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PREVIOUS PAGE • SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER • CLIENT LOGIN Advertising in an Internet worldThe webmaster’s lament: The webmaster’s lament replaces
the advertiser’s lament: It’s tempting to blame the medium, but it’s really the message — or the lack of it — that causes advertising to fail. Which is a better value — 1 full-page ad or 8 eighth-page ads? You could say more in the full-page ad, of course, but you could say it only once. The key is to say something that’s important to the reader in an eighth of a page and then to repeat the ad. And repeat the ad. And repeat the ad. Repetition builds resultsLet’s face it — advertising isn’t a difficult concept to master: Tell the right story enough times to the right people and you’ll sell your product or your service. But if you get the wrong story or tell it to the wrong people — or if you tell your story only once — you’ll have wasted your advertising budget. What does that have to do with the Web? Everything. Because your Web site is always there, it’s repetitive by definition. It’s repetitive if you can convince prospects to stop by from time to time. You can do that by providing new, useful information regularly — every week or two, if not sooner. That’s one philosophy of web-based advertising — that you need to drive people back to your Web site regularly. And I don’t disagree with that philosophy. It works well for some products and services. But let’s consider another way to use the Web. It’s possible to have a successful Web site that hardly ever changes. How often do you change your printed sales literature, after all! Certainly not every week, unless you run a grocery store. Probably not every month. Maybe not even once a year. What happens if you start thinking of your Web site as the world’s largest piece of collateral advertising material? Something good, perhaps. Consider costsYour first advertising goal is to sell prospects on the idea of raising a hand to wave at you. You want them to do this so that you can send them more information. The traditional way of asking people to show interest is to have them return a post card, to fax a form, to pick up the phone and call you, or maybe to stop by your store. The follow-up to that display of interest varies from company to company, from product to product, but it usually involves a more expensive follow-up packet of information. When you begin to think about your Web site as that follow-up package, you can begin to see the Web in a new light. You’re no longer limited to a 4-page brochure, a 16-page brochure, or a 64-page brochure. You don’t have to be concerned about the extra cost of adding spot color or even about using full color. On the Web, it’s all the same price — one page or a dozen, color or monochrome. In other words, you don’t have to decide what to leave out! You have as much space as you need to tell your story — but you must tell that story in an orderly way and it’s crucial that you make it possible for your reader to move easily from one section to another. As collateral literature, the Web has some astonishing benefits. Among these benefits are rapid development, low production costs, unlimited size, color, the ability to make multiple offers by directing visitors to different areas of your site, and the ability to modify your offer as conditions change. There are limitations, too, such as the Web’s restrictive format, limited interactivity, the reader’s modem speed, and the lack of standards among the various browsers. |
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