Advertising is the lifeblood of any business. If you do not
learn how to advertise your products and services both
efficiently and effectively, you won't be in business long.
While the Internet has lessened or eliminated many of the
costs normally associated with starting and running a small
business, and it's now easier than ever, you'll never
realize significant profits if you don't grow your business
through effective marketing.
There are really just two kinds of advertising - that which
you pay for and that which you get for free. And both
should have their place in your overall marketing strategy.
The problem arises when one does not understand how or when
to use each.
Everywhere we look it seems that someone is claiming you
can get rich online by taking advantage of the free
advertising the Internet offers.
While it's a true statement, the misleading part is that
it's almost always followed by something like, "We'll give
you a list of over 984324874984 places to advertise for
free!" They normally go on to explain how anyone can get
rich on the Internet because all of the advertising is
free, and if you just send them $29.95 ... well you know
how it goes.
Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried posting zillions of
free ads on the Internet will tell you it just doesn't work
that way. What you really need to know about posting free
ads online is that for the most part it's a waste of time -
unless you're targeting other marketers - because an
overwhelming majority of people who visit free ad sites are
other online marketers like you who are trying to promote
their own business.
Effective "free advertising" strategies do exist, but they
aren't what the average online marketer thinks of when
hearing this often hyped-up phrase.
Are you ready for the one concept that separates the men
from the boys, so to speak, online? Here it is:
Free advertising is the laziest way to promote your site!
You don't really think that Yahoo became the most popular
web site on the Internet, getting millions of visitors per
day, by using free advertising strategies do you? Heck no.
Among other things, they spend millions of dollars per year
on things like buying advertising on other big sites and
advertising on both radio and television.
Now before you say you don't have millions per year to
spend on advertising, allow me to show you how you can
apply these concepts to your business on a smaller scale.
The good news is that if you use the right approach you can
start with a few dollars. It doesn't really matter what
you're marketing, but let's assume that you sell artwork at
your web site. How could you utilize paid advertising
profitably?
Now before I scare you off with the thought of having to
spend lots and lots of money on advertising, there's
something that you need to realize. And it's a basic
concept you should be able to immediately agree with:
If you spend $50 on advertising and it generates more than
$50 in net profits, that's a good investment.
Simple right? Well, through the use of proper testing and a
"scientific" approach to advertising, there's no reason you
can't turn your original $50 ad into millions of dollars in
profits. It's just a matter of developing a system that
creates a profit, and then reinvesting your initial profits
back into your business in order to further expand your
advertising.
Remember the artwork? Assume that through proper tracking
of your website you're able to determine that 1 out of
every 100 visitors to your site buys artwork. Let's also
assume that on the sale of every artwork you make a $50
profit. Do you see that any ad you buy which delivers more
than 100 visitors to your site per $50 spent is a
profitable investment?
Promoting a site should be approached with this type of a
scientific or mathematical attitude. Any advertising you do
is either profitable or not, and you need to know which it
is so you don't waste time and money.
Here's a somewhat simplistic strategy that you could use to
get started:
Use a combination of free or low-cost strategies to promote
your web site, generating initial traffic which will serve
as a starting point. Through proper tracking of your site,
determine the exact "value" of a visitor in terms of
dollars and sense. This is absolutely critical. Utilize
paid advertising that proves to be profitable according to
step 2, based on the value of a visitor and the number of
visitors generated. Through ongoing testing, tracking, and
tweaking, try to increase the value of a web site visitor
as well as response to your advertising. Repeat steps 2-4
as necessary - or forever. The power of this scientific or
mathematical approach to web site promotion is that once
you have completed the steps you will have an almost
automated advertising campaign that can literally send you
all the traffic you need. Rather than spending hours and
hours each day promoting your site, you simply buy more
advertising.
The bottom line is that there are only 24 hours in a day
and there's only so much you can do during that time. Free
advertising strategies can be effective, but normally,
anything that's "free" is going to "cost" you time.
On the other hand, if you could spend $1,000 a day on
advertising to make $1,000 a day in profits -- without
spending hours doing it -- why wouldn't you just do that?
It's not hard at all. Consider Overture.com for example,
where you can buy click-thrus for as little as 1-25 cents.
That fits the formula quite nicely. Overture alone won't
send you enough traffic to make you rich, but it's a good
example of effectively promoting your site without spending
much time doing it. There are lots of others.
Give this 2-step scientific approach a try. If you find you
just can't seem to make the formula work, there can only be
a few reasons for it - either you're not advertising in the
right places, your web site isn't doing its job, your
profit margins are too low, or your product or service
itself is the problem. Figure out which it is and you can't
fail.
About The Author
Steven Boaze, Chairman, is The Owner of Boaze.com
Corporate Web Solutions Which houses Web Development
services. Steven is also the author of two successful
Books along with numerous articles on Marketing and
Advertising published by Boaze Publishing.
http://www.boazepublishing.biz
Copyright © 1998-2004 Boaze.com
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