Online Marketing and Advertising

Online marketing and advertising can seem daunting to small business owners.  To make things worse, it has been changing rapidly in recent years. The introduction of new technologies will continue to force online marketing and advertising to evolve and change.  However, even while technology is changing, human nature remains the same.

Want to learn more about how to market to human nature? Pick up your digital copy of Beyond the Niche for only $9.99 by clicking the button below.
 

What is Online Marketing and Advertising?

Online marketing is the process of marketing a business or product on the internet. It can be done through a variety of methods, such as social media, search engine optimization, email marketing and content marketing.

The goal of online marketing is to create awareness about a product or service in order to drive traffic to that business’s website.

Internet advertising involves the use of various digital channels to promote products or services.

Internet advertising involves the use of various digital channels to promote products or services. The most common way this is done is through social media platforms. You can also advertise on various search engines or through e-mail newsletters.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is a process of promoting goods or services using digital technologies.

Digital marketing is the use of digital technology in marketing to reach out to customers and potential customers. This means that it uses channels such as social media, search engines, websites, and mobile devices.

What is Internet Advertising?

How to Market Your Business Online

There are many ways to market your business online. It all depends on the type of business you have and the type of sale you are making.

Internet advertising has become the media of choice. It can be used to advertise products and services, as well as being a medium for mass communication by businesses and institutions. The internet has many platforms where you can advertise your product or service.

You should start with YOUR OWN WEBSITE.  You should register a domain name and build a website on a paid shared hosting account. Ideally your website should be optimized for SEO and mobile devices. You can then begin advertising your products or services online. For example, you could create social media accounts and email campaigns to get the word out about your product or service.

Online Marketing and Advertising Options

Mashable reported that in 2007 for first time in history, online ad buys surpassed radio buys. To quote Iago the Parrot in Aladdin,

“Oh, there’s a big surprise. That’s an incredible… I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die, from NOT surprise. “

Meanwhile, traditional media continues to lament their loss of revenue to online media.  Let’s see… online media provides advertisers with hard facts regarding their advertising buys.  There are no “paper logs” and “estimating” involved with an online buy.    Online media provides real DATA to back up their claims of eyeballs captured.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure

If you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing. Yet, measuring traditional media buys is virtually impossible.  Take for example AQH stands for average quarter hour.  Used exclusively in traditional electronic media, the AQH estimates the number of people to be listening or watching for at least a 15 minute time period. In theory, the AQH will not include those listeners who tune out as soon as the commercial break begins.

My family was chosen to be a Nielsen family.   We were instructed to document our viewing habits. They sent us paper logs for every television we own. PAPER LOGS! Paper logs seemed to be a pretty antiquated way to report our viewing habits even in 2007. The logs arrived via priority mail along with 5 one dollar bills.

The paper log system frailties were evident the first day we tried to fill them out.

In theory, viewers are to list what they were watching during the pre-determined 15 minute segments of each hour. The logs only allowed one line per 15 minute unit.  We were also to list any show we watched for 5 minutes.  As I watched TV with my teen aged children, I realized we were watching 3 shows “simultaneously” on one TV.  Our collective attention spans wouldn’t allow us to watch anything longer than a YouTube video! There was no way to account for this in the log.”

In the end, our Nielsen logs were as accurate as a “based on a true story” made for TV movie.

Don’t put all of your eggs into the online marketing and advertising basket

Business owners should not slash traditional media expenditures to allocate more to online media buys. There is a considerable link between ad spend an blog buzz!

Again, what a non- surprise.

In a now deleted article on Media Week: “Marketers that treat traditional advertising and word of mouth management as two separate animals do so in error, since the two are closely connected. >Nielsen’s research – which analyzed factors such as buzz volume in blogs, spending, purchase intent among consumers and actual sales – has found that a big advertising budget is the best predictor of significant blog buzz, rather than tactics that attempt to specifically influence such online world of mouth.

The ugly stepsister of media buys

Radio has ALWAYS been the ugly stepsister of media buys… yet it continues to be a powerful influence upon consumer behavior.  Clever creative combined with the power of radio and television can “fly under the filter” and infiltrate consumer’s minds.  This allows radio and television to influence purchases and even blogging decisions.

Aribtron and Nielsen are necessary evils… ways for radio and television stations to estimate their audience so they can charge for their influence.  However, advertising purchasers shouldn’t hold the numbers to be holy and just.

If you’re not buying media on a national scale… trust your gut and ignore the “figures”.

One of the most important things in advertising your business is to know who your target audience is.

A client who was a health professional got a visit from a media rep from the cable company.  The rep was pushing a health and wellness channel.  At first glance, it appeared to be a good fit. Unfortunately, there was a significant problem with the recommendation.

The channel’s line up for the week was programming featuring stories of childbirth. Young women were DEFINITELY not my client’s target audience.  I asked him to conduct a survey of his current patients.  He asked them what channels THEY were watching. He found that 8  out of 10 were watching programming  on the Food Network and The Travel Channel.

I don’t often recommend polling your customers.  In this case, it made sense.  He wasn’t asking them what they want from him, but rather what channels they watched on TV.

As long as advertisers “charge per eyeball/ear”…. and rely upon paper logs submitted by volunteers… their ratings will always be suspect.

Conclusion: The Future of Online Marketing and Advertising

A well trained media rep can be your business’ most valuable asset.  Unfortunately, few “media reps” are few and far between.

When media reps stop selling by the numbers and instead focus upon getting results for their clients… well, then there will be new day dawning for traditional media.  Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening any time soon.  Instead many platforms are adopting “self service” advertising which cuts out the media rep all together.

That shifts the burden onto business owners to dig in and learn the best way to advertise their business.

Need help?  Pick up a digital copy of my book Beyond the Niche.  It’s only $9.99 and it will help you become your own well trained media rep.