We see thousands of different commercial messages daily.
Advertising is everywhere... on our computer screen, on our televisions, on the
clothing we wear, our shoes, our pants, and of course on billboards. However,
we don't comprehend each of them nor do we respond to most of them, we only see
them. Subconsciously, though, we respond to more of them than we realize.
We generally do not respond to most of the advertising we see because
most of it is "institutional," designed to keep an advertiser's name in the
public eye - build brand awareness. For it to be effective, we have to see it
over and over again.
Banner Advertising
A recent study by ad industry research firm Ipsos-ASI indicates
that online banner advertisements are as effective as television advertisements
in increasing consumer awareness of brands. The data show that 40 percent of
the respondents who view a static online banner ad will remember it, as
compared to 41 percent of those who view a 30 second television commercial.
For most small businesses doing business on the Internet building
brand awareness is not as important as driving traffic to a web site or getting
a viewer to click on a link and purchase a product.
For this reason,
your on-line advertising should use a direct response
approach. A direct response ad promotes a benefit, not a name or a
concept. The benefit is something that consumers want to own, experience, or
enjoy. A direct response ad calls attention to the
benefit and then "closes the sale" by giving the consumer a reason to
"call now" or "click now" to get the benefit. Direct response advertisng
prompts the viewer to act sooner than later. It's
attention grabbing and satisfies the consumer's need for solutions to
problems.
 For
example, which of the following two ads do you think has a higher response
rate?
Click Through Rate: 0.87%
Click Through Rate: 2.87%
More About Advertising On-line
Banner Trades
Most advertisers understand the concept of "targeting" their
advertising. In other words, getting their advertising message in front of
their most likely customers.
Are there companies that would be
interested in reaching your audience with a message? Seek out
companies/websites that have comparable audiences, but aren't your direct
competitors. Then propose a banner advertising exchange.
Automated
banner or link exchanges are fairly easy to participate in, but these types of
exchanges often don't allow you to pick and choose who you want to trade
with.
Here are some banner exchanges where you can place your
banners:
On-line classifieds
If placing ads in FREE on-line sites, be sure to place your ad
ALL OVER the Internet at as many sites as you can. Make a goal to set aside
about an hour a day and submit your ad to 10 to 20 or more sites, and after 30
days, repeat the process.
DO NOT expect to place your ad only once at one
site and then get a flood of response. That will NOT happen! People generally
go to post ads, not to read them.
The more exposure you give to your
advertising, the better your response will be.
NOTE: I would HIGHLY
recommend you set up a separate email address that you publish with your free
online classified advertising campaign because I will virtually guarantee that
you will see a noticable increase of SPAM emails coming to you as a result of
your advertising. Use your free email account exclusively for your advertising
in online classifieds.
See
free-email-address.com for a list of free email
providers.
Remember... one key to successful advertising is repeated
exposure.
Web Rings
Web rings are like "networks" of related sites and is another
method of cross linking with other sites. When you join a web ring, you will
have to include a snippet of code on your web site that will display the web
ring.
Off-Line Advertising
Window Decals & Bumper Stickers
 Turn your auto into a rolling
advertisement.
Use your moving or parked car to build your URL market
identity and traffic!
This is a good example of where you WANT to use your
own URL - short and memorable.
IDit Plates
Put your web address on your vehicle.
IDit Plates are a great way to continuously promote your web site. They're
triple chrome plated and blend in well with your vehicle.
Newspaper classifieds
You can run classified ads in
the Sunday paper of major cities, small weeklies, and in your industry trade
magazines.
You can also try the cheap weekly papers though you may not
get very good quality leads.
More ways to
bring traffic to your site
Blogs and RSS
Feeds
Search Engines
Reciprocal
Links
Email Marketing
Traffic
Exchange
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Plan
Implement
Promote, Promote, Promote