Successful Sites- Issue 022 - Advertising Campaigns and Advertising Income

Keyword Discovery- Detailed Keyword Research

Researching keywords has never been this easy or this fascinating. Keyword Discovery continues to improve their interface and add other keyword databases- check out the Ebay search stats! Keyword Discovery is worth it's weight in gold- put it to use in your online marketing strategy.

Some of the 'Net's best sites are the ones built for love, not money. When someone takes a subject near and dear to their heart and builds an extensive resource site including everything they know, not only is the content rich with personal knowledge but the public tends to trust it more than a site that is obviously profit-driven.

Does advertising ruin that credibility? It certainly can. But what many people don't realize is that advertising can be a draw and a benefit to a site, if done correctly. Selling text ads for link popularity may earn some cash, but it certainly won't impress your site visitors.

A Print Precedent

There is a local paper I get that is pretty thin on content. A story or two about the local mayor's office, chamber of commerce, or police happenings and some local press releases from area churches and schools are pretty much all that's in there.

I like to find out who's having a sale, what's opened up and any special deals going on in my neighborhood. If the advertising weren't included, it wouldn't be very useful to me.

The same is true of industry trade magazines, fashion magazines, daily newspapers and other periodicals- the advertising is a large part of why we read them!

The Web Isn't As Different As You Might Think

Unfortunately, many web sites don't treat their advertising as content. They accept ads from anyone who is willing to pay to be listed and the ads aren't targeted to their users. Generic ads rarely "speak" to anyone.

Advertising that is keyed to the site's users can convert at a phenomenally high rate. What do I mean by "keyed to the site's users"? Let's take an example.

A Local Parent Portal

I added banners from all the top family-friendly companies like Target, Shutterfly, Walmart, Coldwater Creek and more... things that I thought would appeal to moms. It doesn't get more targeted than THAT, was my thinking. The results were utterly dismal. With over half a million page views a month, I had maybe a dozen click throughs and no sales. I resigned myself to doing the site as a personal hobby and not as a revenue-producer.

When Google's Adsense program came out, I decided to add it to my portal. Finally, a small stream of income, enough to cover hosting costs, at least! But I still felt something was missing.

A direct postcard mailing to local businesses had moderate success... I picked up a few local advertisers without having to do a lot of "face time" which was good because I didn't charge enough for personal service.

What surprised me was the stats on the new local ads... they were interspersed with the affiliate ads and immediatly started attracting 5 times as many clickthroughs as the national affiliate ads. People WERE looking at the ads and they wanted something different- they could buy from Target or Amazon any day of the week. There was nothing unique about those ads! But give them some local businesses and they wanted to learn more.

Not only did the ads start driving revenue, they stimulated community activity. Members started asking about the businesses they saw advertised and discussing their experiences with them. The businesses got more involved as well, answering questions and posting things like special sale info, just for our site!

Targeted advertising (local businesses) turned the site from a static resource and a hobby into a real business. It made all the difference in both revenues and member activity which a key to future revenues. I reworked the layout to actually feature the ads more prominently and the response in both revenue and member comments was very positive. Local ad requests now come through on their own as more business owners become aware of it.

Targeting made all the difference. Targeting generic "moms" wasn't successful... that isn't who the site was designed to attract in the first place. It was designed for moms in a specific geographic region and the local ads were a perfect match.

A Trade Group

Another quick example is a trade group community I've run for years. It started out as part of a commercial site, so we ran banner ads at the top of the forum for sales and specials. While we never made any sales "pitches" in the discussion of the forum, those banners drove a lot of sales for our business!

They were highly targeted to the audience, advertising things that the members needed anyway. We changed them often, highlighting deals and specials instead of just "branding". Keeping them fresh kept them from blending in and being overlooked by repeat visitors. By and large, any banner that offered a discount or limited time offer was a hit.

When we converted to a industry-wide trade group, we opened the advertising up to anyone in the industry. At first, I worried that people would think we had "sold out" and didn't actively solicit ads. Imagine my surprise when a competing trade group popped up, and the reason people claimed to like it was because of all the advertising on it!

That certainly woke me up. People wanted to see the newest things they could buy- they enjoyed the different manufacturer and vendor ads. All of my "purist" non-commercial instincts were dead wrong. Commerce is a part of the industry and it made perfect sense to feature a wide variety of ads targeted to business owners in that niche.

Keep it Fresh

We had no trouble attracting industry advertisers and it did add an exciting element to the site. I noticed our new advertisers would get a flurry of clicks in the first month... then taper off to almost nothing. Why? They didn't keep their ad fresh- it just got ignored. "Ad Blindness" occurs when people start blocking out the ads on the page- why should they keep looking at the same old thing?

New advertising and new offers will keep your members interested and your advertisers getting the traffic that will keep them coming back. The ads are content and should be updated frequently, especially if you get a lot of repeat visitors!

Bad, Bad Ads

You have to be very sensitive to how you deliver the ads on your site. A one-time interstitial soliciting a newsletter sign-up is very different from an interstitial that pops up every few pages and can't be blocked. Flash ads that run when users unsuspectingly mouse over a part of the page are disturbing and simply rude. Ads that annoy visitors and refuse to be blocked or ads that interfere with navigation or other key parts of your site give users the impression that you are greedy and desperate and don't care about their experience.

Good ads don't need to be thrust into the users' faces with pop-ups, pop-unders or interstitial that gallop across the page regularly. Forcing ads on people is a sure way to lose your repeat traffic and any loyalty you've built up.

It All Works Together

Interesting ads that are appropriate for your site visitors not only bring in revenue that will allow you to expand the site and do more with it, but can actually be one of the reasons people like to visit your site... just like my local newspaper.

Scottie Claiborne is the owner of Right Click Web Consulting and the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter. She is a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings Seminars as well as the administrator of the High Rankings Forum. She's learned that there are very few business concepts that don't translate successfully to the web.

High Rankings Seminar- Denver - June 28,29 2007

Learn web marketing from the top experts in the industry at this two-day seminar in Denver. Jill Whalen, Christine Churchill, Karon Thackston, Matt Bailey, and Scottie Claiborne teach this comprehensive course. Registration available soon, get 25% off with code SUCCESSFULSITES!

Audience Targeting Equals Online Success

Have you ever seen an ad on TV for a store that didn't exist in your area? What a waste! Even if you were motivated to shop by the commercial... you can't! It's frustrating for watchers and truly a monumental waste of money for the advertiser. It's even bad the TV channel; after all, serving up interesting commercials is part of the whole entertainment experience. It's the perfect example poorly targeted advertising campaign.

So... how does this translate to Web marketing? It's not as different as you might think. The goal of any marketing campaign is to reach potential customers and minimize exposure to people who are not interested, not qualified, or out of your area. The Web is the ideal marketing medium because you can really target the people who will be interested in what you have to offer. Good audience targeting can make the difference between a successful marketing campaign and a so-so campaign.

Who is Your Target Audience?

Unfortunately, this question gets left blank most often on my SEO/Usability questionnaire. I can't work effectively without the answer to this question, and you can't either, whether you are aware of it or not. And no, your target audience isn't "everyone with an Internet connection and a credit card." Really! No, it's not. Yes, I'm talking to you!

The more you know about the people you are selling to, advertising to, or enticing to take some action (like subscribe, click or fill out a contact form), the better. Things to consider are your primary targets':

If "Everyone" is Your Target Customer, You'd Better Have a Real Advantage

If you are still insisting your target audience is "everyone with a credit card," good luck with that! If you have something that no other website can offer and everyone wants, then this may actually be your target audience. However, most of us have competitors, LOTS of competitors, offering similar products or services and limited resources to reach prospective customers. In the "real world" a great location can be enough to sell commodity items but online, everyone is just a click away. Location on the Internet is page one, Google and the competition to get there is HUGE.

Your target audience isn't everyone you would like to buy from you, your target audience is the people you are most likely to be able to reach effectively and convince to take action. By solving the needs of a specific audience, you are more likely to get them to take action. Let's take a look at an example:

Sarah's Body Cremes

Sarah has decided to start up her business website, selling a popular brand of body creme through a drop shipper. She decides her target audience is all women aged 16-90. She sets up her website and catalog using the vendor-provided information, starts using PPC ads, and submits her site to some directories. Her tagline is a generic "body cremes for all your needs."

The PPC ads do drive some traffic... but she isn't making much profit after she pays for the ads. She mentions her new business to her friends and creates a signature with her link on several mom-interest boards she likes to frequent. Her business takes a small upturn and she's thrilled.

Looking at her sales and stats, she notices 90% of her sales are of a specific cellulite crème, and digging deeper, the sales are mostly to other stay-at-home moms from her mom boards and friends from her local mom groups. Using this real-world data, she targets her website specifically to stay-at-home moms, aged 25-35, with some disposable income, who are concerned about cellulite! Now, she's ready to really fine-tune her strategy.

Taking a Chance on a Target Audience

Sarah figures she has little to lose, since her website income is barely a trickle. She culls her body creme website, removing the wide array of products and focusing on cellulite creme and a few related items, like an exfoliator, loofah, and finshing creme. She creates a "package" deal including all of these items as well selling them separately.

She rebrands her website as "the answer to stubborn cellulite for moms" and rewrites the copy to focus on the difficulties young mothers may have with getting out to excercise as often as they used to. She includes images of young moms playing with toddlers and focuses on their changed outlook- after all, playing with the baby is more important than worrying about looks. Then she offers a quick and effective solution that won't cut into time with the kids but will help her take care of herself.

Sarah adds resource pages devoted to body changes in new moms and advice on exercise and regaining your figure after childbirth. She rewrites her PPC ads to focus on cellulite issues for new moms, picks various mom-site publishers from the content network, and relaunches her marketing campaign.

Then she seeks out mom-related sites and blogs on the Internet and scans them for opportunities to offer advice on her new area of expertise- cellulite and new moms. She does not post blatant ads, but uses her research to position herself as a helpful expert. She contacts gyms and exercise sites aimed at women and offers to trade links, provide articles, or buy an ad on their site.

The Payoff- Higher Sales

Sarah's business takes off. Instead of limiting herself (as many people fear when it comes to targeting an audience) she's actually increased business by focusing on her most profitable items and customers. She later expands her offerings to include other targeted products that appeal to her established target audience, with each launch creating more detailed pages of information, PPC copy, and articles.

While many affiliates struggle with selling the entire line of cremes, Sarah has become a star partner by selling a limited selection to a demographic she knew and understood. By removing the overwhelming array of products, she made it easy for time-challenged moms to complete their purchase.

But I Don't Sell Affiliate Stuff...

The same concepts apply to any business. Who needs your stuff? Do you know of a specific industry or lifestyle within that larger group that you have access to?

Every industry has it's own opportunities. Often, leveraging what you know about your industry and potential customers can suggest different targets. Some questions that can help you create your target audience are:

You've probably heard of the old 80/20 rule- 80% of your profits come from 20% of your products/services. Take a close look and see if you can get more of those 80% items sold.Don't be afraid to focus on a specific item or a specific niche of your market.

Test, Test, Test!

The best way to find your most effective marketing tactics is to test and fail until you find the right combination! Don't be afraid to set up landing pages and run PPC ads to get a feel for the best direction before investing a lot of time into branding yourself as an expert and doing aggressive marketing. Remember to use what you know and rely on your strengths in order to reach people who need your goods and services. By using what you are familiar with, not only can you build your business but also have fun doing it!

Wrap Up

Minneapolis Fun

We had a great time and a great crowd in Minneapolis at the High Rankings Seminar! We had a slightly different format this time, leaving us each less time for our topics but allowing attendees to see every presentation. I did both Linking and Usability this time around and we had a great time with the site reviews.

SEO in Paradise

I've been invited to speak to the Casino Affiliates again at CAP Spring Break, this year in Paradise Island at Nassau, Bahamas. It's only $800 to attend if you register before April 1, and $1000 after April 1. The conference is aimed at the casino and gaming industry, but if you need a business excuse, I mean, reason to go to the Bahamas, consider attending! I spoke at this conference last year and had an excellent time- they are a great group of people. I'm excited to be returning again.

Denver's Not Far Away!

If you can't convince your boss to cough up a ticket to Nassau for CAP Spring Break, join is in the cool and scenic Rocky Mountains as we head for Denver on June 28-29. The High Rankings seminar crew will be in Lakeland with an info-packed 2 days of online marketing training and strategy. Registration should be open by my next newsletter, so if you need to put in a travel request, get busy!

Spring is HERE!

I don't know about you, but keeping my head focused on work with the flowers blooming and warm breezes is nearly impossible. With the new Daylight Savings time already in effect, I still have a few hours to go enjoy the day, so I'm outta here!

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Issue #021- Advertising IS Content and Audience Targeting

Advertising: Monetization Strategy, Sellout, or Useful Content?

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