Advertising & Promotions

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The internet can be a great way to do business especially with the increase in the number of people with access to online facilities. Online advertising is similar to print advertising in that it offers a visual message; however, it has some additional advantages in comparison to other modes of advertising.

Some of the advantages of internet advertising are:

  • Rich multi-media advertisements can be developed consisting of drop down menus, built- in games or search engines to engage viewers
  • Online advertising can be interactive, i.e. two way communication allowing the user to provide feedback and login registering their details
  • Online advertisement can be tailored or personalised for individual audiences, hence targeting different market segments 
  • It offers an opportunity to reach younger consumers who have developed a preference for online communication
  • Results from online advertising are measurable providing the opportunity accurately gauge the effectiveness of advertising campaigns

The most common forms of online advertising options include:

Banner ads

This form of advertising involves embedding an advertisement to a web page. Its main objective is usually to attract traffic to a website by linking via a click through to the website of the advertiser. 

Internet Marketing - Online SearchSearch engine marketing

This form of advertising aims at promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages. Most internet traffic begins at search engines like Google and Yahoo, you can increase search engine rankings by developing links to other sites within your site and adding fresh content related to keywords that are related to your products or business.

It is often useful to engage a professional search engine optimisation expert to assist you in improving your search engine ranking results. 

Pay for placement

Major search engines now offer a facility called "Pay for Placement" also known as "Pay-Per-Click". When using Pay for Placement, advertisers bid on keywords or keyword phrases on which when searched by customers, their ads would be displayed. Most advertisers would benefit from this option as consumers would be attracted towards a particular product for which they otherwise would not have known.

Build your Marketing plan

Build your business plan by answering the questions below. A plan will automatically be generated based on your responses. Avoid changing your answers offline as they will not be saved to your profile.

Strategy

Q.1 Will you have a website for your business? If so will you have just simple promotion on the site or offer other features such as online catalogues or online ordering? Give Answer
Q.2 Who will be responsible for developing, maintaining and ensuring that the website is being utilised effectively? E.g. search engines optimisation and affiliate exchange programs. Give Answer
Q.3 What is the total planned cost of your online marketing efforts? Give Answer