The New Power Of AdvertisingWritten by Jay Conrad Levinson
A website is an island. Advertising is a bridge to that island. Large and small businesses online are discovering that truth in a hurry - or else. Advertising is not what it used to be. The internet has changed its purpose and its strength. Rather than making advertising in traditional media weaker, net has made it stronger. That’s why all guerrillas must be aware of new power of advertising.The first thing to know, and this should come as good news, is that advertising no longer has to make sale. Not very long ago, advertising’s main goal was to make sale, though there are many other goals. But that has changed dramatically with growth of dotcom companies all over internet. Today, goal of much advertising is not to make sale but to direct people to websites. That does not diminish power of advertising. Instead, it increases it. With many, if not most, guerrilla-run companies establishing webturf, advertising’s newest function is to motivate people to visit a website where they can get far more information than can be delivered by standard media advertising. Advertising has become first step in a permission marketing campaign. It invites dialogue and interactivity with prospects and customers by directing people to websites, by offering free brochures, by generating kind of action that leads to permission to receive marketing messages. Once people grant that permission, which they do at a website or by simply calling to request a brochure -- printed or electronic --- that’s when serious guerrilla marketing attempts to close sale. That means prime obligation of advertising is to motivate an easy-to-take-action. This should come as good news because it places less of an onus on advertising than ever before. Motivating action of getting person to click to your website is a whole lot simpler than motivating a person to part with his or her hard-earned money and risk spending it wrong way. Not only is it easier to motivate action, but that action is becoming even easier as being online is now endemic. Over 100 million people are now online, though America Online’s chief, Steve Case, pegs number as being closer to 200 million. It’s not always a whole lot of fun to visit your store or order from your toll-free number, but it is fairly enjoyable to click over to a website and take a gander at what is being offered and how you can benefit. There is a risk when somebody responds to advertising with an order. There is no risk at all if they check your website. Advertising seems to grease skids to sale. It takes far less time to learn about you online than to cruise around a mall or drive to a location further away than their computer. That means advertising can be short, concise, to point. It no longer has to curry favor of prospects with long copy, involved graphics or detailed explanations. The internet can do that for you, allowing you to save on advertising costs. Advertising your website works in all media -- from TV to radio, from magazines to newspaper, from direct mail to billboards. It doesn’t take a lot of time or verbiage to get them to spend a few moments checking how your website can improve their lives.
| | What Killed the Banner Ad?Written by Lauri Harpf
If you ask Internet marketers of today, many if not most of them will tell you that banner advertising is dead. They say that it's expensive, click-through rates are low and that unless you know exactly what you're doing, it is likely that you'll end up spending more money than you'll make.Surprisingly, just a few years ago same people were rushing to invest their money in banner advertising campaigns. In those happy days, click-through rates were at least ten times as high as they are now. What has happened? Has audience become more resistant to Internet advertising in general? Or perhaps whole concept of banner advertising has become obsolete and we'll need to think of new ways of reaching people? Perhaps, perhaps. There is certainly at least some truth to these claims, but they are hardly only reasons behind current crisis. Personally, I think that those responsible for planning banner advertising campaigns are largely to blame for what has happened. The difference between successful banner advertising of yesterday and pathetic banner advertising of today is vanity. Vanity? Sounds odd, but you'll only need to look at banners displayed on a few popular sites to see what I mean. They have a nice-looking background, a beautiful picture or two, a professionally-designed logo, smooth animation and bright, pleasant colors. In a nutshell, those banners are works of art and that is exactly why they perform so badly. More marketing, less graphics ============================= Unless you are trying to brand your business, your main focus should not be on what your banners look like. Pay attention to how many sales you make and how high your ROI is, forget aesthetics. Some readers may be worried that such an approach might damage their reputation in eyes of consumers. Unless ads look good, they might affect company's brand negatively. Large, well-known businesses definitely should worry about that, but if you're a small business, you shouldn't over-emphasise importance of branding. You've probably seen hundreds or thousands banners in past weeks, but can you remember what even twenty of them looked like and what company or product they were advertising? Without any further ado, here are some tips on how to make your banners look worse but perform better:
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