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Within the circles
of the direct marketing
community, Web advertising has taken the spotlight over topics such
as database marketing, scoring models, RFM segmentation, and even
telemarketing. For those who are new to Web advertising or are currently
placing banner ads, this article will provide you with additional
ideas for effective marketing in cyberspace. Harness the technology:
First and foremost, if you are planning a web site, don’t let the
technology aspect of the Web drive your marketing efforts -- let
the technology enable your marketing efforts. In other words, don’t
get caught up in web site creation without a clearly defined marketing
goal. This has been the case with many Web sites which end up ‘non-functional’
as a direct response mechanism, therefore leading to added costs
for complete re-engineering of the site. Focus your site: Properly
invested time during the planning stages will yield a functional
site that has a clearly defined goal. Lead generation, direct sales,
identification of unregistered customers, awareness building, and
technical support represent several of the focused efforts of a
Web site.
Let’s assume
that you have created a functional direct response site with a focused
directive. This directive may be lead generation which automatically
feeds a data warehouse for two-staged conversion activities (broadcast
e-mail, telemarketing, direct mail ) or even direct sales via secured
credit card transactions. The next task is directing visitors to
your site -- but not just any visitors. You need targeted visitors
who are going to have an interest or a need for your particular
product or service.
Define your
target audience: If the Web site is complimenting existing channel
marketing efforts (retail, direct mail, direct response space),
you probably have a profile of your current customers, either from
house file analysis or inferred buyer demographics based on your
product (i.e. a buyer of children’s educational software is probably
a parent with a young child).
The identification
of ‘who’ -- your target audience, is critical information needed
for any form of outside media selection, whether it is direct mail
lists, space advertising, or, in this case, external Web sites who
will carry your advertising message. A common mistake is made in
the realm of Web advertising, where costly banners are placed on
improperly targeted sites. As the old adage goes, ‘you can’t sell
umbrellas in the desert’ -- a Web media plan without the correct
targeting is ultimately doomed for failure.
Research: There
are several strategies that can be deployed when researching and
selecting targeted Web sites to carry your banner. A sophisticated
media buyer might start by locating Web sites carrying banners which
direct traffic back to a competitor’s site. Using sophisticated
search engines and research tools, this type of ‘reverse engineering’
can be done. If such information is available, it can act as a base
for researching additional sites and developing a media plan
Ultimately,
the main guide in Web site selection is the definition of your particular
target audience. Involvement of a broker to handle your research
efforts is a good idea, since it allows you to concentrate on the
‘bigger picture’ of your overall Web marketing efforts, instead
of being tied down to hands-on site research and negotiation.
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The broker will
make use of their internal research tools and leverage the knowledge
and experience they have developed from executing Web-based media
schedules, helping you avoid the costly potholes that can be encountered.
How do you
find a Web Broker? Well, if you’re referencing the SRDS Interactive,
you are in the right direction. Look at the various sites listed
in this book and identify third party site representation. Such
organizations usually handle both ends of the transaction, as in
many other industries.
The ‘Mutual
Fund’ Approach: A conservative methodology is to design a Web-based
test schedule that contains a mix of different types of sites, based
on your target audience. This buffers the overall performance of
the media plan and allows you to identify the types of sites that
are responsive to your particular offer. For example, if you are
selling a product for sales people, you might test sights that target
business travelers, users of contact management software, magazine
sites that are sales and business oriented, etc. In this case, we
have a category mix of frequent travelers, software buyers, and
business magazines, which gives the media plan three opportunities
to succeed instead of just one. Even though the initial media schedule
does, in fact, represent an ‘unknown’, it should be relatively on
target with the proper assessment of the target audience and proper
site research.
Measuring results:
Continuos measuring of both impressions and click-rates is easily
done on the Web. With almost instantaneous feedback, marketers are
able to see how many times their banner was viewed (impressions)
vs. the number of times it is clicked. This ratio can provide the
Web marketer with a tremendous amount of information.
Assuming that
we have selected properly targeted sites, lets look at a few ratios
and interpret their meaning: (10,000 Impressions vs. 50 Clicks)
- banner/offer needs modification to increase the click rate; (10,000
Impressions vs. 400 Clicks) - good balance, 4% click-through rate;
(50 Impressions vs. 25 Clicks) - the banner is performing, however,
the site might not be generating enough volume to cover its advertising
cost -- switch to another site with similar characteristics. To
continue this example, lets assume that the business travel sites
are the most responsive in the grouping.
Leverage the
dynamics of the medium: If its travel sites that are responsive,
your next action item should be the expansion of the media plan
based on additional travel-related sites. Reverse engineering of
the links and banners to these additional travel sites might also
uncover additional second tier sites that may be worthy of testing.
Keep testing:
Remember, it is important that your media plan contains new test
sites, so you can continue to build your base of responsive sites.
This is very important, since sites that are profitable might fatigue
or the demographics of their visitors might radically change --
you’ll need other sites to replace the ones that are no longer responsive
to your offer. By including new test sites and exploring different
markets, you will ensure that your Web-based advertising efforts
have the opportunity to grow.
Though there
is no set ‘how-to’ which completely defines the methodologies of
advertising on the Web, the above techniques will help you get started
in mounting a profitable campaign on the Web.
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