Archive for the ‘Branding’ category
Lack of Originality Hurts Internet Marketers
LowerMyBills.com has raised quite a stir in the world of online advertising the last few years for its crazy ads featuring people dancing or creatures acting goofy. The company spends $80 million/year online running those ads. But it has paid off because the company (from what we understand) is very successful.
The company’s ads often feature several identical shaded-in figures who are dancing in sync. The ads are annoying but they have accomplished their goal of getting the attention of the viewer.
Recently, we have noticed that other companies have started running ads that are almost exactly the same – shaded in figures dancing in sync. Personally, when I see the ads, I think of LowerMyBills. They’ve been so aggressive in running those ads that just seeing that style of ad automatically triggers thoughts of the company. Which completely defeats the purpose of having another company run the ad.
In our opinion, you do no good for your company by copying ads from already established ad campaigns. If you want to borrow the general idea, then that’s fine – but you need to mix things up! Create your own wacky characters. Create your own style. Because if all you are doing is perfectly copying highly successful ads from another company, really all you’re doing is emphasizing the success of the original company.
So think of your own ideas. Or if you’re going to borrow ideas from others, give it your own touch. Put some effort into your marketing, and you will be much more successful in the long-term.
If you need help implementing an online marketing campaign for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.
Low Cost Ways to Integrate TV Advertising into Your Marketing Mix
We’re diverging slightly today from our normal course. We’re all about Internet marketing here at Work Media world headquarters. But we’re not just Internet geeks…we’re marketers. We have spent a lot of time studying all forms of marketing, and not just the on-line variety. With that in mind, we thought today we would talk about a couple of cheap ways to do TV advertising.
In general, we are opposed to mass market “image” advertising. You can spend a whole lot of money for very little results. It is also far less measurable than online advertising. However, if you are careful about how and where you buy your air time and use TV advertising in conjunction with Internet or direct marketing, it can be a powerful addition to your marketing mix.
The two low-cost ways to advertise on TV that we are going to talk about today are: 1. Making your own commercial and purchasing discounted air time; and 2. use the services of a one-stop TV ad aggregator.
To do things on your own, you will first need to find a way to create your own commercial. Given today’s cheap cameras and video editing software, this is much more feasible that it once was. But you will probably get a better result if you seek the assistance of someone who knows what he is doing.
Assuming you are able to create the commercial, the next step is buying airtime. First you should decide in advance where you would like your commercial to run. You need to target prospects who are strong candidates for your product or service. If you run a financial-related business, for instance, your best bet may be something like MSNBC – a channel that focuses on financial news.
You should try to establish a relationship with a salesperson at the TV station. If you can find one who is young and still trying to build his client portfolio, then you have a better chance at getting some deals. Once you have a relationship established, make it known that you need discount airtime and are flexible with regards to when your ads run, as long as it is on the appropriate channels. You may be able to pick up discounted airtime near the end of the month. TV stations fill unsold airtime with commercials of existing advertisers – for free. They would rather sell it to you at a discount than give it away for free.
The other option is to use the services of a company like Spot Runner. Spot Runner lets you customize a pre-created commercial with your own logo and voice over, and then lets you pick specific airtimes on specific channels. The interesting thing is that they can help you target your ads down to the neighborhood. The company already has everything in place – all you have to do is fill in the details.
One strong budget-minded use of TV advertising is to direct the viewer to your web site. Your web site can explain way more about your business than you have time to explain in a 30 or 60 second commercial. However, don’t just direct viewers to your front page. Create some kind of special offer, create a landing page devoted to it, and promote the URL to the landing page in your ads.
For help creating an aggressive, multi-pronged marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.
Winning the Search Marketing Wars with Branding
We are currently managing a pay-per-click campaign for a client that is going well in terms of driving traffic to his site, but poorly in terms of conversions. The problem is that our client’s web site does not look as professional as his competitors. This got me thinking about how a search marketing campaign, whether natural search or paid search, has a branding component that needs to be considered.
It is very often the case that an individual will not do business with a company upon the first visit to its web site. Comparison shopping is easy on-line, and not just for products, but for services as well. Someone looking for a particular service that you offer is probably going to visit your web site and the sites of your competitors. If you don’t measure up, you’re not going to get the sale.
What this means for you is that you need to have a clean, well-designed, professional looking web site. If you don’t, no matter how much traffic you drive to it, you are going to have few conversions. Quality web site design is not the place to skimp. You have to have your presentation polished and ready to go before people arrive at your site. In the real world, you probably wouldn’t show up to a sales meeting wearing a stained t-shirt and shorts (at least in most industries you wouldn’t). It works the same way on-line – your web site is your salesman. If it looks professional and provides the visitor with the information he needs to do business with you, then you have a good chance at getting the business. If it is poorly designed and is not pursuasive, then you won’t get the business. Plain and simple.
One caveat is that if you hire a web site designer, he or she needs to be aware of search engine optimization principles. The designer needs to design the site in such a way that code is minimized and content is maximized. How can you know if a designer is knowledgable about SEO? Just ask. You should be able to tell if the person knows what he is talking about. If you’re still unsure, it is HIGHLY recommended that you consult with someone with an Internet marketing background to take a look at some code samples from the designer and talk with the designer.
So remember…a search marketing campaign is not simply about driving traffic to your web site in hopes of making an immediate sale. You need to prepare for sales that take more than one visit – sales where your prospects are comparing you to your competitors – by making sure your web site is polished and professional.
If you need some help implementing an aggressive Internet marketing campaign for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email info@workmedia.net.
Internet Marketing Implications: Yahoo! Report Says 40% of Online Purchasers Discuss Brands Online
According to Online Media Daily, Yahoo! and Create With Context surveyed 2,261 customers who had recently engaged in an online transation such as consumer electronics, automobiles, hotels or loans. Their conclusion was that 40% of those surveyed could be classified as “brand advocates” – meaning they discussed and endorsed their preferred brands with others. For instance, they might discuss their favorite brands on message boards or on a mySpace page.
40%.
This definitely underscores the importance in building a strong “brand” for your company. Working like hell to sell your product or service is a bit of a waste if you don’t have a “brand” by which your market can identify you.
So think long and hard about the colors on your web site, your logo, the “look” of your web site. And think long and hard about the story of your business. And what it is that differentiates you from others. If there isn’t anything, create something. Because it is likely that 40% of the people you sale to online will go on to endorse your brand and spread your brand to others. If they feel you’re worth it.
And if you have a brand.
Contact Work Media at info@workmedia.net or 888-299-4837 for help building your Company’s brand and infusing it into your Internet marketing campaign.
Integrating Your Blog Into Your Web Site
The whole point of your Internet marketing campaign is to drive people to your web site and then get them to do something: buy your product, fill out a form, call you, whatever. The more traffic you can drive to your site, the better your chances of achieving your web site goal. So everything you do should be for the purpose of driving traffic to your site.
If you have a blog that is separate from your web site, you are splitting your efforts. Your blog should be part of your web site. Your blog can be used to feed content throughout your site. This can be accomplished by specifically tagging your posts and then using your own RSS feed to feed content to different sections of your web site. Using the Work Media web site as an example, our page about Pay-Per-Click Marketing features snippets of blog posts that have been tagged “pay-per-click”. As a result, every time we update our blog, we create new content that gets spread throughout our web site. And you know search engines love content that changes often.
The same effect could be achieved with a blog that was hosted with your blogging service (such as blogger.com) or at a separate domain, but you weaken your branding effort. Readers of your blog won’t see your domain name in the browser window. They may not even see the connection between your blog and your web site. You should set your blog template to look as much like the rest of your web site as possible. Think “branding”.
Contact Work Media for help implementing your blog marketing campaign at info@workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.