Advertising online is a relatively new phenomenon that seems to be becoming increasingly popular and almost a necessity for small business owners these days.
A huge percentage of people in the US have computers and they are spending lots of time online.
In fact, many people think that time spent using the computer/internet will soon overtake time spent watching TV and reading.
So if you're customers are spending more time online...
shouldn't you be advertising to them online? There are lots of benefits to advertising online that I'll be covering here.
Most notably these are Instant, ROI, Effective and Cheap.
1.
Instant- There are a few ways to advertise online, but each one of these has the benefit of being instantaneous.
Email, PPC, Text Ads, Banner Ads, CPM, SEO, SEM, Affiliate.
You've probably heard many of these terms before, but maybe you haven't and that's okay.
What is important is that you know that all these forms of advertising are digital, and therefore take effect immediately.
Whether you're sending out an email, creating a campaign on Google or making SEO improvements on your website you'll be able to start tracking performance changes from the moment you click.
2.
ROI- Return on Investment is fairly easy calculation for the most part, but it is an absolutely essential piece of the advertising puzzle.
There are a few different ways to calculate ROI, but in the very simplest form it looks like this: ROI = (Gain from Investment-Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment Simple right? Well one of the best things is that you'll be able to calculate a pure and accurate ROI...
Even if you don't actually sell products online.
The easiest way to do that is to post an online coupon on your website.
Every time someone makes a purchase using that coupon you'll know that transaction was a gain from the investment online.
Of course, if you are involved in e-commerce then this whole calculation is done instantly for you...
because its digital.
3.
Effective- What I mean by effective in this instance is simple; there is no other advertising medium where so much can be gained by spending $0.
Yes, you can actually advertise online for no out of pocket money but simply time invested.
Think about this for a second.
You can collect email addresses on your website and send out informative emails about your product every month.
Or you could add a blog to your website and write some informative posts relating to your products which will give your site an added SEO element and drive more visitors to your site.
You could even write a comment on an industry article and place a link to your own site in the comment.
Cost to do all this = 0, but these are all effective options to sending traffic to your site.
4.
Cheap- Have you seen the recent costs to air a commercial during the Super Bowl? Believe me, you don't even want to know.
On top of that, do you know how expensive it is to make a decent commercial? Well, it's not cheap.
Advertising online is cheap though.
Want to put your ad in the Wall Street Journal?..
.
$50 - 100k.
Want to be featured in Men's Health magazine?...
Let's say $10 - 20k.
Want to rent out billboard space on Highway 101?...
no you don't.
Want to have an ad on the front page of Yahoo.
com, one of the leading internet portals?...
$50 bucks.
We already went over some of the free advertising options, but even the "costly" options online are relatively inexpensive.
You could buy links on Google for just a few cents every time your ad is clicked.
Or you could throw your banner ad on Yahoo for as little as $3 CPM (Cost per thousand).
That means that 1000 people would see your ad on Yahoo and you would pay $3.
Cheap right?