In order for a business to succeed, any business, effective advertising is an essential part to making it happen; people need to actually know about a business in order to participate. If you skimmed over that first sentence, go back and read it again. Notice that I said effective advertising. Offline marketing is becoming less effective everyday as increasing numbers of people turn to the internet for information, products, and services. In order to remain competitive, businesses need to refocus their advertising efforts and post ads online. Online advertising should take the front seat; in fact, it should take the driver’s seat. Take a look at a few recent internet search statistics:
- 87{421b746ef4f4588dfd87c8acf16c9c4b10a4a0127eaff1927a04f4091b6d6d60} of homebuyers start their search online.*
- 2 out of 3 car buyers start their search online.**
- 85{421b746ef4f4588dfd87c8acf16c9c4b10a4a0127eaff1927a04f4091b6d6d60} of world population has shopped online.***
If you’re in the business of selling homes, cars, t-shirts, your services, or anything else, you need to be marketing and advertising online. A recent marketing survey conducted by Datran Media, a web advertising agency, found that a majority of Fortune 1000 brands plan to increase their advertising spending in online markets in 2009, while at the same time decreasing their ad spending in offline media and direct mail. These findings are not a surprising, as marketers are realizing the data that supports this decision. While yellow pages, newspaper ads, and television spots may have worked gloriously in the past, these methods are becoming less and less effective as more and more people are turning to the internet as their main source for information. However, many forms of online advertising are costly and unpredictable, making it scary uncharted territory for many who are new to the concept. An easy place to start is online classified ad posting, which allows professionals to place targeted advertisements around the web. And with leading classified sites like Craigslist.org, Oodle.com and Backpage.com all showing heavy increases in site traffic last year, it is also as effective as it is affordable.
Some ad posting services allow people to create a targeted full-page ad on the site which is optimized for search engines and automatically sent out to a host of online directories and classified websites. These services are more affordable than pay-per-click advertising and delivers targeted results based on the title of the advertisement. For many businesses and professionals making the move to online advertising this year, services like this one will be the sensible starting point in their internet marketing journey. Interruption style advertising such as T.V. commercials, radio spots, and print ads rely on the fact that they cast a large net, thereby capturing the most leads. However, this net is often cast over a group of un-targeted and uninterested individuals, in which case, it doesn’t matter how large that net is. Effective advertising is now laser-targeted and focused where most consumers are spending their time and money: online.
* 2008 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers
**J.D. Power and Associates
***Nielsen Media Research, 2008 Report
