comes to the fore. Unlike traditional media advertising, Online Advertising can turn the potential customer into an actual customer right there and then. What's more - you can track exactly how effectively your campaign does this.
Payment Models
Depending on the primary goal of the campaign, different payment models can be used:
CPM or CPI
Paying for exposure. CPM refers to Cost Per Thousand and CPI to Cost Per Impression. This is usually how a campaign would be priced when brand awareness is the primary goal. It's also how most banner ads are priced in South Africa.
CPC
Paying for clicks. CPC stands for Cost Per Click. Normally associated with Paid Search Marketing, banners can be priced this way when the aim is to drive traffic. This is seldom used in South Africa.
CPA
Paying for acquisition. CPA refers to Cost Per Acquisition. This model means the publisher carries all the risk. The advertiser only pays when an advert delivers an acquisition.
If you're into buying banner advertising, this is the best way to pay - if you're selling it, it's the worst way to charge. Not surprisingly, the CPA model is not commonly used for banner advertising and is generally associated with Affiliate Marketing. Of course, the lines blur when you're publishing an affiliate banner.
Flat Rate
Sometimes, owners of lower-traffic sites choose to sell banner space at a flat rate i.e. at a fixed cost per month regardless of traffic or amount of impressions. This would appeal to a media buyer who may be testing an online campaign generally targeting niche markets.
So What Exactly Are Banners?
In simplest terms, a banner ad is a hyperlinked image. The image carries the message and the hyperlink takes the visitor to the advertiser's landing page.
Of course it doesn't have to merely be an image. In fact, this form of advertising has come a long way since the early days of images that say "click here!" and drop you off at the homepage of the advertiser's website.
Banners can contain other forms of rich media as well and many use interactivity and sound to draw attention. The use of action scripts and technologies like Flash has taken this form of Online Advertising to a whole new level.
Types of Banner Ads - Size Matters!
As mentioned before, "banner advertising" is something of a misnomer. Banners come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Perhaps calling it "rich media advertising" or "online creative advertising" is more descriptive.
If we break it down traditionally, banner advertising can be separated into various categories according to their size and shape:
Banners
o Full Banner: 468 X 60
o Half Banner: 234 X 60
o Micro Bar: 88 X 31
o Vertical Banner / Mini Skyscraper: 120 X 240
o Leaderboard: 770 X 60
Buttons
o Button 1: 120 X 90
o Button 2: 120 X 60
o Micro Button: 80 X 15
o Square Button: 125 X 125 / 120 X 120
Rectangular ads
o Medium Rectangle: 300 X 250
o Square Pop-Up: Any size, but 200 X 200 is common
o Vertical Rectangle: 240 X 400
o Large Rectangle: 336 X 280
o Rectangle: 180 X 150 and other variations
Skyscrapers
o Wide Skyscraper: 160 X 600
o Skyscraper: 120 X 600
o Half Page Ad / Super Skyscraper: 300 X 600
While the sizes above indicate the generally accepted dimensions of ads, rich media technologies mean the ads themselves can expand beyond the allocated area of page real estate. Expanding ads, that "pop-out" on mouse-over, overlay ads that appear on top of site content, and ads that incorporate interactive elements have become very popular.
But Why Banner Advertising?
In previous chapters we went on and on about the value of marketing tools that focus on giving consumers what they want when they're looking for it. Now, all of a sudden we're changing course and suggesting a method of interruption marketing? What's that about then?
Horses for courses - and some campaigns are just better suited to visual means.
You're promoting travel packages. What stirs more emotion - an image of a tropical paradise? Or the words "tropical paradise?"
Want to build your brand within a specific sphere? Why not brand, through banner advertising, the websites of every major player in that niche?
Running a competition? Keep your target market's eye on the prize
Launching an exciting new sports car? Images with a call to action - "test drive it now" - or interactive rich media that highlight all the exciting new features as you mouse-over that part of the car on the image
Interactivity
Since banners can contain rich media, they offer levels of interactivity that other forms of advertising can't reach. Get your target market to not only see your banner, get them to play with it too. Interaction builds a bond and improves the chances of the consumer remembering your brand tomorrow.
Animations, games, video, flash - and you thought banner ads were just hyperlinked pictures. Modern Online Advertising is able to bring together a number of other online marketing tactics:
A few years ago, flash micro sites were all the rage - now the same functionality can exist right within the ad
Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or "send to a friend" functionality - again from right within the ad
Video - check out video previews from within the ad
Targeting
Online ads can further directly target your intended market by various means:
Geo-Targeting - Online Advertising has the ability to target by country, province or city, and can even drill down to IP address
Network / Browser Type - Markets can further be targeted via networks / browser types such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, MAC etc
Connection Type - Users can be segmented on broadband or dial up connections
Day and Time - Chose any time of day, any day of the week. This usually depends on the client objective of the campaign or the product itself
Capping - Limiting the amount of times a user sees a particular ad
Measurability
Banner ads, like all eMarketing tactics, are measurable. Track click-through rates and you get an idea of exactly how many people are responding to your call to action. Some publishers even have the ability to do post-click tracking i.e. you can track the user all the way to a sale if that is the purpose of the advert.
Similarity with Traditional Media
eMarketers regularly bemoan the fact that it's sometimes difficult to educate the market on the value of Internet marketing techniques. Traditional buyers of advertising have been conditioned in a certain fashion and have come to understand advertising in a certain way.
Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Ads
Even the word Cold Call will send shivers down anyone's spine. Most of the people I deal with do not like them and will avoid them at any cost. I do not blame them and most often cold calls will not yield very high results. You are only likely to gain ten percent of your business (at the most) from cold calling. So why do we do it? First, there is a myth that cold calling is necessary to gain new business. Second, it seems to be a challenge to many salespeople to make the cold call. All of this is totally unnecessary if you can change the cold call into a warm call. Here are ten things that you can do for cold calling: Find out who makes the decision for the company through the receptionist (sometimes called the gatekeeper) Ask who they currently do business with for your particular product or service Put on a seminar and ask who the correct person would be for sending the invitation Find out what organizations a decision maker attends and see if there is an opportunity for you to also attend Find an opportunity to be introduced to the decision maker from someone you already know If you see an announcement in the newspaper about
Flat Rate
Sometimes, owners of lower-traffic sites choose to sell banner space at a flat rate i.e. at a fixed cost per month regardless of traffic or amount of impressions. This would appeal to a media buyer who may be testing an online campaign generally targeting niche markets.
So What Exactly Are Banners?
In simplest terms, a banner ad is a hyperlinked image. The image carries the message and the hyperlink takes the visitor to the advertiser's landing page.
Of course it doesn't have to merely be an image. In fact, this form of advertising has come a long way since the early days of images that say "click here!" and drop you off at the homepage of the advertiser's website.
Banners can contain other forms of rich media as well and many use interactivity and sound to draw attention. The use of action scripts and technologies like Flash has taken this form of Online Advertising to a whole new level.
Types of Banner Ads - Size Matters!
As mentioned before, "banner advertising" is something of a misnomer. Banners come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Perhaps calling it "rich media advertising" or "online creative advertising" is more descriptive.
If we break it down traditionally, banner advertising can be separated into various categories according to their size and shape:
Banners
o Full Banner: 468 X 60
o Half Banner: 234 X 60
o Micro Bar: 88 X 31
o Vertical Banner / Mini Skyscraper: 120 X 240
o Leaderboard: 770 X 60
Buttons
o Button 1: 120 X 90
o Button 2: 120 X 60
o Micro Button: 80 X 15
o Square Button: 125 X 125 / 120 X 120
Rectangular ads
o Medium Rectangle: 300 X 250
o Square Pop-Up: Any size, but 200 X 200 is common
o Vertical Rectangle: 240 X 400
o Large Rectangle: 336 X 280
o Rectangle: 180 X 150 and other variations
Skyscrapers
o Wide Skyscraper: 160 X 600
o Skyscraper: 120 X 600
o Half Page Ad / Super Skyscraper: 300 X 600
While the sizes above indicate the generally accepted dimensions of ads, rich media technologies mean the ads themselves can expand beyond the allocated area of page real estate. Expanding ads, that "pop-out" on mouse-over, overlay ads that appear on top of site content, and ads that incorporate interactive elements have become very popular.
But Why Banner Advertising?
In previous chapters we went on and on about the value of marketing tools that focus on giving consumers what they want when they're looking for it. Now, all of a sudden we're changing course and suggesting a method of interruption marketing? What's that about then?
Horses for courses - and some campaigns are just better suited to visual means.
You're promoting travel packages. What stirs more emotion - an image of a tropical paradise? Or the words "tropical paradise?"
Want to build your brand within a specific sphere? Why not brand, through banner advertising, the websites of every major player in that niche?
Running a competition? Keep your target market's eye on the prize
Launching an exciting new sports car? Images with a call to action - "test drive it now" - or interactive rich media that highlight all the exciting new features as you mouse-over that part of the car on the image
Interactivity
Since banners can contain rich media, they offer levels of interactivity that other forms of advertising can't reach. Get your target market to not only see your banner, get them to play with it too. Interaction builds a bond and improves the chances of the consumer remembering your brand tomorrow.
Animations, games, video, flash - and you thought banner ads were just hyperlinked pictures. Modern Online Advertising is able to bring together a number of other online marketing tactics:
A few years ago, flash micro sites were all the rage - now the same functionality can exist right within the ad
Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or "send to a friend" functionality - again from right within the ad
Video - check out video previews from within the ad
Targeting
Online ads can further directly target your intended market by various means:
Geo-Targeting - Online Advertising has the ability to target by country, province or city, and can even drill down to IP address
Network / Browser Type - Markets can further be targeted via networks / browser types such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, MAC etc
Connection Type - Users can be segmented on broadband or dial up connections
Day and Time - Chose any time of day, any day of the week. This usually depends on the client objective of the campaign or the product itself
Capping - Limiting the amount of times a user sees a particular ad
Measurability
Banner ads, like all eMarketing tactics, are measurable. Track click-through rates and you get an idea of exactly how many people are responding to your call to action. Some publishers even have the ability to do post-click tracking i.e. you can track the user all the way to a sale if that is the purpose of the advert.
Similarity with Traditional Media
eMarketers regularly bemoan the fact that it's sometimes difficult to educate the market on the value of Internet marketing techniques. Traditional buyers of advertising have been conditioned in a certain fashion and have come to understand advertising in a certain way.
Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Ads
Just how does somebody find the best affiliate program that is most likely to earn them that big check? The truth of the matter is that not every affiliate program will earn you a six figure monthly income. There are those that are more likely to work for you.Affiliate Best Program for a Big Pay Day Must Deal With A Product That Has A High Growing Demand It helps a great deal if your best affiliate program deals with a product or service that not only has a high demand out there in the market, but one whose demand is on an upward swing. This will tend to make things much easier for you and it ends up being a lot easier to achieve those super sales that result in an equally super monthly check.Your affiliate best program Is The One You've Found A Good Selling System For But even more important for your affiliate best program is finding a good selling system to exploit. A system is an effective laid down procedure for doing things that has already been tried, tested and fine tuned by experience selling what ever it is that is being sold. It is the reason why certain affiliate programs I have joined virtually sell themselves.
Skyscrapers
o Wide Skyscraper: 160 X 600 o Skyscraper: 120 X 600 o Half Page Ad / Super Skyscraper: 300 X 600
While the sizes above indicate the generally accepted dimensions of ads, rich media technologies mean the ads themselves can expand beyond the allocated area of page real estate. Expanding ads, that "pop-out" on mouse-over, overlay ads that appear on top of site content, and ads that incorporate interactive elements have become very popular.
But Why Banner Advertising?
In previous chapters we went on and on about the value of marketing tools that focus on giving consumers what they want when they're looking for it. Now, all of a sudden we're changing course and suggesting a method of interruption marketing? What's that about then?
Horses for courses - and some campaigns are just better suited to visual means.
You're promoting travel packages. What stirs more emotion - an image of a tropical paradise? Or the words "tropical paradise?"
Want to build your brand within a specific sphere? Why not brand, through banner advertising, the websites of every major player in that niche?
Running a competition? Keep your target market's eye on the prize
Launching an exciting new sports car? Images with a call to action - "test drive it now" - or interactive rich media that highlight all the exciting new features as you mouse-over that part of the car on the image
Interactivity
Since banners can contain rich media, they offer levels of interactivity that other forms of advertising can't reach. Get your target market to not only see your banner, get them to play with it too. Interaction builds a bond and improves the chances of the consumer remembering your brand tomorrow.
Animations, games, video, flash - and you thought banner ads were just hyperlinked pictures. Modern Online Advertising is able to bring together a number of other online marketing tactics:
A few years ago, flash micro sites were all the rage - now the same functionality can exist right within the ad
Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or "send to a friend" functionality - again from right within the ad
Video - check out video previews from within the ad
Targeting
Online ads can further directly target your intended market by various means:
Geo-Targeting - Online Advertising has the ability to target by country, province or city, and can even drill down to IP address
Network / Browser Type - Markets can further be targeted via networks / browser types such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, MAC etc
Connection Type - Users can be segmented on broadband or dial up connections
Day and Time - Chose any time of day, any day of the week. This usually depends on the client objective of the campaign or the product itself
Capping - Limiting the amount of times a user sees a particular ad
Measurability
Banner ads, like all eMarketing tactics, are measurable. Track click-through rates and you get an idea of exactly how many people are responding to your call to action. Some publishers even have the ability to do post-click tracking i.e. you can track the user all the way to a sale if that is the purpose of the advert.
Similarity with Traditional Media
eMarketers regularly bemoan the fact that it's sometimes difficult to educate the market on the value of Internet marketing techniques. Traditional buyers of advertising have been conditioned in a certain fashion and have come to understand advertising in a certain way.
Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Ads
Many small business owners are longing for more prospects right now. They are contemplating giving up because they dont have potential for more income or theyre pondering the plunge of launching their business for the first time. Either way you are soooooooo close to more business its scary.Finding prospects for your product and or service is not as hard as most people make it out to be. In most cases you dont need to unload your income on advertising avenues that are nothing more than bottomless pits. You can usually find them right under your nose and more likely than not you can uncover them without the use of money. All you need is time and hard work.Here are a few suggestions to help you find some prospects right now:Quit Cold CallingWhether you cold call on the phone or face-to-face why not try contacting people that already know, like and trust you. The people that know, like and trust you will; read your emails, take your phone calls, read the mail you send them, return your calls, etc. Most of us overlook contacting friends and family from the past, the far past. Look here first.Be pinpoint specific and ask for referrals nowIf youve ever asked for a referral, youve p
A few years ago, flash micro sites were all the rage - now the same functionality can exist right within the ad
Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or "send to a friend" functionality - again from right within the ad
Video - check out video previews from within the ad
Targeting
Online ads can further directly target your intended market by various means:
Geo-Targeting - Online Advertising has the ability to target by country, province or city, and can even drill down to IP address
Network / Browser Type - Markets can further be targeted via networks / browser types such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, MAC etc
Connection Type - Users can be segmented on broadband or dial up connections
Day and Time - Chose any time of day, any day of the week. This usually depends on the client objective of the campaign or the product itself
Capping - Limiting the amount of times a user sees a particular ad
Measurability
Banner ads, like all eMarketing tactics, are measurable. Track click-through rates and you get an idea of exactly how many people are responding to your call to action. Some publishers even have the ability to do post-click tracking i.e. you can track the user all the way to a sale if that is the purpose of the advert.
Similarity with Traditional Media
eMarketers regularly bemoan the fact that it's sometimes difficult to educate the market on the value of Internet marketing techniques. Traditional buyers of advertising have been conditioned in a certain fashion and have come to understand advertising in a certain way.
Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Ads have a set size, they can look very similar to print ads and they occupy a particular bit of real estate in a publication with a particular number of eyeballs looking at it. It's easy to understand and it does the things buyers are used to expecting advertising to do.
Bottom line - if done correctly, online advertising also builds your brand, and increases your sales!
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