Is Electronic Marketing Effective?Written by Bob Stamper
As we've heard from countless people trying to sell us Advertising, Internet advertising is cheaper and faster. But is it really better? Is it right kind of advertising for your company? There are some things that we should all do when it comes to Internet marketing, but before you go spend allot of money on big expensive ad spots you need to consider your alternatives.First of all lets look at what we all should do. Every business that has a web site should register their site with all major search engines, especially Yahoo. You should also look for listings that deal with sites of your type and try to get in those listings as well. If you run a carpet store for example, you will want to get a listing at floorbiz sites. Once you have done that you should collect e-mail or snail mail addresses from your customers, and prospects so you can keep in touch with them. You can try FFA sites, and banner exchanges if you like, but don't expect any direct traffic from it. You might get a higher search engine placement but that won't really matter if you're on page 20 of results anyway. What are your alternatives? The avenues of Internet marketing continue to grow faster than most of us can keep up with them. Some of most common ways are analyzed below. --Banner advertisements are sometimes very expensive on high traffic sites and produce a limited amount of traffic. These are like billboards on side of road that you hope people will look at as they drive by. If they are driving through for first time, they might read them but at moment they are on there way somewhere else and don't have time to stop at your business. Besides if this is first time through area, they don't want to get off course because they might get lost. And if they travel that same route very often, they won't even notice when billboard changes advertisements.
| | The Meaning of "NO"Written by Bob Osgoodby
An autoresponder is really a great thing, and should be in everyone's marketing bag of tricks. They serve a vital role in your advertising efforts by providing someone with information in which they have an interest.Proper use of autoresponders can take many forms. The most popular, is to post a short classified ad either on a web site or a newsletter, and invite reader to email you for more information. The email address you give is actually your autoresponder, which automatically sends person your canned message without any involvement on your part. This is your online secretary which is ready to answer inquiries 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If message you send out this way is well written, and of interest to person inquiring, they will get back to you for more information. If it is not of interest, odds are you will not hear from them again. But some people have confused things here a bit. They don't understand meaning of "NO". If I have made up my mind I am not interested in your offer, I really don't want you to give me same, or similar information again, and again, and again. "But", you might say, "I have always been told it takes between 5 and 7 exposures before someone will act on my ad". This is true. It may have taken 5 to 7 exposures to your classified ad before they acted. When they responded to your autoresponder for more information however, they did act on your ad. Some autoresponders are set up to send follow-up notices to potential customers. A few follow-ups with a several week interval between notices is OK. They may not have been ready to buy then, but might be now. But learn how to recognize when someone is not interested.
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