Demand Proof That Your Advertising Works: Tracking Ads

by James Fowler

www.mywebsource1.com

How do you know if your ads are working for you? The internet makes it easy to track your return on investment through pay-per-click ads, but how can you track print ads? How do you monitor your radio and television ads? What do you do if your running concurrent campaigns?

One way marketers have done this in the past is to put a special code on the ad that a customer is supposed to use when they call the company in hopes of getting an additional discount.

For example, if you were running an ad for a Halloween Sale, you might have customers call in and say the code: BOO to receive an additional 10% off their order.

While this may prove some sales, how do you know your ad worked? You know which customers got the discount, but did they call in and have your customer service person offer them the 10% off? What about the customers that didn’t use the code? How about those that saved the ad and called in after the sale? This way cannot positively give you an accurate account.

Another way of tracking ads is the coupon. Likewise, while you know the number of people who have used the coupon saw your ad, what about those who buy your products but didn’t use the coupon? What if they buy something else outside of the sale item? There is no clear way to monitor the effectiveness of your ad…

…or is there?

Let us say you are going to do a direct mail campaign or rent a billboard. You want to know how effective your money is working for you. There is a way to do this by tracking the phone numbers and/or web address that you use in your ads. What’s more, your ad can be monitored each day for its effectiveness. The difficult work is done for you and you just need to worry about getting the sales!

Once you experience the power of the tracking technology by seeing the actual number of leads and hearing the actual phone calls, you will be able to track where you are most effective. You’ll be able to see and hear where your shortcomings are. You’ll be able to see what brings in results.

Why waste money on non-effective advertising month after month? Quit the guessing. Be smart in your spending. Arm yourself with the tools you need to make your advertising as valuable as possible. Think of how much money you can save by spending smart!

Here’s how it works:
ONE: You create a magazine, billboard, catalog, brochure, radio, or television ad. We take your phone number or email address and change it slightly to record the results back to you.

TWO: Immediately, those calls or the web site address comes to you, but are recorded so that you can monitor their results.

THREE: You click on the web site each day and can actually listen to the phone calls or see the results of the web site address provided.

You can see exactly who is answering the call to action from your ads!

I am sure that you can see the benefit in this method of advertising. The added cost (which is most likely less than 10% of your total cost of one mailing) can help you in honing your message and give you the answers to how well your advertising is working for you!

Contact us with your questions and find out how Smart Marketing with myWebSource1 can work for you and get a sample image of how this wonderful software works!

Tips For Bringing People To Your Web Site

There is a great mystery out there in the world known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is the Holy Grail for web site owners. It is the phantom that they try to capture in their attempt to bring more people to their web sites.

SEO isn’t hard. It is time consuming and, if you don’t know what your are doing, can be a real headache without a lot of return on your investment. No one ever built a successful web site and did nothing with it. The good news is there are ways that you can help your web site yourself! Below, you will find some very good answers to having people find you online:

Building Your Web Site. When you begin to design your web site, the first thing you should consider is how SEO will factor into your marketing plan. What keywords and phrases will you use? How will content urge people to come to your web site and link to you?

Content. This is the single most important factor to any self-serving web site. Your content must have good keywords and phrases – the same ones you want people to find you on when searching the internet. Search engine spiders love that text!

Renew Your Content – and often! The search engines love it when you start making changes to your pages. If you cannot do this, then you can always blog. Blogging creates an RSS feed that allows spiders to find your web site. Make sure you follow proper anchor text linking in your blogs and tag keywords to help find your web site.

Longtail Keywords. Short, common keywords won’t get you anywhere. There are other web sites out there using the same keywords for a lot longer than you. If you have a web site that does video production, you might find it hard to get onto the first few pages of Google with words like “video”. Instead try Cincinnati Video Production. This will help you get your business found more easily. Remember: Be precise in what you want your keywords to be. They will help bring people to your web site.

Links. Right behind content, you have to build up a group of links back to your web site – using those keywords and phrases that you are using in your text. Another important thing about links: If it is on a page that has nothing to do with your web site – it won’t really work that well for you. Make your links relevant! For example: If I wanted a link to my web site from this article, I’d put it as Web Site Design and Marketing.

Anchor Text. When you create links within your web site between pages, make sure the links are using specific keywords in which you want to be found. For example: I might put the following as a link - Web Site Hosting.

Title Tags. First, make sure you have a title tag on each page. Then, make sure it doesn’t say HOME PAGE. Your title tags should contain relevant keywords that will bring people to your pages.

Avoid Flash. I know. It looks nice. It is cool. Search engine spiders find this inedible. They hate it! Why? Because Flash is pictures and they like text. If you must use Flash, use it sparingly. Also note, not everyone has the latest update of Flash, so all that fancy design work may look like nothing on some people’s browsers. If you just have to have Flash, make sure you add some text below the movie frame. This is known as “below the fold.”

Javascript. OK, while you’re avoiding Flash, avoid drop down menus, too. The search engine spiders just don’t see it. Use it at your own peril.

Alt Tags. Every picture you use should have text associated with it to let the search engines know what it is about. These should be keyword rich words, as well. The text is referred to as an Alt Tag.

Social Networking. Use it. What is it? It is mySpace, Facebook, sta.rtup.biz, Linked In, and many others. Make sure you put your link back to your web site and make sure you comment on as many other member’s pages as possible. Social Networking will help your web site tremendously.

So, is that all there is to it? Nope. This will give you an excellent starting place, though. In addition to these things, look into a strong Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign. Some people will tell you that Organic Search Engine Marketing is the only way to go, but a homogenous blend of SEO (what we’ve been talking about) and PPC (pay-per-click) will give you the most bang for your buck. Additionally, PPC offers the most obvious way of tracking where your money is going, so your accountant will love it too!

Good luck on this endeavor. It takes time, but it will definitely help you build your web site’s success.

WHAT WILL $5000 IN ADVERTISING GET YOU?

WHAT WILL $5000 IN ADVERTISING GET YOU?
Playing it by the numbers…

NINE THOUSAND BLACK AND WHITE MAILERS. These have a 1% - 5% chance of NEVER being opened.

or...

TWO HUNDRED CLASSIFIED ADS - one every three days for one year. These have about a 3% chance of EVER being read.

or...

ONE HUNDRED THIRTY SECOND RADIO SPOTS in Cleveland. Are you targeting the right audience and are they listening? 95% will never remember…

or...

FIFTY 10-SECOND TV ADS mixed throughout the day on a local cable station. Did your audience get up and go make a sandwich? Again, 95% will never remember…

or...

SEVEN NEWSPAPER ADS – 3 columns x 3” (a little more than half the size of a note card).

or...

TWO TRADE MAGAZINE ADS in which you advertise TO your competition.

or...

A YELLOW PAGES AD about the size of a drink coaster for one year.

or...

ONE WEB SITE.
A web site professionally designed and online 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, no holiday pricing changes.

Located on a place that people actually go to get news and information – their computers.

A web site that will allow you make changes to your text and pictures when YOU want the changes made…

AND the best part of all…it won’t cost you $5000 to have a web site. You’ll have plenty of money left over to use on other marketing endeavors: Pay-Per-Click, Search Engine Optimization, your web site added to your business cards, letterhead, and invoices.

You’ll have money left over to advertise in other traditional marketing methods or even have a video made of your products and services. Why wouldn’t you want a web site that attracts customers to you? For more information: www.mywebsource1.com