Online Advertising & Marketing Tips

RSS Feeds for Marketing Part II-How to...

2006-08-04T20:17:00.000-05:00

Rockin Syndication part Deux

Well it has taken a few weeks to finish this article for the mere fact technology was my mortal enemy for a bit. Like I said before RSS feeds or Rockin Syndication is an awesome way to get notice out about products, news and promotions for your clients.

This time I will show proof that it is pretty simple to get it up and running and that you can bypass installing an RSS reader by using a simple and free browser.

First if you install Mozilla/Firefox this has an automatic RSS reader already installed in the browser. Once you install the browser, go to a blog or page that you like that has an RSS feed on it, such as Landolakes.com Then look for the RSS feed icon or RSS feed link in this case go here: http://www.landolakes.com/rss/rss-help-page.cfm

Now open up your Firefox browser (by the way you can run firefox and another browser at the same time) and click on Bookmarks in the toolbar, scroll down and click on Manage Bookmarks, click File then New Live Bookmark. Once this window opens type in the Name of the feed i.e. Land O Lakes recipes and copy and paste the url of the feed into the Feed location box. I chose the Top 10 recipes feed so I would paste in this link: http://www.landolakes.com/rss/top-10-recipes.rss

Hit ok and you are all set. Every time they add a new recipe your feed will automatically update. Now all you have to do is open up Firefox to stay up-to-date with all the feeds you have chosen.

Next you can create your own RSS feed by using notepad and a bit of HTML, or copy what is below for your template and just change what is highlighted in red to make it your own. Due to the fact the html code won’t show correctly online click here to view the sample code: http://www.webservices4all.com/rsshtmlsample.html

Copy and paste the above code in notepad, then save it as an rss file, I saved mine as webs4all.rss, then upload it to your server, add RSS Feed or the RSS icon (usually orange or gray) to a good spot on your site and link it to your website url/yourrssname.rss, so mine ended up looking like http://www.webservices4all.com/webs4all.rss

Just remember, like your blog each new article goes on top of the next, so your feed needs to read the same, when you add a new item, just copy and past the previous code:

If you cannot view the code correctly here please visit this link again and click on Adding new articles code: http://www.webservices4all.com/rsshtmlsample.html

Did you know you can use an RSS feed instead of email...
http://www.webservices4all.blogspot.com/
Thu, 6 July 2006 18:51:15 -0400

And add it above your last article or promo, so it looks like this:

Did you know you can use an RSS feed instead of email...
http://www.webservices4all.blogspot.com/
Thu, 6 July 2006 18:51:15 -0400

Did you know you can use an RSS feed instead of email...
http://www.webservices4all.blogspot.com/
Thu, 6 July 2006 18:51:15 -0400

Once it is complete, check it out in your new Firefox reader or an RSS reader if you already have one.

Lastly, you want people to be able to find your Rockin feed, you can go around and tell people orrrr…you can submit your feed. I will be the first to admit, it is a bit time-consuming but worth it. Do a bit every day or if you see your co-worker staring into space, have them do it, haha. Below I’ll list the sites I liked for my feed submission, there are more but this will give you a good start:

RSS Feed Specifications – RSS Feed Submit – this site gives you a ton of sites to submit your feed to and as a bonus it lets you submit your blog url too! I can personally say this site works, I have received a ton of comments lately to my blog than I have before.
RSS Compendium – This one is another list that allows feed and blog submissions

I would like to say that several comments received from the previous Rockin Syndication article, people commented they are truly surprised how slow the Online Industry has taken to using such a simple thing. Trust me if I can get this figured out with Huge help from my friend at Qclix.com then those of you that work in large agencies surely have no excuse for not giving this a try. If you come across any technology/server issues you have a whole staff to figure it out, unlike me, I thought I was losing my mind as I can only understand so much techie stuff before my head starts spinning…

Get that client, grab a tech person and your co-worker that stares into space and get it going! I look forward to seeing your Rockin Feeds soon.

New Business EBook

2006-07-27T13:56:00.000-05:00

There is a new business eBook out there that is a great help for small business owners, even large business owners that are not familiar with the online world.

It is called: So now you have your own business...now what?

It includes several checklist about what to know before getting a website, step by step on how to set-up and work with an Affiliate Network and more...

Give the book a try 17 pages for $12.99 and contact information so you can contact the author at anytime with questions...can't beat that!

Pay and download the book all online

So you have your own business...now what?

RSS feeds for Marketing? Yup!

2006-06-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

RSS Feeds for Marketing?

Wow! I just did a search on Google for “RSS Feed Statistics” and man oh man, everyone has an RSS feed. ESPN has one, The Government has one, Ask.com, even Microsoft has implemented an RSS feed for their new Vista operating system, and the list just goes on for days, well at least 10 pages worth on Google.

Did we tune out too quickly on the RSS feed craze? I think we did…According to a Pew Internet survey done between May and June 2005:

Only 9% of Americans are relatively aware of what RSS Feed means.

65% are not really sure

26% never even heard of an RSS Feed

12% of Men knew what RSS meant compared to 6% of Women

12% of People ages 18-29 knew what an RSS Feed is compared to 5% age 65 and over

And while we were looking for the next big thing, did the small publishers out-do us with RSS feeds? Yes, I believe they have. From looking at the statistics above and seeing some of the sites that were listed on Google, a lot of the sites were geared toward the teen/young adult audience and male audiences.

In 2006 it seems that the RSS Feed playing field is starting to increase, according to the stats below:
RSS User Demographics
• 71% Male• 50% 18-34 yrs old• 36% College graduates• $74,116 Average Household Income
Again, what are we needed for if we are not beating our clients to the punch with this stuff?

What does RSS Feed stand for? I like to call it Rockin Syndication Simple Feed. I call it Rockin Syndication because of all the cool things you can do from one piece of free XML code. As you’ll see below you can do press releases, promos, calendars and publish your articles all from one link, no worries of bounced emails, fees for PR pieces or trying to get your articles submitted over and over again. To me that Rocks! It rocks because it is simple and quick., oh and did I mention free?!

Now, comes the part we are missing out on, use RSS feeds to market your clients sites. Every client you have has a website and if they do not, they are looking into getting one. As in my last article I mentioned all sites should have a blog and along with this blog they should use RSS feeds. Why?

Who should have an RSS Feed:
Male/Female oriented sites
Teen Sites
Any site for any of their promos and campaigns

Uses for RSS Feeds:
Keeps fresh updated content on your site.
Instead of a mailing list, let users subscribe to your RSS feed.
Blog a promotion and it’ll be picked up by all your RSS Feed subscribers
Press Releases
For more uses visit RSS-Specifications.com and About.com (remember them?) you will be amazed at how simple you can drive traffic to your clients site.

What the RSS feed implementation can do for your client:
RSS feeds keep your customer coming back for fresh content and news.
More people will subscribe to an RSS Feed than sign up for a mailing list anymore
Just imagine how wide-spread your online promotion can be through a feed
Easy and inexpensive(free) way to let people know about new Press Releases

How to implement your code:
First, in order to read any RSS feeds that you subscribe to you need an RSS reader, this is a good link to get one: RSSpublisher.com, this reader is compatible with most operating systems.

Once you install the reader, this will allow you to add the feeds that are of interest, don’t forget your client feeds and it will also allow you to publish the feeds to the RSS world.

In the end you will end up with something like this link below:
http://webservices4all.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Now this link is in my blog, so blog readers can add this to their RSS readers and automatically get any updates I add to the blog. It is also on the front page of my site, so customers can add this to their reader, this allows me to keep my customers up-to-date with new promos and allows them to network, as they see new businesses I work with that may be complimentary to their business.

So there is another use for RSS Feeds, online networking…

There is so much more you can do with this, but it would take quite some time to explain all of it. But follow sites such as listed above to learn how to set them up…better yet check with your co-workers, guarantee someone sitting two cubes away knows how to set it up with their eyes closed, haha.

Who can use and read RSS feeds:

Everyone! They have RSS feeds that can be read by both MAC and PC users. This is one of a very few online advertising vehicles that can reach everyone out there. How many other online marketing/advertising promotions can boast that?!

This is a good knowledge tool to have, whether you are in an Ad Agency, a one-person ad agency, a creative agency, affiliate managers or web design firm, it can work with tweaks to fit your individual client list.

Now, this is merely something else to suggest to your client in consultation or when they say “what else can we do that won’t cost a lot?” By no means is this meant as a new position to hire into your company. It is however wise to school your sales reps or consultants so they can throw it into their Sales bags as another useful sales tool. If your client seems skittish about trying it out, show them the big and little sites that are using it, have them sign up to a few RSS feeds that they are interested in, so they can see first hand how it works. Hands-on is one of the best ways to win a client over and keep them as long and happy clients.

As for myself, because of all my research you can bet my site and blog will have the Rockin Syndication System implemented by next week.

The fun of owning your own business

2006-06-29T20:22:00.000-05:00

This is a short one tonight...I just wanted to remind you that owning your own business can and should be a fun thing!

For example, I hav a client that has taken so long to purchase his hosting plan, that I periodically check in on him. And when i do he says "Just say it...you want to know what the h@#! is taking so long right?" I always just bust out laughing and tell him to take his time, that I'll wait.

And it's things like that which remind me what great clients I have and what I would be missing out on if I didn't have my own business.

So remember...Enjoy your business...it's suppose to be fun!

Does blogging work?

2006-06-22T10:38:00.000-05:00

According to one report in November of 2004, there were 6.5 million blogs out there. That means blogs have been around since about 2004, so why is the word “blog” still just a whispered word in the industry? For the first time I’ve noticed we as Online Advertising Gurus have fallen behind our clients. More clients are asking how they can get the word out about their products in blogs, and usually the answer is “not sure, let me check on it.” Or, we seem to steer our clients away from blogs completely.

But reality is, our clients can never out pace us, otherwise what good are we? The clients/advertisers might as well do their own online advertising campaigns…right? WRONG!

A few things below may help you guide your next client into blog heaven:What is a blog?

According to dictionary.com a real blog definition is:

Main Entry: blogPart of Speech: nounDefinition: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log

Example: Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.

Etymology: shortened form of Weblog

Usage: blog, blogged, blogging v, blogger n

Source: Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)Copyright © 2003-2005 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

The teen definition of a blog is: and I quote from my 16 year old cousin “a place to talk about what I want to anyone that will listen…”Who writes a blog?

According to a report in 2005• Most likely a blog writer is Male• Under the age of 30• Have been online for 6 years or more, so pretty savvy• Well educated

Who is reading the blogs?
• Men and women of all ethnic backgrounds
• People between the ages of 30-49
• Teens, teens, teens

What kind of blogs are out there?
• Political blogs
• Self help blogs
• Community blogs
• Angry teen blogs
• Blogs for women
• Blogs for men
• Company blogs
• Pet blogs
• How to blogs
The list could go on forever, so how do you incorporate this into part of a campaign for your client.

If your client is Tagworld.com, an online music space similar to Myspace.com, then you could do the following. Assign an account person to scope out where the teens are by researching blogger.com, yahoo postings, technorati.com for the top blogs of the day as well as music blogs, new music blogs and local band blogs. Then go in and post comments to the most recent blog and simply tell them about tagworld.com.

Trust me, a blogger always reads the comments that are posted, and like most curious people, said blogger will check out the link in the comment. Voila! You have just boosted the tagworld.com brand name.

Another way is to use Google Adwords. Create an ad and mark it to run within your specified target audience in the blog Adsense section. This creates an instant ad right in the blogs of your choice.

While you are doing all the above to create a better brand awareness for your client, make sure they have a blog section on their own site. Tagworld.com has done this part already. Why a blog on the advertiser’s site? Because it creates an instant sense of community and look how cool this company is…

Many clients instantly shudder when you mention they need to have a blog on their site, because they are worried about negative feedback. The reality is: even bad press is still good FREE PR.

Their second worry is cost. Tell them they can have a blog for free, open up a free blog account on Blogger.com, and just insert the link onto their home page. This also makes them happy because it’s free and won’t upset their site any.

And lastly, their third concern is: What to put in their blog? They can post anything, talk about promos and specials, talk about a community here (again good tie to the community feel), let consumers post their opinions about the service they receive, the products they bought, how cool your site is and so on…Even better post one sentence on the blog that simply states “Tell us how we are doing.” And let the compliments and raves begin, again the positive feedback will outweigh any negative feedback.

I have to admit, as a non-teen I read a few blogs but mostly industry related and I have tried a few adword campaigns on blogs and they do work. However I still think the blogworld has found its home in the teen sector. Teens want to talk whether on a cell phone, on IM or blogs; usually they are doing two of these at once. They are more willing to rate what is cool and what isn’t, so if your client needs to have their product in the cool market, then Blog should no longer be a whispered word around the office.

Let your clients know you can now offer blog services to boost their brand among teens anywhere. Chances are, they will already be waiting for you to suggest this type of solution for their brand.

Using Online Radio to Advertise

2006-05-11T10:43:00.000-05:00

Who’s listening?

Let’s get right to it, you want to reach people online to promote your product/services or your advertiser’s products/services. Online is one of the best places to reach your target audience. How many of you have considered online radio also known as audio streaming as a good place to reach your target audience?

There are several good reasons to consider this version of online media:
More and more people are listening to their favorite radio stations online at work
With online access, people are able to find radio stations outside of their hometown
If they are listening online that means they have a computer and internet access
Listening to online radio at work means easy access to pen and paper to write down the product or website mentioned in the radio spot
Listening to online radio at work means easy access to quickly check out the website mentioned in the radio spot
Online radio/audio streaming is surprisingly inexpensive
Online radio stations are being created for many demographics out there, such as: small business owners, webmaster, work at home moms and more…didn’t know that did you?

With all of that being said, let’s see some stats:

Online radio has grown from 37 million users in 2005 to approximately 52 million users as of April 2006.
Online radio reaches 19 percent of users 18-34 per week and 15 percent of users 25-54 per week. How can you not find your target audience?!
AM/FM Radio online has a listening time of 2 hours and 45 minutes for the average consumer.
The statistics are still coming out about online radio, it is after all a fairly un-explored media that needs more attention

There are several things to know about when buying online radio placements:
15 second spots, 30 second spots and 60 second spots (obviously one is longer than the other, haha) This is the amount of time you have to say your promo (it’s longer than you think)
Ask if their online radio is the same as their regular station. Some radio stations don’t have exact matching between their regular play lists and shows as online.
Ask about the most popular times for their streaming audio, most likely it will be during work hours (which will be more expensive but worth it)
Also ask if their audio streaming is broadcast locally or nationally
Ask who their parent company is, chances are if you are already working with the parent company you may be able to get some value-added placement for your spots. I.e. if you are working with CBS and have placements on the CBS website you may be able to place a few spots on Star 100.7 radio station.

Researching and finding the stations to advertise on is fairly simple. Figure out your demographic first. Say your advertiser is WebServices 4 All and this company only wants to attract local business. Then Google local radio stations in Pittsburgh and visit their sites. If they have a streaming audio button or listen now button, then jackpot! If not, still call them and ask, they may have it in the works and just not making it known yet.

I spoke with a few radio reps this past week and found that advertising on their audio streaming is way cheap! We’re talking between $3 and $5 a spot…how can you pass that up? If you can’t come up with verbiage for the spot, they can help you. Also make sure to ask if they have the technology to show a banner ad when your spot plays. Some stations can, others can not. For the stations that can do this, it’s a bonus for you as a buyer, this ensures that the listener will have to struggle for a pen and paper or rely on their memory; the banner will show until the next spot plays.

Also check out News Channels, for example KDKA is a local news station in my area, they also have streaming audio, and the price is right! I went right back to a client and told them all about it and figured pricing for them for a month, let’s just say pricing was under $1000, very doable for this size client. They are not able to add it into the 2006 plan but you can guarantee it will be in the 2007 budget.

Online radio is also an easy sell for your clients that are nervous about entering the online advertising market. The word Radio gives your clients familiarity, something they know and will make them feel more at ease giving some of their advertising budget to you to spend online.

Lastly, I mentioned earlier about the different radio stations for different demographics, here is a small list and what they offer:

Targeting Women:
WAHM Radio – Provides family friendly music, tips and advice about work from home issues, recipes and more

Small Business Radio for Women – Every Monday they feature success stories, tips and advice for women entrepreneurs

Targeting Techies:
Web Master Radio – as you guessed, tips, advice from leading industry experts

Targeting Sports/Men:
ESPN – you got it sports, talk shows, interviews, highlights

Targeting Youths:
Youth Radio – This site plays what kids want to hear

Remember, for your next Media plan for a new or existing client add some online radio stations into the mix.

Marketing to Women

2006-04-12T11:01:00.000-05:00

Marketing to women is a bit trickier than marketing to other demographics. Why, you ask? Well, a working woman and/or mother is already busy with work, kids, household chores and finding some personal time. At the end of their day they don’t have time to do a lot of digging through ads, really want they want to do is curl up and go to sleep. Being a woman is a very busy life that could leave even a superhero tired at the end of the day.

Somewhere in her busy day, you need to grab her attention to make her want to buy your product, and this is a huge deal because she is ultimately the decision maker when it comes to spending money. Check out the stats below:

1. The US has approximately 55 million working women between the ages of 25-54, even though they earn less than men, they make 80% of the buying decision in the household. They research more and are LESS LIKELY to be influenced by ads.
2. Women spent $7.6 billion on jeans in 2005, up 10% from last year
3. In the year 2000, 9.2% of households were run by single mothers. The estimate of single mothers in 2000 was 9.68 million.
4. I have seen reports that billions of dollars are spent on cosmetics each year
5. Women make up 51.6% of the online population, as of 2004

It’s time to reach back and remember our Marketing/Advertising 101 class…people are most likely to purchase a product from an ad that they can relate to.

Let’s take number 1 and number 2 of the stats above, if women are less likely to respond to ads, then why are there so many ads out there showing teeny boppers, who are a size 0 trying to sell jeans? For Pete’s sake, women in the age range of 30 or above do not want to relate to that and should not feel they have to, so make ads that relate to her. Show a woman with a few pounds on her, sending the kids off to play with friends, she escapes into her room, throws on a pair of jeans, sighs and stretches out on the couch and the ad ends in silence…Now THAT will capture your working audience.

Spin that into an online ad, we make Jeans for the working women or something like that, show the same lady stretched out on the couch with her eyes shut, people will get it. Make the online ad into an email campaign, shoot the email out saying, “Our jeans are just for you, and no your teenager can’t borrow them.” Then make sure the email campaign goes out and reaches their inbox either around lunch time, because they are probably sitting at their desk eating lunch, or late evening, when they have a small amount of quiet time after everyone is asleep.
Again use people and text that women can relate to, mix up the ads, believe it or not, just because someone is not blond and a stick doesn’t mean they are not beautiful, so let them know this by the ads.

I saw a famous footwear ad on TV Sunday night during Grey’s Anatomy and loved it! I could relate to the commercial, a group of women, all different backgrounds and looks, all very happy and dancing around because they love their shoes. I thought it was great and it caught my attention, why? Well, it came on during a program I am not ashamed to say I watch because of Patrick Dempsey or McDreamy as he is so appropriately named on the show. I love shoes, my friends and I are all different looking, so it was easy to relate This morning I remembered the commercial, went to the website and signed up to receive offers and promotions. VIOLA! How easy was that? I saw shoes online I really liked and will be going to buy something this weekend. Seriously let’s see what happened there:

1. I watch a TV show because the men on the show are hot. Yes men, wake up women do watch shows because the guys are hot.
2. A shoe commercial airs during that timeslot – good marketing, catch the user when they are captivated
3. I could relate to the commercial, it didn’t take a lot of imagination to picture my friends and I doing the same thing. Two more pluses for marketing, Famous Footwear gave me something I could relate to and it didn’t make me wish to be skinnier, prettier or anything else, all it did was make me grin.
4. The commercial stayed in my mind, and drove me to their website. Very good combination marketing, keeping the user intrigued.
5. The site featured some of the same ladies from the commercial, so I knew I was in the right place and right there on the page it says sign up for promos and offers. How easy is that? This showed the user what they want and women like deals, so they sign up in hopes of receiving some type of coupon before they hit the store this week.
6. All I had to give was my name, zip code and email. The site makes you feel safe, and not like you are giving away your life history.
7. And now, they have a customer, because I will be buying a pair of shoes or two this weekend and telling my friends about it.

Which brings me to lead generation, I’m all for it, but you need to figure out the least amount of information needed from someone to make it a valid lead. The worst thing to do is ask someone for so much information and no one ever gets back to them. That is a surefire way of losing that potential lead and several others, because word-of-mouth is strong among women. Women are more likely to purchase something from an ad if they hear that other women have had a good user experience. Offer something great and simple, they tell their friends; offer something with no response and they will tell everyone.

Also, for those of you that work in agencies with big name products such as Cheer detergent (just an example), why don’t I ever see a banner that simply says ‘$1.00 off of Cheer detergent, click here’? That is so simple, $1.00 off coupon on a popular brand name item and no catches. Sometimes the simplest campaigns can get the best results. Make the banner bright and cheerful, so it stands out on the website. Make sure it is eye-catching and place the campaign on sites where it won’t get lost, because a coupon for Cheer on a gaming site in the crossword section certainly will stand out better than on a site that offers 30 other types of laundry detergent.

Another place that needs a bit of tweaking on the online campaigns is schools and campus-based ads. Moms want to go back to school to get a better degree to earn money to support their kids and families. Working women want to go back to school to earn a higher degree so they may get a promotion and better money. Create the ads that speak to them: show a woman a little frazzled and a rugrat or two hanging off of them and say we can give you some peace and quiet…the woman clicks because she wants to know how, then say you can go to school after everyone is asleep…I bet that would generate some great leads for your school campaign.

Take a similar ad and make the woman sitting at a desk with people around her, holding her head and say ‘we know you are too busy to eat, but you can go to school when it’s actually convenient for you.’ The ads that show a polished woman with perfect make-up and hair speak loudly; it shows that this school does not have flexibility and does not understand how busy I am. Now in most cases, this is not true, but again there’s not a whole lot there they can relate to.
Do your homework people. There are tons of websites out there that speak to women and are for women, so check out where the ladies are hanging out online and give that publisher some real ads to work with. Catch them on kids’ sites, sites that have follow-ups to popular TV shows, gaming sites, anywhere that, again, speak to the user and give them something to relate to. If you are not sure how a woman will react to the campaign, then ask her, she’ll tell you how she feels about the campaign and probably a few other things, too.

Run the campaign past some women in the office or your mothers or any other women in your life, then look around, I’m sure you can find a few that are willing to give you their two cents. You can do your research, but the best research is to ask an actual woman, that is if you can catch her as she’s running after her children trying to find out what that crashing sound was.

Feel free to email me at robin@webservices4all.com with comments, questions or for a few thoughts on your next campaign targeting women.

Going Retro with Flash Ads

2006-04-09T21:39:00.000-05:00

Uh-oh a patch that can disable flash ads, released by Microsoft? How could they do such a thing? Did you know Firefox has the same issue? And last question, is it really going to be that bad? After all the “oh no’s,” and a bit of chaos that I’m sure occurred last week, here’s why you can breath easy.

For off, this is not the first time online media has had to adjust itself quickly to changes, and we all managed to survive that. For instance, when rich media was a newcomer more advertisers wanted rich media ads only to find out back in 2002 that most of the Internet users had dial-up. Meaning it would take forever and a day for a rich media ad to load (and I know I’m not the only one that remembers the pain of waiting for a web page to load). However, according to a study by Pew Internet and Life Project, from November 2003 to May 2004 high speed access grew by 42% among home users and rich media finally had a place to call home.

The other major reason not to freak out is, we already have something out there to fall back on…done guessing? The good old static banners, .gif animation or .gifs, anyway you spin it, they still exist and perform just as well.

Be creative, take one of your campaigns or products and promote it as a “Retro” campaign or going “Old School” and have fun with the static ads. People just might appreciate it more. Sean Caputo, VP of affiliate network Qclix.com explained to me, “We have found that the flash ads have been too intrusive on the internet user’s experience. Browsers like firefox have plugins to disable flash files and the new Microsoft explorer will have the same capabilities. People are spending more time learning to turn it off to read the webpage that they are looking for than the actual ad being played.”

So according to one of the larger affiliate networks out there you might be better off with a Retro campaign, but let’s say going “old school” since I like that better.
After all, old school campaigns can be tracked just as easily as flash, they are easier for publishers to implement into their systems, and I don’t know of one publisher in the Internet Universe that can’t run static creatives.

Believe it or not, ad agencies may have to think a bit harder now, and the copywriters will have their work cut out for them as well. Flash ads can actually get a pretty good size message into the creative. During the old school days you had to get your message across in probably 6-10 words or less and still keep the file size under control. It was almost like making a keyword search ad on Yahoo or Google into a static ad. If you can think of wording for those ads and stay within the limits, than you can definitely create a static ad.

Another option is email. It’s pretty easy to stay compliant with the CAN-Spam Act according to Jeff LeGore from Peak Advertising, LLC – Agency. He tells me that “most of the campaigns [Peak Advertising has] are flash ads, but those that are static convert well, and the email campaigns they have perform just as well. If one of their email campaigns was animated at the top it would be a bit more appealing but in the end the client still gets the information they are looking for from the user,” he says. “Most of our campaigns the user has clicked on because it is already of interest to them, the creative aspect then becomes secondary.”

According to recent articles, more publishers will support contextual links and streaming videos. Approximately 67% of publishers report being able to support contextual links up from about 50% last year, and more than 76% of publishers support rich media up from 69% last year. About 35% of publishers can support streaming video up from 25% last year, just to scratch the surface.

This is a great time to sit down with your ad agency or your in-house design team to come up with new ways or old school ways to get your message out there. There are still plenty of options out there and always new ones coming down the pipeline. Turn the flash disable chaos into a useful time to give your campaigns a new life.

Let’s not forget, static ads are also less time consuming to create and not nearly as pricey. In the end it’s all about the user. Our users are very smart and in some cases more tech savvy than us, lets give them what they want, simplicity and quickness. Let them look at an ad, find out what they need to know right then and there, and let them get on with their day and do whatever it is they went to the site to do.

Play to the user’s strengths such as, if it is a mom you are trying to reach, make the ad speak quickly. Moms don’t have time to sit and click and read all day, they need to know what it is you want them to buy in the time it takes for their kid to accidentally unplug the computer…but that’s a whole different story.

Never assume something is obsolete. It is bound to make a comeback when least expected.

(correction: the original version of this article noted issues regarding rich media company PointRoll working on rectifying its problems with Microsoft’s disabled flash ads. This information is false and has been removed from the edited version of the article.)

Starting your business...

2006-02-16T13:34:00.000-05:00

If you know what the words ‘panic attack’, ’sleepless nights’ and ’slow days’ mean and you have ever found yourself throwing a child-sized tantrum because you just opened up the frig and found there is no more Pepsi, then you are most certainly a small business owner. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you they are all stress related, what you may not know its actually good stress, because you are breaking out and doing your own thing.

You ask “What does she know about being a small business? Hmph!” Well I answer “I know plenty.” Running an ad agency for small businesses puts me in the same ranks as small business owners, worse yet I have to try and get the company name (WebServices 4 ALL) to be as recognizable as the big ad agencies out there.

Three of the biggest issues faced are the same for all business owners:
• Money- who has it right? When someone quotes you $2000 for a site, a mere $10,000 for a commercial, and sets aside at least $10,000 for keywords on Google and yahoo, I think ‘yeesh! I do need to eat sometime this year.’

• Know how - if you are a new business owner very few other owners, especially in the same category or going to be helpful. Make good use of your contacts and networking events and listen closely and get creative. What may have worked for a music shop with a bit of tweaking can work for your tea shop.

• Time - that’s an easy one, you need it, you don’t have it and that’s why you need an agency.
The most important thing you need to do before going to an agency is get prepared and know your company’s vision.

Here’s a checklist that might come in handy. Once you complete checking all the boxes, consider yourself ready for the next step:
□ Vision for your company
□ Logo, do you have one or even need one?
□ Who are your competitors? Locally and in the state?
□ What are your competitors doing for advertising and promotions, is it working?
□ What type of budget do you have for advertising? (Be honest and careful with this one)
□ Color scheme, everyone likes something
□ Do you have a website?
□ When do you plan on having one?
□ What do you want from your site, i.e. information, sell products online, have people make reservations through the site, etc.
□ Do you want to maintain the site or have the designer maintain it for you?
□ How much of a budget do you have for a website? (website budget and advertising budget should be two separate things)
□ What are your busy times of the week, month and year?
□ Would you like to remain a brick and mortar store or eventually become all online or vice versa?

Your best technology of choice to find out about your competitors is the Internet: type in “flowers” and see what comes up; you can do local searches as well. Peruse their sites, see if they are big corporations, mom & pop shops, etc. If the shops are close, drive by, go inside and buy a few flowers to check out prices, atmosphere, location, and if they have promos listed in the store or just online, ask about their hours and accessibility. Don’t feel bad about doing this because rest assured, if they are in business and doing well, than they have done the exact same thing.

True, there has been a lot written again about word of mouth, i.e. it works, it doesn’t work. I find that being part of a small business, word of mouth does work. I’m proof of that; every client I have has strictly been locked from word of mouth. People will gladly share when they find a good deal, including the right prices and what worked for them. My secret? When I have a sleepless night or have thrown the temper tantrum about Pepsi, I focus the energy and say ‘ok, where are the big dogs advertising? Are they in newspapers?’ Then I check out local newspapers for ad space. Are they advertising online and where? Then I check out who’s online and has the audience I’m looking for. If I need an amount for my next advertising budget, I set aside a day and call, email and call again to papers and publishers, gather prices and see what I can really afford to do. If I can’t afford it now, I save for it, because it’s something I really want.
Understanding that makes it easy for me to understand where another small business is coming from. They really want their business to grow and need to make their dollar stretch. My guess is if you have million dollar budget, you aren’t even reading this. But if you laughed when I said million dollar budget, then you are looking for help.

Partnering is also a great technology. I talk to other publishers and agencies and explain what I can offer. Usually they do not have use for me, but the next time a client calls and says I have $2000 total to spend, guess who might they send them too? That’s right…me!

You can do the same; you may have a catering company that only makes desserts, so partner with a catering company or restaurant and be their exclusive dessert maker. A bit of tweaking makes it a win/win for everyone.

Now, for the web design section of your checklist. Please don’t ever say ‘here is the name of my company and a picture and I like blue.’ Guess what? You will not be pleased with the end results. Give the designer some examples of what you have seen that you like, if you have a store send them to it or send them pictures. Have a brochure, business card or flyers? Give it all to the designer, and if the designer is any good, they will be able to “hear” what you want and make the site reflect you.

When asking for a design quote ask the following:
□ Does this include hosting?
□ How much is hosting?
□ Does this include the domain name/url?
□ How much is the domain name/url?
□ Can I make changes if I want?
□ If you maintain it, how much are maintenance fees?
□ Do I pay before, after or can I have a payment plan?
□ Are there any extra fees tacked on that I should be aware of?
□ Can I expand my site in the future?

If you attend trade shows and collect business cards, even if they are competitors, this is a way to check out their sites. And notice if they have a site and you don’t…you are already running to catch up.

Also, if you are asked “Do you have a site?” and the answer is “No,” you most likely have lost a customer…

You need to “feel” your agency, be comfortable with them, and also know they are not taking anything away from you. They are there to help you so you can spend your time with your customers.

Lastly, don’t forget to ask the services an agency can provide, if you can keep most everything under one agency it’s much easier, one person to talk to, one place for billing and paying and more of a personal relationship can be developed as well.

Don’t be shaken by what the big dogs are doing, they are big dogs that were small at one time; you’ll find your way. Look at them as inspiration, that’s what I do. As I read the online sites that Saatchi & Saatchi closed another huge client or that BBDO has produced another award winning commercial or Universal Mccann has done another great interactive campaign, I just think, Universal Mccann may have started out as local Mccann, wondering how to eat and run the business.

Lead Generation for you

2006-02-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

Features
A History of Lead Generation
Written on January 25th 2006
Author - by Robin Stanton
Feed XML Feed

It used to be that a publisher would not touch a lead generation campaign with a ten-foot pole. They felt they were giving away free advertising and there was money to be made only with CPM (cost-per-impression) and CPC (cost-per-click) campaigns. Then something happened, a few publishers realized they could make easy, good money with a lead generating campaign and word spread quickly. Now there are very few publishers that won’t accept lead campaigns on their site(s).

CPL (cost-per-lead), CPS (cost-per-sale) and CPA (cost-per-acquisition) all basically mean the same thing: the publisher does not get paid until a lead, sale or an acquisition occurs. It just depends on which format you choose to use these days. It used to be that there was only one format, the form, which allowed you to give your life information away in one swift click of a submit button. But now there are several different ways to capture the user. It went from the trusted form capture fields to pay-per-call and the latest instant messaging call center; mind you, none of the “old ways” have gone away. Depending on what you the advertiser wants to accomplish, a combination of these will works wonders.

Form Capture: Ask a few simple questions such as name, phone, email, or extensive questions such as income, age, gender to submit to a call center to change the lead into a customer. People are very used to this and welcome the easy way to receive information. This style has had success in all channels, education, mortgage, credit, personal products and the list goes on, because the form can be changed, shortened or lengthened to fit the need of the advertiser and appeals to all age ranges. The advertiser pays for every completed form that is submitted to their call center, and the creative is versatile enough to be used within banners, pointroll, and email.

Pay Per Call: While this is still new, it is showing signs of success, especially among small businesses and education publishers if you can get the 800 number situation worked out. People do a search say for “green cat collars” and an ad shows up saying, “We’ve got your lime green kitty collars right here! Call now” and it displays an 800 number; the user calls the number and instantly connects to the “green collar” store and places an order. The business owner then pays for every call they receive. This is a scenario I have only seen on search engines and it has plenty of room to evolve.

Live Help: Live help, which has been around for a bit and can be found on a variety of sites for various publishers, is just starting to make its way onto education, mortgage and sites like AT&T for assistance. Lead generation is starting to make its way through this format but most people still feel it is for help finding things on the site or for technical help. But it’ll make its way soon enough. Live help is usually found in a form of a button on a website.

IM Call Center: This is the newest form of lead generation to date; Instant Messenger (which Webservices4all.com exclusively provides) is used to capture the lead and is submitted to a call center or directly to the advertiser. The advertiser pays for every complete/valid lead that they receive. This method is having success on education sites, mortgage sites and sites with a younger or tech-savvy audience because of the fact that anyone 35 years and younger has IM nowadays. Regarding our service, the creative so far has been buttons or banners, but it still has plenty of room to evolve.

As for the three most popular versions of lead generation, they all vary. The form has no personal interaction, the phone has a one-to-one interaction and IM has an instant one-to-one response. There are other types out there such as live help which is also very good, but it leads people to believe live help is more for asking how to find something on a site or help with a technical question.

If you are a media buyer, make sure to offer your clients all their options and take them to sites to see examples. If you are an advertiser, make sure to inquire with the companies that offer these options; you may be pleasantly surprised how a couple of these combined can improve your lead flow for your product.

Lastly, if you are a publisher, don’t shy away from lead generation campaigns. Match your site with the proper campaign and you’d be amazed at the revenue you can create. If the campaign doesn’t work, just try another one. After all, there are plenty of good campaigns out there just waiting for a good home.

Happy Almost New Year

2005-12-31T16:36:00.000-05:00

First, I would like to say Happy Almost New Year! No worries I will be celebrating the New Year with Family and Friends (they are in the next room as I type this).

I just wanted to recap a few helpful tips for the Business Owners out there...

Around the holidays send out a greeting card to customers and prosepctive customers and even customers you haven't worked with in a long time (they like to be remembered too)

There are plenty of inexpensive ways to send cards to your customers, some email clients allow you to send out free greeting cards, http://www.plaxo.com is one of them.

Alert your clients/customers to your holiday hours, they won't care if you are unavailable the week between Christmas and New Years if you give them enough notice.

In my case, I take care of a lot of websites, so I alerted my clients that I would be away and will have their edits completed for the New Year the first week of Jan. unless of course they have a special that needs to be live on Jan. 1st.

Lastly, enjoy your time off, celebrate safely and be ready to Rock and Roll into the New 2006!

Talk to ya next year!

Let your phone be your proof

2005-11-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

If you think just because you are a Mom & Pop type shop, or a 4 person business that works out of your garage that you don't need to be listed on Search Engines...think again.

Here is a paragraph from a recent article that shows what a difference a few search engine keywords can make to your business:

If you operate a classic Yellow Pages-oriented business, build a Web site, even if it's just a single page, and experiment with local search advertising. It's still very affordable, and you may find more prospects than you expect replaced their use of the Yellow Pages with that of search engines.
"Right now, four out of every five phone calls I answer are from people who tell me they found me in search. It's really incredible,"

If you have any questions or thoughts, please post them here or email robin@webservices4all.com

That Mouth is a powerful weapon!

2005-11-09T12:07:00.000-05:00

Did you know your mouth is a very powerful weapon when it comes to business? On a good day a happy customer/client is your best source of advertising, on a bad day...watch out they could drive away potential customers/clients you didn't even know where right around the corner.

I always stress to people in the Small Business world, give good service and word of mouth will spread like crazy. Always ask clients if you can use them as a referral for your next project/job proposal, they will most likely say yes and feel good that their opinion matters!

An article I read this morning in the Center for Media Research/Research Brief "Consumers Trust Each Other More Than Advertising" 11/09/2005 states the same findings:
The "2005 Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) and Engagement Study" a new study of consumer behavior by Intelliseek Inc., reports that consumers are 50 percent more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV ads.

Also Key Findings show:

Word-of-mouth behavior among "familiars" trumps all forms of advertising and is more trusted than news or "expert commentary."
Positive word-of-mouth from a personal acquaintance carries just as much impact as negative word-of-mouth.
Men are more likely to spend time on Internet message boards, forums, and discussions, while women have a higher tendency to "forward something (they) had found on the Internet to others."
Consumers are on track to post close to 2 billion comments on the Internet by the end of 2005.

Remember you can give your business a plug on my blog as well as check out my business at WebServices 4 ALL. In case you want to know about my work, feel free to ask any of my clients for referrals...they will be happy to help you out!

Happy Wednesday!

Advertising 101

2005-11-02T12:04:00.000-05:00

To show I really mean we are for the Small Business Owner, here is an article I wrote, giving an easy to follow overview of what to look for when you decide you want to advertise:
Starting a Campaign-What you need to know…

Glad to see you were enticed enough by the first article to return. Welcome Back!

Over the next few months we will build an imaginary campaign from the most general of campaigns to the most involved a campaign can get. Along the way you’ll get a feel for the Internet ‘jargon, lingo” or what ever you wish to call it. By doing this, you will understand the true meaning of “thinking out of the box” when it comes to selling your products and business to certain demographics.

Let’s start out with a few definitions and general questions to get you started, so we all begin on the same page; plus you can refer back to this article for a refresher if you need to. The definitions aren’t dictionary definitions but a general explanation of the Internet “jargon.”

Definitions
Demographic
Characteristics of a person, age, gender, where they live, etc.
Targeting
Different ways to send your message to the intended demographic.
Filters
This can be used to select specific demographics to target by, for example: I would like to target 40-year-old men. You have just target by gender and age.
Image Awareness/Branding
Letting the Internet audience know that your business exist or reminding them about a certain product, but not looking for sales.
Campaign
This is the term used to describe the length of time your advertisements will run
Acquisition Cost
This is the calculated number used to figure out how much it cost to acquire 1 new customer. This formula is used only when trying to achieve sales or registrants
Advertising Options
Refers to sponsorships, banners, emails, etc.
Offline Advertising
Any advertising that takes place in traditional media such as TV, radio, magazines, billboards, etc.
Online Advertising
All the advertising that takes place on the Internet
Test Campaign
The very first campaign that your company does…for awareness or a new product. From this campaign you will receive useful data to help you decide the best places to advertise for the next go around

All of the above definitions will be used when discussing what you want to do on the Internet. For a new business entering online advertising for the first time, you will hear all of these. Prepare yourself for the questions by having as many of your answers ready as possible.

What type of questions will you encounter you ask, a barrage of questions such as:

1 What do you want to advertise?
2 Do you know what the demographic is for this campaign?
3 What is the length of time you would like to run your campaign?
4 Are you looking for sales?
5 What is the acquisition cost you are shooting for?

Instead of getting off the phone in tears and saying “acquist…what?” Take a deep breath and know that this doesn’t have to be frustrating; with some preparation you will sound like an expert in no time flat. Practice with the above questions, see what you can come up with and in a few weeks we’ll take those answers and move on…

Whoever said no pain, no gain…I beg to differ, pain free is the way to go in my book. If all goes well, online advertising can be pain free for all…

You are hard to find!

2005-11-02T11:46:00.000-05:00

The elusive animal, yet we know they exist, because we see them all around us everyday...do you know who I'm talking about? It's You! The Small Business Owner.
Where are all of you? I know you exist, heck I've even done some work for some of you...don't be frightened or thrown off because you see the word "agency" The word agency in this case does not mean "lots of money."

Come on in and check us out, we have done some great things for businesses, web design, search engine results, newsletters, etc.

If you want to peruse the store without speaking to someone check it out here: WS4A Store

Small business ads, is it possible?

2005-10-27T15:13:00.000-05:00

Why sure it is...I was sitting around last night thinking, most of the ad networks out there only have ads for well known companies or companies with huge budgets. Well what about us small guys? People need to know about what we do.

So I've decided over the next few weeks I'm going to start building an ad network with text based ads, that will focus soley on small businesses. All ads will be text based and CPA based.

I figure most of us read newsletters or a lot of local papers and don't want our stuff cluttered by large obnoxious ads, and if we want to run a little advertising on our sites we want it relative to our customers and again not cluttered.

I will write more about this in the coming days, but if you want information on how to get an ad placed in this network or just more information in general, drop me a line at robin@webservices4all.com

Happy Thursday!

Introduction

2005-10-19T20:14:00.000-05:00

Hi,

This blog is for the small business owner or anyone curious about online advertising. Throughout this blog, industry trends will be discussed, challenges of working with a small budget, where to find good help with your ads and more.
Please feel free to post any questions, comments or general frustrations you have with being a business owner.
I will do my best to answer all questions for you.

Enjoy this blog, share with others and remember if you have a question about something, post it because chances are you are not the only one, there are others wondering the same thing.

Happy reading,
WebServices 4 ALL