Internet advertising is hot again, and for good reason -
marketers are seeing highly successful campaigns with a return on
investment that they cannot find in any other medium. But gone are the
days of the banner ad. As illustrated by the highly successful Google IPO,
the internet today is all about search.
Why is internet marketing so
effective?
Search is really nothing more than the 100-year-old yellow pages model
gone online. Why have print yellow pages been so effective? Because
marketers get their message to consumers as they're actively making a
purchasing decision. No one picks up the print yellow pages to look for a
plumber unless he or she needs one.
This concept translates directly into internet yellow pages and search
engines on sites like Google, Yahoo!, AOL and MSN. No one searches for a
term unless they are ready to buy or at least are researching the topic.
That's why being listed first under "new cars" is so important to Ford, or
"DVD players" is to Circuit City. Similarly, it would be of great value
for a real estate agent to be the first listing under "New York Real
Estate" in the Yahoo! Yellow Pages or on Google.
Consumers are rapidly adopting the internet to find local products and
services. Currently, it is estimated that 1/3 of all searches for local
businesses are conducted on the internet, as opposed to print yellow
pages. The chart below shows the ongoing migration from print to internet
yellow pages. Given this trend, businesses should be moving about 1/3 of
their print yellow pages advertising budget to the internet:
Because so many consumers are using the internet, and online
advertising inventory is priced very inexpensively, the internet is
generally the most cost- effective medium for businesses to attract new
customers: ... Full
Article
Walt
Whitman wrote more than a century before the Internet was a gleam in
anyone's eye that the "art of art, the glory of expression and the
sunshine of the light of letters, is
simplicity." The
best Web sites incorporate into their design and communication the same
time-tested trait observed by Whitman all those years ago.
Although creating an easy-to-use Web site for a small business can seem
daunting, with the myriad technological tools and splashy graphics
available, a few simple items are all a site really needs to get up and
running.
Some of these things may seem preposterously obvious, but surf around a
bit and it doesn't take long to find hundreds of businesses that forget
the information consumers want most.
For starters, every site should have the company's full name
and a clear, short description of what the business does. Make
these two things as clear and distinct as possible. Maybe even set them
off in a separate color, size or font. But make sure it's absolutely
perceptible to users who you are and what you do: nothing could be more
important.
Contact information is also a must. Show visitors how
to reach you by phone, and make the number visible on every page of your
site, designers advise. Inform people where the business is located and
with whom to correspond via e-mail to answer questions or for more
information. Make sure to include city, state and country. Sound silly?
You're liable to get international visitors who will wonder if you're in
Manchester, New Hampshire, or Manchester, England
Let Web users know what hours your business is open, and with
an additional nod to worldwide users, include the time zone you're in for
good measure Tell them which holidays you observe. Remember, the
object of a Web site is to add value for your existing customers and to
make it easy and inviting for new ones.
None of this primary contact information should be more than a click
away and, most likely, should appear somewhere on the home page. An
additional perk can be a map showing directions to a store location or
company headquarters, if needed... Full
Article
