Online Advertising Information.

What is online advertising anyway and why do I need it?

By: Anthony S. Blair

You hear so many companies using buzzwords to catch your attention in the media. Words like "cutting-edge", "downsizing", "killer aps", "category killers" and "Data Mining" have littered the pages and airwaves of media just to name a few. You hear these words and most of the time you ask yourself "what in the hell does that mean?"

Search engine marketing by some people's definition is a buzzword or catch phrase that means absolutely nothing. Right now, it probably means absolutely nothing to you. I have been in the marketing field for ten years and in the Internet marketing field for five years and personally the phrase search engine marketing has plenty of meaning. This is especially true when it comes down to growing your sales.

So that you understand the concept of this highly used and misunderstood phrase, let me break it down for you.

Online is an adjective meaning, "Accessible via a computer or computer network"

Advertising is a noun meaning, "The activity of attracting public attention to a product, service or business, as by paid announcements in the print, broadcast, or electronic media."

If you put it all together, you could say Online Advertising is "the activity of attracting public attention to a product, service or business, as by paid announcements accessible via computer or computer network". This is very powerful and as you read this article, you will understand why.

Now that you know what the technical definition of online advertising is, let us explore its benefits to a manufacturing company like yours.

1. You can track and measure online advertising.

How do you currently track your advertising and marketing initiatives? Do you know if all that money you spend on advertising and marketing is doing anything for you? Are you getting any new sales leads? How much income can you directly connect to any of these initiatives? You do not know the answer do you? Of course, you do not. Because your ad agency is telling you that you have to build your image, build your brand and get your name out there.

Now I am not saying that these things aren't important but wouldn't you rather have a steady stream of sales leads, customers giving you money and knowing what made them do these things as opposed to just blindly throwing money away without seeing a return? Of course you do and you can. The Internet can track everything. Electronic data leaves a trail and can be easily measured and recorded. That is why search engines are highly important to your overall advertising objectives. Search engine queries generate sales leads and subsequent sales.

An example that you can relate to is the use of ATM's and credit cards. When you use tools like these, you are working with electronic money and instantly the store knows via a network (which is all the Internet is) how much money you have in your bank account and how much credit you have.

2. Online advertising works fast.

When you put together an advertising campaign for your company, it takes a long time to execute. You have to work with the agency and of course, the agency has to make it look and sound cool. The printer receives electronic files to run all kinds of copies and then sends them back to you or the agency. Sometimes there are mistakes and the copies have to be sent back to the printer and that leads into more time. You have to then broadcast or distribute the copies and then wait for a response two days to two weeks later. With search engine marketing, you can cut out the agency and the printer and reduce the time it takes to distribute your message. Sometimes in just a matter of days your message gets in front of thousands of potential buyers. The best thing is that in hours as opposed to days or weeks you can get responses. In addition, via Internet tracking and measurement, those responses lead into successful conversions that grow your sales. Again, this is why online advertising is highly important to your objective of growing sales.

3. Online advertising is cost effective

How much money does your company throw at employees, the phone company and the Post Office to distribute your message, tell your story and answer questions? Ask your CFO they know. In addition, if they do not know fire them before it is too late! If you asked your CFO would they be happy if you found a way to cut those costs, what do you think they would say? They would say, "Heck, yeah!" On top of that they would probably take you out to lunch at the local steakhouse.

Effective online advertising allow you to measure results and predictably generate sales leads that should eventually convert. And for just a few hundred dollars per year you can have a steady stream of sales leads coming to your website. Think about how much money you could save by doing this.

You can edit your search engine description (or ad) and most of the time all you have to do is just delete, copy and paste to have a brand new advertising message. Oh, and you wouldn't have to run another 5,000 copies at .20 cents a shot and mail them out at an additional .37 cents a shot (minimum). Again, think about how much money you could save.

Online advertising is a powerful yet easy concept to define. Ask your marketing director, ad agency or design firm to define it for you and give you their thoughts on the concept and see what they say. If they do not have an answer and your organization has a website then you have a problem. Fortunately, for you though, there are resources you can use to educate yourself so at least you are not in the dark. Click Here to accelerate your business with online advertising.