Online Advertising Strategies and Promotional Techniques

To help reach as many customers as possible, businesses today are no longer relying solely on print, television and radio advertising. Many businesses have shifted much of their advertising and marketing strategies to the Internet. Before your business starts marketing a product, it helps to create an ideal customer who you want to reach with your promotional materials. Once you have your ideal customer, you have a number of techniques to pick from. Companies use all types of promotional methods, depending on their budget and industry. For example, small business owners may use fliers or referrals to get their business going. Large corporations often sponsor major sporting events, such as auto racing. Whatever the case, companies must have a particular objective when executing promotional strategies: To garner sales leads, increase store traffic or get the order, as in mail order or Internet advertising.

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There are different techniques that different organizations used to follow for the online promotion, these Online Advertising Strategies and Promotional Techniques are as follow:

Search Engine Optimization:

Search engine optimization is the process of creating your company’s website and blog so as to rank it higher on popular search engines when Internet users search for specific keyword phrases. You can hire a specialist to make your online presence as optimized as possible, or you can take the time to fine-tune your website yourself.

Start out by obtaining a user-friendly URL, which is an acronym for Uniform Resource Label, or website address, according to the Business Insider website. Help your SEO by thinking of all the two- to- five-word phrases that best describe your business. Once your site has been optimized, start linking to other sites to build traffic. Purchase Internet traffic software to track your results.

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Free Online Directories:

A large number of online business directories list all businesses in a local area, a specific industry or both. More often than not, these websites rely on advertising revenue to earn a profit. This means the more content they have to offer, the more money they make in the long term. Because of this, most online business or service directories will be more than happy to list your company for free, but you have to take the initiative to reach out to them.

Link Exchange:

It can be great, especially if your advertising budget is limited (or nonexistent). Find merchants that sell complementary products, and offer to trade text links or ads with them. If you’re just starting out and your site doesn’t get a lot of traffic, you may not get a one-to-one trade; be prepared to make concessions, at least until you have a track record — and traffic — to point to. That said, most companies won’t turn down an opportunity for more exposure, so you’ll probably find a few willing to exchange links with you.

Newsletter Advertising

It is a great way to reach select groups of consumers. For example, if you sell health products, you could advertise in a newsletter that offers health tips and advice. Because newsletter advertising is targeted, it can be expensive. If your budget is tight, you can always start your own newsletter campaign.

Email Marketing:

Email marketing is an online version of direct mail. Instead of sending a customer a flyer or advertisement, this form of Internet marketing allows businesses to send the same info, or even more, via email. Businesses have a wide variety of choices on what to send in an email marketing campaign, including coupons, newsletters, invitations to special events and surveys.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising:

Also known as search engine marketing, pay-per-click advertising is when business place ads on search engine websites like Google and Yahoo.  The ads are usually placed in special top or side panels that separated out for paid ads. Most search engines offer businesses the opportunity to bid on the ad space on their pages. The business that is willing to pay the most each time an Internet user clicks on the ad gets the spot.

Viral Marketing:

Through viral marketing, you can drive targeted traffic to your website.  You will either want to hold a contest or make sure that you have valuable information available.  Whenever this is the case, people will tell others about your website, and word-of-mouth advertising will kick in.

Article Marketing:

By writing and submitting informative articles to different online article directories, you will be able to attract traffic to your website through the resource box at the end of your article.  This can have a positive long-term effect upon your business. By writing about your products or services, you will be able to establish yourself as an authority.  Furthermore, these articles will also be able to draw search engine traffic to your website.

Online Video Promotions:

Videos are an effective way to promote your website, store or business-to-business customer. However, it is best to integrate them with other promotional or advertising methods, according to Entrepreneur.com. Write out a small script for your five- to- eight-minute video. Offer some free advice that entices people to visit your site or call you. For example, an owner of a small marketing research firm may instruct businesses how to create the ideal survey. Create a Youtube account and place your video in online business publications or social networking sites, including Facebook.com. Target the customers that you want to attract by labeling your video appropriately.

Banner Swapping:

Contact other small businesses in your area and offer to place a banner ad for their company on your website if they will do the same for you. This can be a highly cost-effective way to spread free advertising messages online to local audiences, but you must limit the number of ads you place on your own website to avoid making it appear cluttered. Plan your banner swaps strategically to partner with businesses that have a wide reach in your target market.

Effectiveness of Advertising Method in Online Business:

There are several ways and means of really bringing out the very best in an online marketing strategy. Understanding how online marketing works, develops from the beginning and grows is of vital importance. Below is an overview as to why online marketing is so effective as an advertising medium that you can make use of to achieve the most desired results.

Reach your Target market:

To ensure your advertising campaign is effective, you need to speak with the right people. Start by reviewing the demographics of your current client base. If you are already successful in one geographic region, age group or industry, then look at maximizing the exposure to other potential customers in that same group. Find out which publications or websites target these people and look at advertising there.

You need more than one advertisement:

An advertising strategy is a plan that you commit to for the long term. Advertising results are not always instant.By advertising on a regular basis, it shows that you are committed to finding new clients, and the next time you advertise, they may be in a position to respond.

Results increase with repetition:

When you’ve identified a message that generates a positive response and you deliver that message consistently, business growth in year two will be approximately twice the growth of year one. Growth in year three will be approximately triple the growth of year one, with growth measured in dollars, not percentages. But following year three, anything can happen. Your business can explode exponentially, or it can flatten out as though hitting an invisible glass ceiling. I’ve seen clients grow to 70 times their original size, and I’ve seen clients slowly grow to only double or triple their original volume and then flatten out. The difference is in the clients, not in the ads.

Facebook Ads:

Regardless of any negativity you may have heard about Facebook advertising, I only have one suggestion for you when it comes to Facebook: try it tomorrow. The fact is that the ability that you have to target people within Facebook based on affinity, region, network and stated interest can easily compete with the best keyword marketing campaigns when it comes to relevance and reaching those most likely to actually act on your ad.

Results are inextricably linked to the message:

Two advertisers invest the same amount of money reaching the same target audience. One succeeds brilliantly and buys the mansion on the hilltop. The other fails miserably, receiving no response whatsoever. The difference between these two was in the message of their ads.

Ads that speak to the heart of the customer and touch a nerve are the ones that turn little companies into big companies. But few people know how to write such an ad. Most business owners approach advertising with the goal of merely getting their name out. But there is no evidence to suggest this will help you in the slightest. The Wharton study indicates that everything hinges on the message you attach to your name. Is your message predictable and, consequently, boring? Is it believable? Is it relevant to the perceived need of the reader/listener/viewer? Tempt a dog with a bowl of rice, and he’ll ignore you. Put a steak in the bowl, and you’ll have his undivided attention. Your prospective customers are no different. What have you been putting in their bowls?

Pay per click advertising:

It is notably the most effective means of generating immediate traffic to a website. Advantages of this form include only paying when a user interacts with an ad (clicks on it), the source of traffic can be easily tracked as well as identify which ads are achieving the best result in a campaign, and targets an audience more specifically (ads appear when a web user searches for keywords that are relevant to a specific company or business).

Make it Professional:

When designing your advertisement, seek professional advice. Many publications have a graphic design department that will be able to assist you. Ensure that any logos or photos you are using are of the right resolution. Include all relevant contact details in the advertisement, such as your web address and phone number.

Measure the Outcomes:

Question every new client on where they heard about you. This will enable you to work out which advertising campaigns have worked and which haven’t. This is valuable information that helps you set an effective advertising strategy for the following year. This information also helps you accurately allocate future advertising budgets for maximum return.

Online Marketing:

Online marketing is a collaboration of elements that produce a successful web based advertising strategy or campaign. Identifying the tools needed and making the most of them requires an enormous amount of skill, practice and expert thinking minds. The work that is put in ultimately determines the level of success that will be achieved.

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