Maintaining a strong brand presence is more important than ever and advertising on the Internet has become an essential avenue to brand awareness.
Your customers are online - and they're spending more time online, time once spent reading newspapers and magazines or listening to the radio and watching television.
Shifting money from traditional media to online advertising makes sense. Advertising on the Internet is economical and with a well placed optimized ad, will pretty much guarantee improved return on investment (ROI).
If you run a small business, manage a not-for-profit, or organize community events, advertising online isn't as confusing as you might think. As with running ads in traditional media, you want to be sure your ad is placed within an environment that is attractive to your market and is cost effective. With online advertising you have more control over both.
Research your options, then target your ads. Browse sites, see who their advertisers are and determine to what audience they cater. Choose the right context for your message and place your ad alongside content that appeals to your market.
News and entertainment sites offer economical online advertising for local businesses and organizations. You can choose from a variety of ad sizes and content positions. Directory listings are also a great way to maintain an online presence. In addition to ad size and placement, some specific ways you can purchase online advertising are by impression (CPI), by visitor (CPV), by click (CPC), or by action (CPA). In other words, you pay by the results.
The Internet is the perfect place to test your message. Place an exclusive offer online and measure the results. If you've chosen site context that is the right environment for your ad, you should experience a measurable increase in message association, brand awareness and conversions - Internet speak for leads and sales.
It has been proven that with online advertising you not only increase brand awareness but also brand preference. Do your research, identify your customer's viewing interests and habits and then associate your brand with that online activity through advertising or sponsorship.
Determine your expectations and plan your strategy. And, you don't have to guess when judging an ad's success. Online advertising results can be measured by tracking the number of ad impressions and consumer interactions. You can get remarkably precise information.
With online advertising you can target your audience geographically, even by city or zip code, through demographics, personal interests, website content, and by the time of day.
You can test your ad. If you're not happy with an ad's results, you are able to optimize it's performance by easily adjusting the placement or the creative.
With an optimized ad you get an immediate response. Readers click on your ad, connect to your website, get more details, sign up for information, or order your product.
When you find your niche, increase frequency. If you're happy with the return on investment, you might garner even more business value with content sponsorship. Through your brand's increased commitment to their specific area of interest, you retain customers and continue to broaden your consumer base.
Use the information you gather to enhance customer relationship management (CRM). With emails, e-newsletters, special promotions and online incentives you will keep your product or service top of mind and reinforce customer loyalty.
Once you feel that your ad campaign is successful on the Web, consider broadening your efforts to other media. Choose a complimentary environment that will reinforce the recognition established on the Internet.
Your Web presence is an integral part of your identity. It is important that your online ads reflect your brand. It is equally important that you keep your website or the landing page for your ad relevant, accurate, and up-to-date. Be sure you take advantage of the immediacy of the Internet and respond quickly to conversions and requests for information.
If you would like to discuss how optimized banner advertising design and Internet marketing can benefit your organization, contact Route 1 Design.
© 2012 Jeffrey Schipritt. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission of the author. |
