Unlock the secrets of Internet Advertising

In my travels, I have discovered that there are lots of people that still are clueless about how advertising and the internet work.

After all, it is one of the fastest changing and growing mediums.

On one hand, we have ad agencies that are used to the old traditional media such as radio, tv, print, yellow pages, outdoor, etc.

On the other hand we have the tech crowd that sometimes has difficulty translating tech talk into common language.

(Don't take it personally, I have come to realize every profession has their own language that is sometimes difficult to understand. My wife works as a nurse and she never uses terms like scrape and cut, it's abrasion and laceration!)

So how do we navigate successfully through the world of the world wide web and advertising?

I suggest we do it from an end users perspective, the consumer.
Take a look at how their habits are changing and you'll discover how to advertise and market using the internet!

Are you a service contractor such as a plumber? In the past, you most likely spent money on being in the phone book, where your customers would SEARCH for you when a pipe broke.

Now your customers are looking on line instead of the phone book, so you need to be found by Google when a customer types in plumber and your town. And to increase your chances of being found, you may need to buy text ads from Google too. Google now has more than 70% of the search market.

Are you a retailer that has sales and you have used newspaper and direct mail? The internet equivalent is email and banner ads. You reward your regular customers with special offers and printable coupons when they give you their email address. (Another idea is that you give your customer something free when they give their email to you.)

One of the biggest challenges you are going to have is to get local customers to find your local website.

This is where you may need to piggyback on an existing high traffic local website. Newspapers and Broadcasting outlets often are the most visited local websites since they have nearly limitless promotional ability to draw listeners, viewers and readers to their sites.

Most sell advertising on their sites too. Make sure you get a clickable link that will take people directly to your site from theirs.

Finally today, you must include your website address in all your advertising if your website is worthy of going to. (If your website needs help, contact me and I can recommend website developers that I know personally).

Your print advertising including the phone book, must have your web address. Your broadcast advertising, must have your web address. Your promotional pens, notepads and coffee mugs must have your web address.

See, by applying common sense to this whole internet/advertising equation, it's not that hard after all!