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PATIENCE_IS_A_VIRTUE
| PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
I want 10 million visitors to my site a day! A common desire,
but not a common event. Banner ads don’t work and neither does
Internet advertising! A common statement these days, but is it
true? Multimillion-dollar Web sites go out of business on almost
a daily basis after spending hundreds of millions of dollars in
advertising. Why do these companies with sheer girth and
unlimited funds tend to fail? The Internet, while composed of
millions and millions of surfers, can be a myriad of confusion.
It seems that the majority of "nay-sayers", and the online
population in general, want instantaneous results. Not next
week, not tomorrow, not five minutes from now, but right now! If
they do not get it, then good-bye. There are no second chances.
Your strategy had better work right away, or you could see your
ad business dry up like the Sahara. What is being left out in
this simple equation is a complex formula that has withstood the
test of time, and has been proven to work year in and year out.
Test, test, and test some more!
A typical campaign sent through the postal mail could take
anywhere from 3 months to a year before the mailing gets
completed, and results start to come in. The time involved
includes creation of the ad copy, testing a list, then maybe
testing a different ad with the list, and finally deploying the
campaign. Wow! Three months to a year is a full life cycle for
some Internet companies. (No offense to some of my past
employers :-)). The full results can take months before they are
completed and straggling respondents abound. Throughout an
offline (postal mail) campaign, much painstaking time is given
to the layout, the content, and the audience for an
advertisement. The sluggishness of a postal campaign could be a
godsend to advertisers. For the time it takes to test a list,
you could brainstorm new ideas for the campaign. That time is
invaluable for making changes, and moving with the current
market.
Let’s take a look at a campaign run through the Internet in a
newsletter. I will use a recent campaign I ran in a sweepstakes
newsletter, because it epitomizes the difference in time frames
between Internet advertising and postal advertising. I used a
company in Sweden. The results poured in within the first week.
Even four weeks after the mailing was done, more customers came
from this one mailing! Composing the advertisement took just as
long as any other company. The testing, deployment, and results
took about four weeks. Most Internet campaigns will finish
receiving results in 9-10 days. The swiftness in which I could
perform tests, allowed me to make changes to my ad copy and stay
ahead of the market. I was also able to personalize my ads with
a far greater depth than through postal mail.
The benefit of the Internet is quicker results from testing.
The once yearlong campaign can now be tested and executed in as
little time as two weeks via the Internet! From day to day,
market fluctuations change prices and debut new products. The
Internet allows quicker rollouts of new products, along with
faster dissemination of sales information, and Beta testing. The
implications are enormous, but with all the speed in the world,
we car drivers know patience is still needed on any highway.
Traffic jams happen, and making rash decisions or turning a
blind eye can cause serious physical and financial damage to
ones' self and others. Time must still be taken to come up with
catchy slogans, attractive graphics, and action driving
descriptions of great products. Minus these elements, one could
mail to 180 million people and be out of business in a few
months.
About the author:
Roen P. Branham Co-Chairman / CEO Opt2Opt, Inc. (Web site
www.2-opt.com) email: roen_b@hotmail.com
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