MARKETING ON THE WEB

To simply advertise on the World Wide Web is to miss 90% of the Web's value. Effective advertising on the Web requires taking advertising out of the traditional box and creating a truly effective, integrated marketing campaign that produces results.

The essence of traditional advertising is to place a message in front of consumers to build awareness or hope they respond at a later time. The World Wide Web allows advertisers to take what has been accomplished on the brand level, and develop real relationships with customers. These relationships can then be leveraged to generate real sales.

Simply put, the Internet allows advertisers to take advertising to the next level. No, Web advertising should not replace traditional advertising, but it should augment it.

So, how do you do this? Create a Web site that acts like a salesperson (hard or soft sell), and promote it; or sponsor content that is tied to your product and promote it; or partner with an existing site that supports your product and promote it. The pattern is simple.

Develop content that attracts consumers in whatever online form is best for you and promote it. Whatever form this takes, each will help accomplish your goals.

ADVANTAGES OF WEB MARKETING

Marketing Benefits
Any Web-based marketing effort combines a Web site with online advertising. Online advertising is the way to pre-qualify customers and drive traffic to your site. The Web site is the way to brand a product and create a channel for future sales.

What makes this so effective? It allows the marketer to control and monitor the entire customer process from qualifying customers to closing a sale. Throughout this process, marketers can track what works and what doesn't, and they are able to adapt to changing market conditions quickly and inexpensively.

The most valuable benefits to online marketing include:

Interactivity--The most important aspect of the World Wide Web for marketers and advertisers is the ability to interact with consumers. No other medium allows for instantaneous and two-way communication. Whether it is as simple as providing a direct response mechanism or collecting data for a series of variable responses, the Internet allows marketers to talk to and address the concerns of consumers, turning them into customers.

Quantifiable Results--The World Wide Web enables full tracking of almost any Web based activity, so online marketers can monitor a Web site or banner ad's traffic continually and automatically. With almost instantaneous information, marketers can measure the success of a given program from start to finish and make adjustments accordingly. Being able to quantify results also means measuring the true effect of marketing dollars. Unlike television, radio or print, advertisers will know exactly how many eyes have viewed and responded to an ad and adjust accordingly.

Web Site Benefits
A well-designed Web site is the cornerstone of any online marketing effort. The Web site is what provides consumers with the information they are seeking and enables a company to truly brand its product or service.
Some of what a Web site can do includes:

Branding--A well-planned Web site allows marketers to truly brand their product. Think of your Web site as a place where you control every aspect of the environment. With this in mind, a personalized customer experience can be created using specific graphics, text, sounds and even video. With the Web as a tool, a savvy marketer can create a truly branded environment with which to approach and close customers.

Sales Leads--Today's advertisers are not just promoting products on the Web. They are generating and closing transactions. Today's marketers now can take customers from shopping to purchasing without ever having to open a door. If there is any doubt, just watch Amazon.com.

Sales Team--In today's global and highly competitive market, your sales team needs a tactical advantage over its competitors. A Web site can provide just that. Sales presentations and information can be placed on a protected Web site for access anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. Your sales team can be better equipped to provide sales sheets, product information, even live demonstrations as your clients request them on the spot. And that gives them an advantage in closing a sale.

Customer Service--Imagine a customer contacting your company at any time of the day, throughout the week. Here, customers could have questions answered, receive a detailed product diagram, even bring issues to attention without ever having to take valuable time from a staff member. By creating a fully interactive customer service area, complete with answers to common questions, product diagrams, even detailed installation instructions, your staff can get back to answering the more important calls.

Inexpensive--Once a Web site has been created, it's easy and inexpensive (relative to TV or print) to change, update or revise its content to meet market trends. It doesn't require the level of production that other mediums demand. And, with technology advancing at an increasing pace, Web sites continue to grow easier and less expensive to create and maintain.

Online Advertising Benefits
Online advertising is the primary way to drive traffic into your site and to a specific section within your site.

Online banner advertising can combine brand, tactical, and even direct response advertising into an effective medium. Whichever method is employed, advertisers can easily:

a) Monitor exactly how many eyes have seen the message.

b) Target the type of customer they want to approach.

c) Pre-qualify customers before they visit.

Advertising benefits include:

Targeted--Advertisers have the ability to control when, where and by whom their ads are seen, with greater precision than with any other medium. They have the ability to target specific users based on page content, demographics, even psychographics. This means advertisers can approach a specific audience in an environment they choose, for the best results.

Measurable--Every time a banner ad is "served" to a user's computer, it is counted. Each count is monitored and reported, so advertisers know exactly how many consumers have seen their ad. Television, radio, even print cannot offer this level of tracking.

In addition, every time an ad is "clicked" on, sending the user to the advertiser's Web site, that "click" is counted, providing a consistent measure of advertising success.

Actionable--Online advertising combines the best possible scenario to generate responses. With an on-site banner, users can be sent to an advertiser's Web site with just the click of a button. No dialing a phone, no completing a BRC, just a tap of a mouse button, and one pre-qualified customer is delivered.

Flexible--Imagine knowing how many people actually saw a television commercial, and how many actually responded to it. With this information, an advertiser could revise the commercial to ensure it induced the best reaction from the audience. With online advertising, marketers can continually test and change their advertising to ensure they maintain the best response rate possible.