Web Site Promotion Week 9

Objectives Online promotion techniques Online advertising Offline promotion techniques Measuring advertising effectiveness

Some Definitions Online promotion – uses communication via the internet itself to raise awareness about a site and drive traffic to it. Offline promotion – uses traditional media such as television or newspaper advertising and word of mouth to promote a company’s web site

Online Promotion Techniques Banner advertisements Other methods of linking to sites Techniques are combined in what is known as a traffic-building campaign This is a method of increasing the audience of a site using different online and possibly offline techniques

Online Advertising – A Basic Model Portal Content: Corporate web site General news service Portal Audience of web site page Containing Advertisement Page or ad impressions Proportion Who click On banner Advertisement Clickthrough 2-10 per cent Proportion Who take Action Marketing outcome

Key Concepts of Advertising Old media New media Space Expensive commodity Cheap, unlimited Time For marketers for users Image creation Image is everything Information secondary Information is everything Image is secondary Communication Push, one-way Pull, interactive Call to action Incentives Information (incentives)

Main Differences The cost of advertising in the new medium reduces as more space becomes available It is the customer who initiates the dialogue who will expect his or her specific needs to be addressed. Web marketers need to promote their web sites effectively in order that customers find the information they are looking for The user’s time is valuable and the time interacting with the user will be limited so this time must be maximized Information is the main currency. Supplying information is arguably more important than appealing to emotions

Purpose of Banner Advertising Delivering content Enabling transaction Shaping attitudes Soliciting response Encouraging retention

How Well Does Banner Advertising Work Online advertising is more likely to be noticed than television ads Lower advertisement to editorial ratio on web pages 90% text to 10% ads) Web users use the medium actively rather than passively

Locations of Banners Portals Generalized news services Specialized interest sites

Internet Advertising Options Media buys (advertisements) Ad content Banners Static Animated Interactive Advertising site Corporate site Brand site Distributor site Media buys drive traffic to ad content Co-branded content Sponsorship Nested content Microsite Within banner Interstitials Static Animated interactive

Payment Models Per exposure – through ad impressions or possibly through the length of time the user views an advertisement Per response – payment only occurs according to the number of clickthroughs that occur Per action – payment according to a marketing outcome

Making Banner Advertising Work Appropriate incentives are needed to achieve clickthrough Creative design needs to be tested extensively Appropriate keywords are needed Placement of advertisement and timing need to be considered carefully Consider the clickthrough quality, not just the quantity Build the infrastructure to deal with the response

Forms of Advertising Advertising networks – collections of independent web sites from different companies and media networks, each of which has an arrangement with an advertising broker to place banner ads Affiliate networks – collection of web sites that link to an online retailer in exchange for commission on purchases made from the retailer

The Future of Online Advertising The size of audience is likely to be constrained by the cost of buying devices to access the internet Message is delivered using limited space on screen, and with limited use of sound and motion Efficacy of advertising may decline as users become familiar with advertisements Advertising inventory is always increasing as new sites go online and size of existing sites increase increasing the costs to place an ad

Other Online Promotion Methods Promotion in search engines and directories Links from other sites: co-branding and sponsorship Using email for advertising Liszt www.liszt.com Kim Bayne’s personal site www.wolfBayne.com/lists Online advertising www.o-a.com Clickz www.clickz.com/list Internet advertising organization www.internet advertising.org

Loyalty Techniques and Online Schemes The process of adoption follows the stages of: Knowledge Persuasion Decision as to whether to trial product Implementation of trial Confirmation of product as valuable

Site Announcements What’s New web page Directories and search engines Newsgroups Newsletters Books and magazines thal list web sites

On-site Promotion Techniques Sponsoring of an event, team or sports personality A treasure hunt on different pages of the site, with a prize A screensaver A site-related quiz Monthly product discount on an e-commerce site Regularly updated information indicated by current date or date new content is added

Offline Promotion Techniques Put your URL everywhere Using traditional media advertise the URL address People can be directed to the web address for information rather than calling a phone number Include URL on stationery Use PR to publicize the site

Integrating Online and Offline Techniques Callback service Sales promotions Relative importance of offline and online promotion techniques

Measuring Advertising effectiveness Create a measurement process Identify the measures to use Specify the online measurement methods to use Measure individual behavior Customer satisfaction, loyalty and brand impact