Many businesses continue to fly blindly when marketing on the Internet. Or, just as bad, they fly using yesterday”™s rulebook.
“You”™ve got to make sure you”™re using your budget to the best of its potential,” said Judi Virgulak, founder and president of Jumar Marketing in Norwalk.
According to Virgulak, search engine marketing is a hot trend.
Search engine marketing is a form of Internet marketing that promotes websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising and paid inclusion.
“It”™s a very powerful too, but it can be dangerous too,” said Virgulak.
Virgulak said many businesses are quick to jump into search engine marketing with the intent of getting noticed quickly, but understanding the structure is important before throwing money in its direction.
“You are bidding for key words and then you set a budget per click and per day,” said Virgulak.
She said business owners often underestimate what paying per click means and have their budgets eaten up very quickly.
“In order to be effective you have to do your research and find out who you”™re competing against, understand the pricing model and how bidding works, and have a focused and relevant message,” she said.
Virgulak said the online advertisement message should be brief, relevant and make an impression.
“You have to make it clear, concise and relevant,” said Virgulak. “Your logo, what you do, where they can go, and maybe a tagline.”
According to Virgulak, cluttered ads are immediately ignored; minimalism wins on the web. Virgulak said a simple understanding between trying to sell a product through the ad or build on the brand name can be a good starting point.
The alternative to search engine marketing is focused single ad space buys.
“It can be effective, but you need to know the traffic will be coming to your site,” said Virgulak. “If you”™re advertising on someone else”™s website make sure you”™re getting statistics from them.”
Virgulak said finding homes for single banner ads should be dictated by your link history. According to Virgulak any business with an online presence should understand the link structure of its website so that it knows where to make improvements and where it expedites its resources and time.
Virgulak said banners are not as impactful as they used to be, though their high-traffic pages still fetch higher prices, making it even more important to know if you”™re realizing returns.
Research firm McPheters & Co. found last year that typical Internet banner ads to be not as effective initially as television of magazine banner ads. The research found that among web users, nearly two-thirds of banner ads were not seen.
Online advertisements are put into two categories: direct response and brand advertising. Dean Harris, chief marketing officer of Kayak.com in Norwalk said direct response is about getting people to buy a product as soon as they see the ad, while brand ads are more relevant for building awareness and sales at a later date.
Virgulak said software like Google Webmaster Tools, a free download, offers insight to those businesses looking to break into the web, but are inexperienced. Webmaster Tools shows all the links that are pointing to a site as well as all internal links. Virgulak said knowing who is connecting with you can help establish a future path. The software also shows which keywords are most significant toward a company”™s site.
