LSQHA Blog Reviews

When people start traditional brick and mortar businesses, one of the most important things for them to plan for is advertising. Maybe they’ll take out a newspaper ad, or maybe they’ll pay to be included in an online directory. No matter what, they have to find a way to get their name and mission in front of interested customers. The same thing happens with web based businesses, and typically they use banner advertising to create awareness about their products or services.

<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wr0EHZDy06k&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Wr0EHZDy06k&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>

If you’re looking for a way to instantly get your website in front of millions of people who will be interested in clicking on your links and potentially making purchases on your site, you’ve got to consider banner advertising as part of your marketing campaign. This is one of the most time tested tactics for driving traffic to a website.

In case you’ve never heard of banner advertising before, you should know that they are image based advertisements that are typically displayed at the top of popular web pages. Any time you visit the website of a major news provider, you’re likely to see a banner ad for one of their sponsors at the top of the page.

One thing that is important to know about banner advertising services is that they are a great way to generate awareness of your business or site name, as well as your visual branding elements, like logo, slogan or catch phrase. The more places that your banner ad is displayed on the internet, the more awareness you will generate.

If you’re interested in using <a title="Majon Banner Advertising" href="http://www.majon.com/banner-advertising-opt1.html" target="_blank">banner advertising</a>on your site, but unsure about how to get started with getting your ads placed on the sites that will generate the most traffic to your pages, you should think about using a professional banner placement service.

Many website owners find that it is a good idea to use a professional banner advertising service for the first few rounds of their marketing campaigns. This is because advertising services usually provide both the graphic and networking services that make banner ads so successful in the first place.

When you are choosing banner advertising services, keep in mind that there are two different types of services that you can purchase. Some marketing firms offer pay per impression services and others offer pay per click services. Talk with an experienced marketing professional to find out which one will be right for your site.

Online advertising can be confusing and overwhelming. Make sure you’re getting the visibility that you deserve by clicking <a href="http://www.majon.com/banner-advertising-opt1.html" target="_blank">here</a>.

Coming up with a good idea and a good product is only the beginning of having a successful online business. Not only do you have to come up with something that your target audience is likely to need and purchase, you also have to come up with a way to make sure they see it and realize that they need to buy it. That’s why website advertising is so important to the success of your business.

Many people are excited by the opportunities that are provided by the open design of the internet. Literally anyone with a little startup capital and a lot of determination can turn their ideas into a money making business. But without a quality website advertising campaign, all of this hard work will be for nothing.

Just because you are running a small or brand new business with a tiny website advertising budget doesn’t mean that you can’t make use of some time-tested techniques for drawing in viewers to your site and turning them into customers very quickly.

One of the keys to successful website advertising is targeting your message to the people that are likely to be most receptive to it. This means that before you can advertise to them, you must fully know your audience and research the ways that they like to communicate.

These days everyone is using email because it is faster, more convenient and doesn’t require that you recycle a bunch of wasted paper when you’re done reading the message. This is why many companies have switched over to website advertising that utilizes electronic communication instead of paper.

Another website advertising tactic that has proven to be successful time and time again is the placement of banner advertisements on sites that members of your audience are likely to visit on a regular basis. This means if you’re selling sports drink, you might advertise on team uniform sites, or if you’re selling pet care items, you might advertise on dog training sites.

In case you’re rather new to the world of website advertising and aren’t sure that you can pull of a campaign successfully on your own, know that there are many qualified internet marketing firms out there that can explain the different tactics that are available, and construct a package that will spread your message in a comprehensive way on the internet.

Don’t fall for website advertising tricks that will turn off your customers and get you slapped by the search engines. Click here for tactics that work.

Web Strategy Summary Facebook to now offer Paypal as an additional way to buy advertisements and virtual currency for social games ( press release ).   This paves a way for Facebook to reach global advertisers who prefer PayPal vs traditional credit cards. Although this partnership is limited in parameters to those two specific use cases of ads and virtual currency, this is yet another testing ground for developing Facebook into an eCommerce platform with over 400 million global users. Update :  Facebook contacted me after this post went up, and made it clear, this is announcement is not intended towards eCommerce, and is really just limited to the two use cases.  While I understand and agree with the scope of today’s announcement, as brands interject more money into Facebook via advertisements, and on the flip side, games are more comfortable purchasing goods (albeit virtual) this continues to be an opportunity for brands to get comfortable mixing with social network communities.   As such, I’ve removed from the title of this post “Testing ground for eCommerce”, the rest of the post stands. Background Facebook has been testing the ability for users to purchase virtual Facebook credits for over a year , allowing users to send virtual goods to each other, as well as purchase additional features in third party social games. Over a dozen of these third party games already exist extending created by playfish , Zynga , CrowdStar , and others. Industry Impacts: Increased revenues for Facebook –and PayPal. For Facebook, and their new partner PayPal, this deal makes sense, as they can continue to grow scalable, low-touch revenues streams by cultivating international advertising dollars, where there is clear global growth . This spurs international brands to continue to deploy Facebook ads, likely in the SMB space as international companies that are enterprise class would delegate ad buying to their digital agency. Although Facebook touts their advertising program, no official case studies or data has been released by them or third party researchers to my knowledge. Additional channels to monetize heavy game players. For the game heavy , perhaps the 43 year old middle age women with disposable incomes, this gives them new opportunities to play games with increased functionality. More use cases for game creators will test virtual goods –with brand sponsors. Game creators should allow for virtual items to be introduced into their games, and be sure to have a business development opportunity for large brands to participate –and offer branded virtual items in context of a social game. The big opportunity? Testing ground for ecommerce within Facebook. Facebook should roll this out to the application developer community to allow ecommerce functionality to the platform, starting with an application from eBay, the owner of PayPal.  Brands should carefully watch how these early test by Facebook occur –and expect by end of year that Facebook will start to experiment with allowing ecommerce happen directly on Facebook Fan Pages. This is, of course, extremely exciting –but could be very terrifying to normal users. Additional Industry Resources Competitive Matrix: Facebook vs MySpace, vs Google Buzz, vs Twitter The Master Collection of Social networking stats, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The Future of Facebook Revealing Google’s Stealth Social Network Play

See the original post here:
First Take: Facebook PayPal Deal Spurs International Ad Sales

So, you’ve come up with a great idea for an online business, and everyone that you’ve told about your idea thinks it will really be popular with internet audiences. Before you rush out to tell the world about what you’ve come up with, you’ve got to consider how you’ll use web site advertising to build a network of traffic for your business.

The internet is a great medium for entrepreneurs because it is almost a level playing field. Anyone can create their website, come up with a business plan, and start making money if they know how to use smart web site advertising to get them noticed on the web.

Unlike the real world of brick and mortar businesses, where if you have more money, you can build a fancier store front and set your prices lower, the internet doesn’t show favorites to those that have more money to throw at web site advertising. However, it will reward you handsomely for using those tactics in an intelligent way.

The key to using web site advertising in the most efficient way is to build links with other websites that will help to direct traffic to your pages. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, because usually other sites are loath to give up real estate to help someone else out.

This is why it can be helpful to work with an experience internet marketing firm that will be able to plug you into their already existing network of commerce and information websites. This is a smart type of web site advertising because not only will you get valuable links, you’ll be able to target your exposure to the audience members that are most likely to make a purchase.

If you are aware of your need for web site advertising but still unclear about how having additional links to your business on other websites is going to help you to be more successful, you’ve got to think of the web like a highway and your site like one of millions of exits.

Every time you have a link to your site placed on another website, it’s like adding the number of exits that will take people to your pages. The more people that travel through your pages every day, the more chance you have to make as sale and hit the goals that will make you successful.

Don’t allow your business to plateau at a low level of exposure! Click here to learn about proven web site advertising techniques that will increase your visibility and your success.

Left: There are four main categories of social strategy, yet with over 20 subset objectives, which we’ll discuss at a high level.

Greetings, fellow strategists, In my latest column for the Forbes CMO Network (read all my posts) I analyzed Pepsi’s big push into social. Also, you should see my detailed field notes, (I did my research before, during, and after the game, thanks to Trendrr folks) to measure any specific changes, before coming up with my findings. I did contact Pepsi pre article to get comments, although they sent me an email after the Forbes piece was up, see bottom response.

Super Bowl: A Missed Opportunity For Pepsi

Cola maker should promote its social cause on TV.

PepsiCo ditched the Super Bowl this year to make a major social media play. Instead of spending money for ad time on the Super Bowl, it’s relying primarily on digital initiatives to spread the word about its Internet-based Refresh Project contest and charity campaign.

The cause-marketing effort is a good one. Word is spreading through traditional media, online networks, social media and celebrity chatter. But I believe Pepsi made a big mistake in giving up its long-held Super Bowl ad real estate. A more integrated media approach–one that included the Super Bowl–would be a savvy play for Pepsi. And such integration is something top marketing executives need to keep in mind in their rush to embrace digital initiatives.

Let’s take a look at Pepsi’s campaign playbook.

The Big Gamble: Social Over Traditional Advertising
Pepsi, as a major ad player, knows that brand association is key to its marketing strategy. Company executives also know that there’s a shift in consumer adoption toward social technologies and that marketers can’t count on reaching the consumers they want to engage through TV. In response to this, Pepsi execs decided to spend the money the company typically plows into buying and creating Super Bowl spots–$20 million or so–to promote and fund a campaign that will identify causes that are worthy of supporting. At refresheverything.com Pepsi encourages consumers to submit ideas to improve community or causes then activate their personal networks to vote for the ideas. To date, the number of submissions possible for the first round of awards has been maxed. It also enjoys a continuous buzz on Twitter with the hashtag #PepsiRefresh.

Playing to its Strengths: Budgets, Celebrities and First Mover
Pepsi has a lot of things going for it. It has the deep pockets to keep a campaign going long-term. It has benefited from notable press buzz from being the first mover of a radical approach. Additionally, the company is using traditional media outlets to glean endorsements from celebrities, including New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees on NFL.com. His charity of choice: the American Cancer Society.

Missed Opportunity: In-Game Tie-In
Pepsi made a misstep in this bold media shift: The company alienated a key channel and missed out on tying Pepsi Refresh to the most-watched TV event in Western media. By not having any in-game discussion on the advertisements, it was unable to use the Super Bowl or its advertisements as a catapult to launch the campaign into the social sphere. In fact, after the game, overall mentions of Pepsi and the Pepsi Refresh campaign remained relatively on the same trajectory as before. To look at a detailed set of my field notes and data, I’m tracking mentions using Trendrr of blog posts, Tweets and news articles on my field notes page.

Campaign Analysis: Advantages
Pepsi’s novel approach to social cause marketing is headed in the right direction. Pepsi benefits from:

• First-mover advantage. By announcing a radical approach Pepsi took advantage of pre-event press coverage (including a story in Forbes).
• Using celebrities to spur campaign. Pepsi invested in influential relationships by the utilization of celebrity endorsements.
• Shifting to “we” over “me.” Pepsi has shifted traditional brand advertising efforts to now being more community-focused, enabling those who won the monies to spread the Pepsi brand on their behalf.
• Planning for the long haul. Pepsi is making its marketing dollars go to work by extending the program over months, rather than a short flight of Super Bowl ads.

Campaign Analysis: Risks
While innovative, Pepsi has some clear challenges–and missed opportunities:

• Pepsi has yet to show the world it gets social marketing. Its recent entry into the space with the edgy–but sexist–”Amp” iPhone applications resulted in severe backlash, and is now a case study on the infamous punk’d list.
• Cultural mismatch. Pepsi’s history of mass marketing means it will need to change its internal culture to embrace social marketing, where success lies in letting go of control.
• Missed opportunity to integrate Super Bowl TV ads with campaign. Pepsi’s biggest misstep is putting all its eggs in one basket–and not benefiting from synergies of multiple channels.

Takeaway: An Integrated Approach to Media is Best
By shifting so much of its annual ad budget from one channel to another, Pepsi missed an opportunity to spur word-of-mouth chatter about its Refresh initiative. Instead Pepsi should have relegated an appropriate amount of TV advertising budget to Pepsi Refresh, encouraging submitting ideas, voting and sharing in the context of the game. It would also introduce Pepsi as a socially conscious marketer to a larger group of people.

CMOs experimenting with digital and social technologies should not invest in them as a silo. They should instead be part of an overall integrated marketing effort.

I enjoyed reading your initial analysis of our Pepsi Refresh Project.

Let’s me start by saying on your key takeaway, we are on the same page: An Integrated Approach to Media is Best.

And that’s the approach we’re taking with the Pepsi Refresh Project. Throughout the course of the year-long initiative, we’re absolutely using traditional channels — television included — to support it. Our decision not to announce the program on the Super Bowl was not because we don’t believe in the power of television. We do. Or that we don’t believe in the Super Bowl, specifically. We do. (As you know, we chose to advertise other PepsiCo brands during the game.) The decision was based on the opinion that it wasn’t the most contextually relevant way to tell the story. Arguable? Perhaps. But the conversation around the program — the amount of it and the overall tenor of it — thus far suggests that it may well have been the right approach.

But we’re going to continue to engage in, enable, listen to and evaluate the conversation. And if it seems that we need to course correct we will. A sign, I think, of an internal culture and a senior management that is embracing social marketing.

Of course, the Pepsi Refresh Project is about more than marketing. It’s about engagement … about building affinity and building advocacy by making a real and measureable difference in people’s lives. And that’s why we take very seriously your point about impact. We’ve aligned with top-notch partners including GOOD, Global Giving and Do Something in building the Pepsi Refresh Project. A leading academic and research group will be assisting with project follow-up and measuring community impact. We’re optimistic about the very great potential.

We’ll be watching and sharing as the ideas build, the stories unfold and impact becomes evident. I look forward to watching your analysis and continuing the dialogue throughout the course of the program and the course of the year.

JKO: Thanks Bonin, we’ll continue to watch the interesting moves Pepsi is taking in the space of disruptive technologies.