Above And Beyond Promotion

Posts Tagged ‘ROI’

How To Get The Most Bang For Your Online Advertising Dollar

Word Count:
644

Summary:
Internet advertising has become an effective way to market your business online. I did not realize this until I was having coffee with my good friend, Lisa in our favorite coffee shop. Since we both have online businesses and work from home our conversations tend to end up on the topic of doing business online.

I have been trying to look for ways to increase my sales, but I was not sure where to go or what to do so I asked Lisa about what she does to help increase her sal…

Keywords:
Internet advertising, marketing, clicks, sales, internet marketing, guru

Article Body:
Internet advertising has become an effective way to market your business online. I did not realize this until I was having coffee with my good friend, Lisa in our favorite coffee shop. Since we both have online businesses and work from home our conversations tend to end up on the topic of doing business online.

I have been trying to look for ways to increase my sales, but I was not sure where to go or what to do so I asked Lisa about what she does to help increase her sales. Her business always seems to be doing so well, and she did do a little better than me in some of our business courses in college, so I do look up to her. She smirked, slowly stirring her coffee. I knew she already had something in mind for me to do and she was about to tell me, but not before funning with me a bit before she told me her secret.

She started to add some more cream to her latte, giving me that mother like squint while asking me what I was doing while we were in our business advertising, marketing and promotion courses. Well, I did learn a lot from my business courses, but so much has changed in so little time. While I was in college I was planning to open up a brick and mortar coffee shop, not selling specialty coffees online!

Lisa asked me what I had learned about advertising in our courses at college. I told her I remembered how important advertising was, but at the time I was focusing on a brick and mortar shop ? not an online business coffee store. She giggled a bit and put her hand out. She said that all I had to do was take what I learned from commercial advertising to Internet advertising. Both commercial advertising for a coffee shop and Internet advertising for my online shop had numerous similarities.

Lisa reminded me about making sure that my Internet advertisements reached my target customers ? those interested in coffee or those who would buy them as a gift. Those are my main customers, I thought to myself. She told me in order to reach them I would need to make sure that my Internet ads would reach those people such as on other websites related to coffee, newsletters for coffee lovers, etc.

Lisa said she had found several advertising campaigns that worked extremely well for her but she did have to do some work to find the most successful ones. I gave her a look and snidely asked, “You had to do research to find successful advertising campaigns with all of the knowledge you have?” She returned a bad look and smiled reminding me that the Internet consumers seem to be changing on a regular basis. You need to research several different ad campaigns to find the most successful ones for your online business. “How do you find the ones that are best for you?” I asked. She reminded me about this advertising class we had where our professor had us do an assignment on recording the effects of advertising campaigns to get rid of those that had little or no effect and keep the ones that were working. Ah, I remembered then. It is important to keep track of certain aspects of each different ad campaign (hits, costs, revenue, and ROI) to make sure we didn’t waste money on those that didn’t work and kept the ones that brought in more sales.

She smiled, touching my hand, exclaiming that I finally got it! She raised a finger toward my face and in a mother-like tone reminded me to test different ad campaigns and I would find the best Internet advertising for my business. I smiled, took notes and we enjoyed the rest of our coffee break.

Using Google Adwords To Promote Your Bricks And Mortar Business

Word Count:
483

Summary:
Google Adwords can be used to build your offline business, but only under certain circumstances. First, you must have a website or a blog before you can use Google Adwords and if you want to use them to increase the profitability of an offline venture, it must be a website.

If you already have a website, it is important to make sure that it is well designed and maximized to convert visits to sales. Make sure your phone number and address is clearly visible in many places o…

Keywords:

Article Body:
Google Adwords can be used to build your offline business, but only under certain circumstances. First, you must have a website or a blog before you can use Google Adwords and if you want to use them to increase the profitability of an offline venture, it must be a website.

If you already have a website, it is important to make sure that it is well designed and maximized to convert visits to sales. Make sure your phone number and address is clearly visible in many places on your site if you want people to personally contact your business. Also, make sure online contact is easy for website visitors should they have any questions. Your website is an opportunity for you to build credibility and if you can’t be contacted online all your good work could be undone.

It is possible to promote your bricks and mortar business with Google Adwords if you use geo-targeting to attract local visitors. Geo-targeting means that Google evaluates the location of each visitor and displays your Google Ad to local prospects only. Geo-targeting is an excellent way to increase the click-thru-rate (CTR) and the return on investment (ROI) for offline businesses by specifically targeting local prospects. You can further increase your CTR by using your location in the keywords you choose and in the advertisement itself.

However, you need to be aware that most people who choose to look for products and services on the internet also want to purchase online where possible. Therefore, even though you want to market your offline business, it is important to have the facility for online purchases as well. If visitors come to your website and don’t find anything there of interest, there is very little likelihood they will be inspired to physically visit your business.

At least one of four things is necessary to convert an online shopper into an offline buyer. These are:

1. You need a totally unique product that is only available from you and which people perceive they need.

2. A product too expensive to risk buying online and which personal customer service and backup (should anything go wrong) is considered essential.

3. A product that is too difficult to use or which has confusing set up instructions so that the potential customer needs to see someone face to face.

4. A product that must be replaced when used up and for which postage is an unnecessary increase in cost.

If your product does not conform to one of these descriptions, it is important to make sure your website is setup to take orders and make sales. It only makes sense to use your website for additional online sales while it is also promoting your offline business.

Google Adwords can certainly be used to promote your bricks and mortar business, however why would you choose to limit yourself when you can have a thriving online business as well?

What You Need To Know About Ezine Advertising

Word Count:
649

Summary:
There are many ways to promote your online business. By far ezine advertising is by far the most cost effective way of getting your products or services quickly before a targeted audience. Here’s what you need to know about ezine advertising….

Keywords:
ezine advertising, ezine advertising is a cost effective way to promote your products before a targetde audience

Article Body:
By far the most effective and cost-effective way of advertising, especially for a new business is ezine advertising. It has 4 distinct advantages?

a.It’s easy to reach targeted prospects
b.It gives results fast. Typically, you should see results within 72 hours after your ad is published.
c.It’s easy to test your ad effectiveness
d.It’s easy to calculate your Return on Investment (ROI)

Most direct mail companies charge several hundred dollars per thousand mailing, whereas ezine advertising costs anywhere from five ten dollars to fifty dollars per thousand. This is definitely much more cost-effective
compare to advertising in magazines.

Although it is generally true that response rates to ads is better with higher subscriber count, there are exceptions where smaller subscriber lists yield higher returns. Because these subscribers are 100 percent opt-ins. Also these ezines in mention are highly informative and don’t have too many ads per publication. The chances of your ads being read are very high. The click through rates will be good if your ads are relevant to
the ezine content.

3 types of Ezine Ads

There are basically 3 types of Ezine ads namely, Classified ads, Sponsor ads and Solo Ads.

1.Classified ads ? This is the cheapest form of ezine advertising. Some publications offer free ads in exchange for your subscription. The ads are grouped in the middle or end of the publication.

2.Sponsor Ads ? The ads are placed at the top of the publication. They cost more than classified ads but more effective than classified ads.

3.Solo Ads ? These are mailed out separately from the main ezine. This is the most effective of the three types of ezine ads but also commands a premium.

Quick Guide to Ezine Advertising

1.Before you placed your ads, check out the quality of the prospective publication. Select three good ezines and subscribe to them. From the publications you would know what kind of audience these ezines are targeting, the content, and the number of ads per publication, which are crucial to your advertising campaign.

Pay close attention to the ads that run in each issue. If you see the same ad on a regular basis, chances are the ad is profitable for the advertiser. It is common sense that advertisers will continue to advertise in an ezine only if it is profitable.

If someone else is already promoting a similar product like yours in a particular ezine, give it a miss. It makes no sense to have two advertisers competing in one ezine. In any case, the publisher may not permit similar products.

2.Keep your ads short. Normally, the publisher will allow 5 to 7 lines of text with a maximum of 65 characters per line. Don’t sell your product or service in your ads. Generate interest and leads.

3.Write compelling headlines to draw readers.

4.Use your ads to direct prospects to your landing page, which may be a sales copy, course sign-up or ezine subscription.

5.Track response to your ads. This is crucial. Or you will have no idea if it is profitable to run the same ad again. In order to test the effectiveness of your ad, it is advisable that you run the same ad in at least 3 ezines. If you run your ad in only one ezine, and should campaign flop, you will not know whether the problem lies in your ad or ezine.

Due to recent popularity of ezine publishing, and depending on the publication, the lead-time can take anywhere from a few weeks to months. Factor in the lead-time if you have a time sensitive offer.

Test your ads with low-subscription ezine that don’t have a long waiting list. You don’t want to wait in line for a few months just to test out your ad, and imagine if it turned out to be a bummer. Advertise with low-cost, low subscription count ezines for a start. Until you have a proven winner, keep to low-cost, low-subscription ezines.

Banner advertising was around long before Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, and it’s no big news that PPC is the new dominant advertising tool for many businesses. After all, PPC is laser focused and very direct in working to draw a very specific customer type to your site.

Banner advertising has been described by some as being akin to the dodo bird. In essence the feeling among some is that this kind of advertising is nearing a point of extinction and may be remembered with warm fuzzies, but may not be missed.

However, a quick trip into the depths of cyber space and you will find all kinds of banner ads, and major corporations develop and use them.

Do they know something you don’t?

I think what some of these corporations do know is that banner advertising can move beyond simple static graphics. In essence many banner ads today are being developed to include bold interaction that may appear as a game or perhaps as a mini movie.

These banner ads serve a unique niche for the visually oriented consumer.

The use of banner advertising may be used when the advertising business has a fairly clear understanding of the benefit of advertising on a specific site or sites. For instance if a site draws thousands of visitors a day and your product or service fits the demographic of the site then using banner ads that can help the visitor visualize something more then PPC text has the ability to facilitate a better Return on Investment (ROI).

If PPC is the ‘everyman’ advertising method then the new generation of banner ads is for the expert advertiser. Banner ads can help you motivate potential customers to visit your site from the confines of a site they trust and a site you value for their ability to generate traffic to your site.

Banner advertising is also good for an industry specific website. If there is a site that is in concert with your business goals and directives it might make sense to look into using banner advertising on their site.

While banner advertising is not as laser focused as PPC it can be a significant help if you are willing to do your own research to see what sites may best benefit your business.

There are still banner exchange programs, but they are often meaningless in that they may send some customers to your site, but they aren’t targeted and the individuals may not be especially motivated beyond initial curiosity. Besides you may be required to place banner advertising on your site that doesn’t really fit with your demographic (or potentially objectionable) just to participate in the banner link exchange.

There is also the question of banner ad development. Unless you are especially skilled in graphic design you may need to outsource the banner ad development from a third party.

You may be able to access a low-cost or no-cost banner ad through a site like www.logobogo.com, but a banner ad will need to be created in either a visually static display or a flash designed banner with very specific dimensions.

So, to recap ? the banner advertising of today requires a greater sense of business research to find the best fit for your advertising dollar and banner development is something you will need to develop as you begin to look into what possibilities exist in this refreshed advertising medium.

1. PPC – Search engine (AdWords, Overture etc.)
At the search engines you pay for every click a user makes on your ad. I will give you a small example to show you the advantage or disadvantage of pay-per-click and promotional products.
A click can cost you up to $100 in the worst case. The average cost per click is mainly 1 to 2 dollars. When you have a monthly budget of $1000 you will get up to 1000 unique visitors.
Invest $1000 in promotional products and you will get for example 2000 pens with your logo or internet address imprinted on it. Send these pens to your possible customers or give it away at trade shows. Now anytime these people use the pen they will see the logo of your company.
When these people one day need products you have in your online-shop they will get reminded of your company. If they visit your site now this can be seen as a “virtual click”. This can be up to 2000 “virtual clicks” and visitors for your site.

2. Banner advertising (pay per impression)
You can compare promotional products with banner advertising. Your logo, internet address or product will be placed on an area with a typical size of space. The advantages of promotional products are the better “click-through rates”.
The user will see the logo of your company every time they use these products. This is like a banner impression at websites. Normally a user will see your banner one time when they visit a website. At promotional products they will see it every time they use it.

Why shall I use promotional products?
1. The user will see your logo as long as they use it
2. High “virtual click-through rate” and ROI(return on investment) when you give it to the right user groups (Trade shows)
3. People like to receive them.

Why shall I not use promotional products?
1. The conversion rate can be near zero if you give the products to the wrong user group
2. High investments for several expensive promotional products and campaigns