Kinds of Ads continued
* Direct mail advertising is another form of advertising which is trackable. We have all received the envelopes full of different kinds of coupons or offers.
Even though industry states that this is mainly for business to business advertising, it also happens to hit individuals is becoming more popular, the junk mail you got in your box for many years, but which dwindled as the popularity of the internet increases.
However, despite postage and printing costs, it is making a come-back as internet companies are vying for your attention and eyeballs.
If you do decide to go the direct mail route, make sure you give a coupon code, or a special landing page, so you can determine just how successful each promotion has been.
* Radio ads on small stations that are affordable are also popular. These can be anything from public service announcements, to podcasts in which you will play a part, to local radio stations that are in line with the product or service you are offering.
* Penny-saver or classified ads can be inexpensive, and an effective way to migrate people online to see what your site has to offer.
* Television advertising is probably the most powerful of all advertising forms, simply due to the amount of people who watch TV as a leisure activity. This is also the most visual and can hold more appeal simply for that reason.
There are a lot of internet TV and video based opportunities now, including YouTube, owned by Google.
Which brings us to Search Engine Marketing, also referred to as SEM or Pay Per Click (PPC). We cover it on this site in great depth, but briefly, you run ads based on keywords which describe your product or service, and Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines run your ads alongside the natural or organic search results. It is a cost-effective and very targeted way to get traffic interested in what you have to offer.
So, the communication levels and the markets you are trying to reach will determine where you will end up going for advertising. Ask yourself how many buyers you want to reach and consider the demographics of this answer.
Make a few phone calls to ad agencies and see what they have to offer or what ideas they can give you, or shoot off a few emails to an online marketing company to see what is their main area of expertise. You can also hire search engine marketing companies who do nothing but PPC.
Any one of these approaches should be able to drive traffic to you provided that you have a good, clear message, and once there, it is up to you to convert them from browsers to customers.
So before you undertake any advertising, save yourself money and time by being sure you have tested your site and your conversion architecture and marketing message is all in place.
