Back then, a business would pay an advertising firm and if sales went up, the advertising firm got some of the credit.

Now, a business pays an advertising firm when they get sales (or leads).

Back then, an advertising firm would make estimates about how many people saw that businesses ads.

Now, the business can know the exact numbers of how many people see the ads, how many people interact with the ads, and how many people complete an action that the ad intended, such as filling out a form.

Back then, a businesses advertisement would run for a fixed time for testing, often as long as a season or year.

Now, an advertising firm can react daily to change and improve ads.  Ads that work get shown more and ads that do not work get turned off immediately.

The difference is that a business can now prove that it makes more money in profits than the expense of the ad campaign.

It is time for your business to move into the Now.

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Marketing and Advertising are essentially lead generation, or better yet “action” generation tools. There is always an intended action regardless of what kind of marketing or advertising is taking place. Sometimes that action is obvious like a person calling a number, purchasing a product or service, or filling out a form or email. Other times the action is less direct, but someone at some point is spending money, and therefore there is a desired result which is this “action”. As these fields increasingly move online, these “actions” become easier to measure as a whole.

The Basics of the Marketing & Advertising process online

The internet is really one huge “action” network, and it is increasingly moving in that direction. Everything online can be tracked, assorted, analyzed, marketed to, measured, and tested, which previously was impossible. The beauty of the internet is that this allows us to adapt in real-time. We can now, almost immediately, see the results of our marketing and advertising initiatives {actions} and begin to optimize these results.

There are too many aspects of marketing and advertising online to discuss in this post in great detail, however I will go ahead and breakdown the basics of what goes into a well run advertisement. Again, many of these steps can be applied to both a large corporation or a small local business, because in the end almost all actions happen at a local level, even if it is a multi-national marketing campaign. So the following steps should be used in all advertising campaigns online if you want to optimize your results and make money.

Step 1. Identify your desired action. (product sale, phone call, email capture, video view, etc.)

Step 2. Identify your desired geographic location to target for each specific action.

Step 3. Identify your target market using very specific demographics (Facebook demographics – age, gender, interests, etc)

Step 4. Identify what your targeted audience is looking for with Keyword Groups (i.e. Search Engine Keyword Searches)

*Note – advertising platforms focus on different things. For instance Facebook & LinkedIn are examples of ad platforms where you can target very specific demographics, whereas Google and other Search Engines focus more on user intent.

Step 5. Create your Ads based on Steps 1-4. (Notice this should always be plural. One of the biggest advantages of the internet is the ability to test ads against each other to see which are most successful)

Step 6. When you create your ads on certain platforms (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) assign the keyword group you created (step 4) to the ads you created (step 5)

Step 7. The destination of your Ad should link the consumer to a ‘landing page’ designed to initiate the desired action. Landing Pages are pages on a website that are designed to convert an action. I would argue that all webpages should be viewed as a landing page. (Landing Pages that match the advertisement copy and keywords have much higher success rates). In other words, if you send your traffic to a page that matches your ad, your conversion numbers will increase.

Step 8. Split test all individual variables against each other (this may take some time depending upon the volume of traffic). This includes ad copy, keywords, landing pages, ad targeting, etc.

Step 9. Analyze. Make appropriate changes. Repeat.

If you take this step by step approach to marketing, and continue to measure the results, make changes, and repeat, you will slowly but surely optimize your campaigns. This will mean your dollar spent will go further ,therefore increasing your ROI on this campaign. As a business owner or employee you can gain incredible insight into what drives people to these certain actions. This can help your Business in countless other ways aside from achieving the desired results from a specific marketing/advertising campaign.

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The current economic state is bleak and companies small and large are struggling. Time and time again, I have heard owners of companies tell me they are cutting their marketing/advertising budgets, which makes me cringe.

A down economy or recession is NOT a time to make cutbacks to advertising, and actually, the reverse is true. Researchers from Oregon State University and Western Oregon University studied data from five recessionary periods since 1971, sampling data from 3000 firms listed on the public stock exchange. Their findings,

“Firms that are able to increase their advertising during recessions are likely to have stronger future earnings.”

I guess that quote would make the 6th reason to advertise in a recession– more future sales. Here are some others that gets your company to achieve the ultimate goal, higher profits.

Reputation

When you market during a bad economy, people see your brand and make the assumption business is good for your company. If you are able to afford to market, then the thought process for consumers, and your  competition, is that you are doing something right–your product and service must be worth it.

People are looking for deals and coupons

If you look at the graph below, I have given you a snapshot of the searched terms of coupons (blue) and deals (red) and how often they have been searched since 2007. As you can tell, both terms have approximately doubled in the amount of times they are searched on any given day. Consumers are looking for deals and are turning to the internet to find them. When marketing, be cognizant of this fact and include promotions in your advertising material.

Don’t follow in your competition’s footsteps

If you are thinking about cutting back on marketing, then so is your competition. Do you really want to do what your competition is doing? Be innovative and market when they are not which leads to….

Increase market share

Marketing in a recession when others will not will increase your market share during the down times. When the economy rebounds (which it will), you will be in a much better position than your competitors.

Did you know that in 1990 Reebok and Nike were virtually the same in sales? During the 1990-91 recession, Nike tripled its advertising budget while Reebok cut back. Do I need to explain what happened? Well, when we emerged out of the recession, Nike’s profits were 9 times higher than they were going in–Reebok has been eating Nike’s dust ever since.

Internet provides cost-effective advertising

Unlike past recessions, the internet provides the ability to use the most cost-effective advertising. Companies are able to track their marketing and see real-time data on their results. When done right, and with the right people in charge, companies are able to get the maximum ROI.

Need help with getting more customers?

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Facebook continues to promote their advertising for Facebook Pages. If you are a business owner and you are not aware of this type social media advertising, you are truly missing out. The system caters perfectly to local businesses that can achieve a “geographic” [community] following. It is however, important to understand internet marketing to get the results you want, and to understand how landing page optimization, analytics, split-testing and other tools can make a drastic difference in your conversions to customers and overall campaign goals.

Most business owners or decision makers that I speak with have two major issues: time and money (sound familiar?). In my opinion if you hire a good consultant / marketer you can save on both of these by achieving greater results than with what traditional advertising options (print, yellow pages, radio, mailers, etc) yield. The technology platforms are available and the people are engaging with it at a tremendous rate. Why not take advantage of an interactive environment where you actually get to communicate with those that are interested in your product or brand, while targeting the specific demographics you want?

Let us explain a bit further about the ways  we may be able to help your business.  Tell me more

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“I didn’t do it to get TechCrunch talking, I did it to reach 35,000 people who drive by the store every day.” -Jeff, Owner

“In today’s marketplace there isn’t enough money to buy attention. But you can earn it, by being purposeful, authentic, willing to make mistakes, and most importantly, by having the ability to shutup and listen.” -Robbie Vitrano

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http://mashable.com/2009/05/20/twitter-personal-brand/

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