Chapter 04 e Marketing

E-MARKETING(INTERNET MARKETING)

E-MARKETING

Marketing: A comprehensive process that involves every

aspect of a business from designing its products, setting the pricing strategy to analysing sales statistics and collecting customer feedback.

E-Marketing: Refers to using technology such as the internet,

website and email, sms, including its wide variety of options and tools to conduct your marketing activities and achieve your marketing objectives.

E-MARKETING TOOLS E-Marketing tools and strategies include: Business websites; Search Engine; Email; Online newsletters/e-zines; Online catalogues; Online press releases; Online surveys; Online customer service; Banner advertising; Affiliate marketing. Mobile telephone marketing; Online Community (Friendster, YouTube) - new Web Log (Blog) - new

The e-Marketing Concept

The objectives of marketing are to: get the right product promoted in the right way sold at the right price distributed at the right place profitably

THE E-MARKETING CONCEPT

Examples of e-Marketing include: online surveys to conduct market

research web site to display and sell your

products internet advertising to promote your

business software to collect and analyse your

customer information

THE E-MARKETING CONCEPT

The Key to e-Marketing: The key to successful e-Marketing in today's

business environment is to place your clients in control. Allow them to choose how often and what type of messages they receive, thus creating a more meaningful relationship with your business.

This is commonly referred to as Permission Marketing.

Your e-Marketing messages and tools should aim to deliver information that the consumer wants - that they perceive to be valuable.

INTEGRATING E-MARKETING INTO YOUR BUSINESS e-Marketing is not an alternative to your

existing Marketing Plan, in fact you may already have a "Marketing Plan" that identifies your marketing objectives, outlines your key strategies designed to achieve those objectives, and guides your daily marketing activities.

With e-Marketing you can develop techniques to enhance this existing plan to make your marketing activities more effective (smarter) more efficient (cheaper) and you may even find that you can tap into new markets both locally and overseas.

HOW WOULD E-MARKETING ENHANCE MY EXISTING MARKETING PLAN

With the use of internet-based product catalogues you can reduce your printing costs and maintain a higher quality of product information for your customers.

By utilising marketing information systems you can analyse your sales information to make more informed decisions and customers all over the world can view your products with a website.

CAN MY BUSINESS AFFORD E-

MARKETING? The cost of e-Marketing depends on which

strategies you choose to implement. Any business can start using simple e-Marketing

techniques such as email, newsletters, computer based data management and internet research by purchasing a computer and connecting to the internet which can be achieved for less than $2,000.

Businesses can also spend many thousands of dollars utilizing the services of a professional e-Marketing firm to create and implement a complete e-Marketing package. The choice is yours!

The Marketing Process

A comprehensive marketing process and resulting Marketing Plan is critical for the success of your business.

An effective marketing process should provide you with the information, strategies and solutions to any and all obstacles you might encounter along the way in building and running a successful and profitable business.

E-MARKETING TOPICS

Affiliate Program Search Engine Optimization Email Campaigns Banner Exchange Business Website Mobile Phone Marketing

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Marketing Program

Affiliate marketing is where you refer customers to other businesses via links to their web site from your web site or emails and receive commissions for each customer you refer to the other business. They are essentially revenue sharing arrangements between online vendors or sellers and resellers or affiliates.

If the business is "multi-level" you also receive commissions from the customers referred by other businesses you have introduced.

Conversely, you can set up your own affiliate marketing program to have other businesses sell your products and services for you by paying them a commission.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Marketing Program

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Advantages

1. Increased sales.

2. Improves search engine link popularity.

3. The Internet becomes your sales team.

4. Low operating costs.

5. Sites with affiliate programs could be perceived as more significant.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Disadvantages

1. Potentially expensive up-front costs.

2. Administrative overhead.

3. Accounting overhead.

4. Some profits go to the affiliate.

Affiliate Program

Affiliates vs. Advertising

In most cases, an affiliate program has a distinct advantage over an advertising campaign since you only pay your affiliates for traffic they generate to your site or sales they generate.

Thus, with an affiliate program, you pay for results after the fact, whereas advertising costs are all up-front and have no guaranteed results.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Types

Commission Based

A commission-based program, also referred to as pay-per-sale, will pay the affiliate a commission for all sales that come directly from them. Meaning if a customer clicks a link on the affiliates site and then purchases from you, that affiliate would make a percentage of the total sale price. www.Amazon.com is the best example of this type program, they pay up to 15% of the sale price.

The commission is based on what the customer pays and not the retail price, so if the customer gets a discount, then the affiliate commission will be lower.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Types

Flat-Fee Based

A flat-fee-based program, also called pay-per-lead, will pay a fixed amount for each new customer regardless of how much they spend. www.paypal.com is a good example of this model, they pay a $5 referral fee for all new customers sent by an affiliate.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Types

Click-Through Based

A click-through-based program, also called pay-per-click, will pay the affiliate a fixed amount for each visitor they send to your Web site. www.overture.com is a good example of this model, they pay 2 cents for every click through. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it can add up quickly.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Types

Banner-Impression Based

A banner-impression-based program, also called pay-per-impression, will pay the affiliate a fixed amount for each banner impression displayed on their site. www.doubleclick.com is a good example of this model, they pay about $5 per 1000 banners displayed.

Affiliate Program

Agreement Terms The Affiliate Agreement Terms state how the

affiliate will get paid, when they are paid, how refunds are handled, what the restrictions are, and any other terms on which you decide. The affiliate agreement is a very important part of your program and must be thought through completely.

This lesson will cover most of the considerations that will be in your affiliate agreement, but you will want to visit a major site such as www.Amazon.com for a more thorough sample of how affiliate terms should be worded.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Payments Payment Type For consistency purposes, all payments should be made in U.S. dollars. This is because U.S.

dollars are more universally accepted than any other currency. Next, be sure to mention United States Dollars (USD) when you refer to how much the affiliates will get paid so there is no confusion.

Payment Amount To determine a fair price to pay your affiliate, first visit some sites with similar programs and

see what they offer their affiliates. Next, in most companies it is assumed that about 12% of your budget is advertising. Thus you might allocate 10% of that towards the affiliate payments and 2% towards maintaining the program.

Payment Minimum It is pretty standard practice for affiliate programs to have a reserve amount that must be

met before payment is sent. For example www.amazon.com will not send you a check until you have accumulated $25 USD or more.

Payment Frequency How often you send out payments can impact the loyalty of your affiliates as well. When

possible, it is recommended that you send affiliate checks out once a month, or at worst quarterly. Be sure to define the payment schedule in your affiliate agreement and pay promptly according to that schedule.

Payment Delay Due to fraud and refunds, it is necessary to have a built-in delay for payment in your affiliate

program. Typical delays range from 45 days to 60 days. This allows time for any refunds or charge backs to surface before you pay out to the affiliates.

Affiliate Program

Building Affiliate Program Out-sourcing Creating the code to run your own affiliate program is the biggest

task. Most Web site owners will choose to out-source this project to a Web development company that specializes in E-Commerce solutions. You are encouraged to review affiliate programs already in place by your out-source options before finalizing the deal.

Third Party Vendors Another option is to purchase a third party package to add an affiliate

program to your site. We recommend looking at www.AffiliateZone.com as a possible solution. They have a $75 USD setup fee and monthly fees of $34.95 USD per month.

Writing Your Own The last option is to create your own. This requires some programming

experience, but is a solution worth considering given the costs of outsourcing the project. Next it has the advantage of integrating completely into your site, unlike the results you might expect by attaching a third party affiliate program to your site.

Affiliate Program

Promote Affiliate Program Mentioning your affiliate program in your

newsletter is a great place to start promoting your affiliate program. You will also want one or more links to your affiliate program within your Web site. There are also some nice affiliate directories where you can list your program for free.

Affiliate Directories 1. www.AssociatePrograms.com2. www.Associate-it.com3. www.CashPile.com4. www.Refer-it.com

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Screening

You will want to review all Web sites requesting to participate in your affiliate program. This helps to ensure that sites with questionable content do not display a banner to your site. In most cases, the quality of the affiliate's Web site is not the issue, only the nature of the content for the site.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Approval Notice

Once approved, you should send a confirmation email to new affiliates along with their affiliate ID and instructions on how to place the ad banner or link on their site. You should also remind them of any restrictions included in the affiliate agreement terms within the email.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Code For an affiliate to get credit, they need an affiliate ID.

These typically come in two flavors, a promocode or an affiliate code. An affiliate code is granted to owners of Web sites that have been approved for linking to your site.

The affiliate code is added to their link to your site so that they can get credit for sales coming from their site. The example below passes the affiliate code 1047917.

Affiliate link sample syntax:http://www.webmastercertification.com/wcoassociate.cfm?aff=1047917

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Tracking

Response tracking from an affiliate program can be handled easily by two methods. First, the campaign will contain a Web page address that is unique to the affiliate program with the affiliate ID tacked on the end. Then you will be able to track the sales for the associate ID.

Using both methods would allow you to compare how many people visited from the affiliate links relative to how many people purchased from them.

Affiliate Program

Affiliate Graphics You will need to provide some graphics and link code to your

affiliates so they can easily link to your site. The code would be the same for everyone except the affiliate ID would be different. The example below is a sample of what is used with Webmaster Certification Online's affiliate program.

Result:

Source Code:<a href=http://www.webmastercertification.com/aff.cfm?aff=21099><img src=http://www.webmastercertification.com/images/aff3.gifwidth=230 height=33 border=0 hspace=0 alt="Get Webmaster Certified"></a>

You are encouraged to offer multiple graphic options in different sizes and colors to allow for more compatibility with your affiliate Web sites.

Affiliate Program

Search Engine Optimization

M. Fakhrurrazi([email protected])

Overview A search engine is a service where internet users can go to

the search engine web site and search for web sites that interest them by inputting keywords. The search engine then displays the results of their search starting with the web sites that best meet the search criteria down to the web sites that least fit the search criteria.

Search engines are becoming ever more popular especially when you consider how many web sites there are on the internet today and most users have limited time to find what they are looking for. Search engine optimisation is the process of getting your web site address or URL as close as possible to the top of the search results when someone using the search engines is looking for the products you sell.

Search Engines

Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engines

Search Engines and Directories

A directory site is one that contains manually compiled categories of Web sites, whereas a search engine uses automated spiders to search the Web for content and organize it by keywords, with little regard for the true category under which each site should fall.

Search Engines

Search Engines and Directories User's Point of View

Over the years there has been plenty of debate over whether search engines are directories and vice versa. From the user's point of view, it would appear that all directories could be considered search engines since they all have an input box to search the content of the site, regardless of the method of acquiring data.

E-Marketing Point of View

From an E-Marketing point of view, we are more concerned with the method by which data is added and ranked, as this will determine how we adjust our placement strategy for each. It is the intent of this lesson to optimize placement in the search results for search engines and directories.

Blurring the Lines

It is important to note that many search engines get some of their results from other search engines and directories, many of which are owned by or partnered with each other. The dynamics of these relationships are ever-changing, but a visit to www.SearchEngineWatch.com can update you on the current state.

Search Engines

Can the Search Engine War Be Won? Many people believe that great placement in the search engines is a lottery at

best. For example, the authors of Web Marketing & Project Management said in their book, "I don't believe this game can be won."

For argument's sake, let's do a quick test to see if, in fact, search engine placement is possible. By clicking on a link below, the corresponding search engine box will appear. Do a search for "Webmaster Certification" in any of the search engines listed below. Once there you should find "Webmaster Certification Online" and/or "WebYoda" listed in the top five, probably both in the top 5 with one of them listed #1.

Is WebmasterCertification.com the luckiest company alive when it comes to search engine placement? Not likely. The truth is, we have applied the strategies we are about to discuss in order to achieve the placement we currently enjoy. Your results will likely vary, however, as you can clearly see, these strategies are proven effective.

Most people think search engine placement is a lottery at best. Many who do attempt top 10 placement without the appropriate training often fail miserably. This leaves the door open even wider for those of us who are persistent and trained correctly.

Search Engines

Search Engine Basics

Good placement in search engines results from a combination of preparation and opportunity (aka LUCK). Search engines claim you can get results in as few as 24 hours, yet it can often take 2 months before most search engines cycle through their backlog of new entries. With 90% of the sites indexed in search engines being junk, getting good exposure via search engines is difficult. Use the tips in this section to improve your placement odds.

Search Engines

Search Engine Tips 1. Submit Web site to search engine

(http://google.com/addurl).

2. Use keywords in the content near the top of the document.

3. Keywords placed inside clickable link text ranks higher.

4. Use descriptive Web page titles.

5. Use a descriptive URL, for example:www.webmastercertification.com/webmaster-courses.cfm.

6. Encourage other sites to link to yours.

Search Engines

Search Engine Tips Purchase alternate Web names, point them all to your Web

site, then submit those names.

Use Meta Tags correctly

Visiting your own link in the results of some search engines can improve your ranking.

Avoid frames, Web sites using frames can not be picked up by all search engine spiders.

Avoid keyword spamming, any excessive use of keywords can hurt your placement in the search engines.

Use an entry page through which people can access your Web site, but is optimized with the rules above, thus more desirable to the search engines.

Search Engines

Search Engine Urban Legends The list below contains factors that are presumed to improve search

engine placement but typically do not.

1. Using popular search terms unrelated to your content does yield more traffic but not quality traffic.

2. Search engines are not case sensitive. Searching on "webmaster" or "Webmaster" will yield the same results.

3. The order that keywords are typed into a search engine does not affect the results.

4. Placing keyword content on a Web page that is the same color as the background will hide it from users, but search engines will often interpret it as spam.

5. Meta Tags are presumed to be the key to high rankings; however with many search engines, they are primarily used to determine what words to index a site with, and not as much how high to rank it.

Search Engines

Hidden Content Alternative It is true that content that is the same color as

the background color can be detected as spam by the search engines; however, two colors do not have to be exactly the same to appear exactly the same. For example, while the color white is "#FFFFFF", the color "#FEFCFD" is not white, although it visually will appear so.

Another technique would be to set the background to the color's text name ("white"), and then color the content with the color's number ("#FFFFFF"). It is rumored, however, that this practice is more likely to be detected as spam.

Search Engines

Keyword Search Terms Keyword search terms are either single words or multiple words

that are typed into a search engine. Web developers typically put these words in the title, meta tags, and content of the Web pages to improve the likelihood that the pages will be found by search engines.

One typical oversight is to put all the single search words in to the meta tag as single keywords separated by commas. As it turns out, the focus should be on multiple keyword terms. For example, a user interested in Webmaster courses is likely to type "Webmaster Certification" or "Webmaster Training" into a search engine.

First make a list of every keyword search term you feel is relative to your business. Next go to inventory.overture.com and search on each of the original terms. Look in the search results for a section called "Refine Suggstions to narrow you search." This tells you other keyword search terms on which users have searched. Add all that you feel are truly relative to the list for your business.

Search Engines

Doorway pages Doorway pages are Web pages that point to

other pages in a Web site but the Web site pages do not point to them. These pages can be individually optimized for each search engine and each search term.

The main example for doorway pages was deep linking. Recall that deep linking is the act of making special pages that advertising can point to so that the effectiveness of the advertising campaign can be tracked.

Search Engines

Doorway pages Keyword Optimized Pages

Keyword optimized pages are pages where each page in a set of pages focuses on one keyword search term. The keyword meta tag should only include the target keyword and the description meta tag should include the target keyword in a sentence. Next, the title should be worded to contain the target keyword term, preferably twice, but never more than twice. For example, we might use the following title for a doorway page about "Webmaster Training."

Webmaster Training - Quality Online Webmaster Training 25% Off

Misspelled Keywords Pages

Another interesting and effective strategy is to build gateway pages that are optimized for misspelled keyword terms. First, choose your most effective keyword terms, then misspell them using the following patterns.

Examples: ebmaster Training WWebmaster Training eWbmaster Training Wbmaster Training Weebmaster Training Wbemaster Training Wemaster Training Webbmaster Training Wembaster Training

Search Engines

Doorway pages

Link the Gateway Pages

Assuming you have hundreds of gateway pages, it would be neither practical nor advisable to submit all the pages to the search engines individually. It would be very time consuming and would likely be detected as spam.

Alternatively, you can make a set of hidden links to your target keyword pages from one page within your main site, then on each target page put hidden links to the misspelled pages for that target keyword. Once complete, the gateway pages become a connected part of your Web site and when your site is spidered by the search engines, these pages are likely to be included.

Search Engines

Search Engine Popularity

About the Different Search Engines

You have integrated your keyword terms into your Web pages using the techniques previously discussed. But this only prepares your pages for what the search engines like to see. The goal now is to convince the search engines that the visitors to your site are satisfied as well.

Many of today's search engines incorporate methods to track the popularity of links in the search results returned. The more popular a link is, the higher in the rankings the site will appear. We will discuss different techniques next and how to make them work for you.

Search Engines

Link Popularity (off page) The first method search engines use to grade a Web site is how

many Web sites point to them. Hence if your site has 100 other sites linking to you, but your competitor has only 10, your site will rank higher in some search engines. As a byproduct, every site that links to you is a potential entry point for your customers.

There are many options to getting linked, most of which are byproducts of other E-Marketing techniques discussed throughout this course. Some examples include business directory sites, Web awards, Internet top 50 sites, resource sites, banner sites, blind links, affiliate links, free Web sites and reciprocal links with other non-competing Web sites.

Once you are linked by any of these methods, it is advantageous to submit the sites that point to you to the search engines as many of them may not be indexed. This not only tells the search engines that they exist but also that they link to you.

Search Engines

Link PopularityBlind Links

Blind links are links in a Web page that are not visible to the visitor, but visible to the search engines. It is possible to put these links in other pages that you create and point them all back to your main site. This can be accomplished by making very small 1x1 graphics that display the same color as the background of the page. Simply name the graphic(s) something meaningful like "webmastertraining.gif" and point the link to the corresponding Web site.

Affiliate Links

Affiliate links are links to your site where the site containing the link to your site earns money either by people visiting your site or by producing sales. For example, WebmasterCertification.com has an affiliate program that pays 5% of all course sales that come from the affiliate site. As a byproduct, the affiliate sites are linked to you and can be submitted to search engines to improve your popularity.

Free Web Site

Another option is to create free Web sites at places like www.angelfire.com/ and have a link to your site from them. The problem with this idea is that the page you are submitting is not likely to be a very useful page, thus you are improving your link popularity at the expense of submitting dead weight to the search engines.

Search Engines

Click Popularity Click popularity is a measure of how often your link in search results is

clicked. In some search engines, the more often your link is clicked, the higher your site ranks in the search results. Thus, in popularity-driven search engines, you can search on your keyword terms, then go through the search results clicking on every link within the results that links to your site. Over time this will improve your position in these search engines.

The more savvy search engines keep track of how much time you spent at a given link, this is referred to as popularity stickiness. If you click on the first link in the search results, then back up and choose another link immediately, the search engine assumes you did not like the first result very much.

A good strategy for you is to set your browser's home page to the search engine you would like to target, and each time you open your browser you search on your keywords, click on your link, then leave that search engine alone for a while (the exact delay time is unknown).

Search Engines

Click Popularity Focus on multiple search terms

One of the biggest oversights in the search engine placement wars is focusing all your energy on one really good search term. You need to target multiple keyword terms, ones that have proven to be good search terms relative to the people doing the searching. WebYoda made this mistake early on as we did not focus on the search term "Web Design Training" as much as we should have. However, with your help in the next exercise, you can help correct this oversight.

Visiting Competitors Sites

It is often valuable to visit the competition's Web site. Remember that if you click on their links, you are improving their popularity as well. Instead, manually type the URL for the competition Web site into your browser location bar. This will get you to their site without giving them click popularity credit.

Search Engines

Popularity Search Engines How to Identify Popularity Search Engines

You can assume that all search engines that allow you to submit Web sites are monitoring link popularity at some level. However, click popularity is not as common. The most obvious way to know a search engine potentially uses click popularity is if the links within the results visit their server before heading to the destination site. Meaning if you put the mouse over a link, the status bar at the bottom of your browser will show the link pointing back to the search engine.

Identifying The Ones That Don't Want to Be Found

One might assume that if you put your mouse over a link in search results and the status bar shows the true URL to the destination site, that the search engine does not use click popularity. However, this may not be the case. Some search engines will purposely set the onMouseover text to display the destination URL, but have the link set to visit their server first before going to the destination site. This can be detected by creating a shortcut to the link then viewing the properties of the shortcut to see where the link really goes.

Search Engines

Popularity Search EnginesList Of Popularity Search Engines

The following search engines are believed to use click popularity. Some of these get their results from the same source. For example, www.directhit.com provides search results for www.askjeeves.com. It is still assumed to be advantageous to visit all sites, whether they are related or not, to improve click popularity.

Click Popularity Search Engines 1) http://www.yahoo.com 2) http://www.google.com 3) http://www.altavista.com 4) http://www.excite.com 5) http://www.lycos.com 6) http://www.msn.com 7) http://www.aol.com 8) http://www.askjeeves.com 9) http://www.nbci.com 10) http://www.iwon.com

Search Engines

Hand-Reviewed Directories Hand-reviewed directories are ones where a real person looks at each site

before it is added. This means it is not a good idea to submit the same site over and over again as it may be detected as spam. In addition, submitting any or all sub-pages of a Web site is discouraged.

Open-Source DirectoriesOpen-source directories like dmoz.com and NBCI.com, are ones where anyone who gets

approved can become an editor for the directory. Dmoz.com for example, has over 30,000 editors. Once you are an editor you can submit Web sites for approval at will and they are typically approved within 48 hours.

Proprietary DirectoriesProprietary directories are ones in which the editors are hired by the directory company. This

means it is very hard to influence the inclusion of your site within these directories, the time delay for inclusion can be months, and you are not notified if the site is rejected.

Pay-Per-Review DirectoriesPay-per-review directories are also proprietary directories. Basically, for a fee of typically

$199 you are guaranteed your submission will be reviewed within 48 hours. If your submission is approved, you will be immediately added to the directory and you should start appearing within the directory within a week. If you receive an email of approval, but do not find your site in the directory within two weeks, you are encouraged to call to confirm placement.

Search Engines

Pay-Per-Click Directories Pay-per-click search engines are search engines where the listings are

ordered by the highest bidder per keyword term. The minimum bid is $0.05 US, and you only pay if someone clicks on your link. The two major pay-per-click sites are www.findwhat.com and www.overture.com.

www.findwhat.com is the second largest pay-per-click site. They have a review policy, so your submissions do not appear until they have been reviewed (about 24 hours). One of the neatest features findwhat.com has is the ability to get groups of keyword term statistics. Meaning that if you query on "Webmaster," it will return the top 50 most frequently typed search terms. This is very valuable for determining what keywords on which to bid.

www.overture.com is by far the largest pay-per-click site. They are a review site as well, meaning, once you submit your sites, they must be reviewed by their editors before they are added. This takes about 48 hours, but ensures the quality of the listings.

Search Engines

Metacrawlers Search Engine Metacrawlers are search engines that return

the best results of the other search engines. In theory, the Metacrawler results should collectively be better, however, at closer inspection you find that a lot of the listings are also pay-per clicks. Meaning, most metacrawlers are used to capture affiliate dollars from the pay-per-click networks they list.

This does strengthen the argument to use the pay-per-click sites since if you are #1 in the pay-per-click sites, you are likely to enjoy top placement in the metacrawlers as well.

Search Engines

Standard Search Engines www.yahoo.com www.google.com www.msn.com www.lycos.com www.hotbot.com www.dmoz.com www.alltheweb.com www.aol.com www.netscape.com www.allthesites.com www.webcrawler.com www.northernlight.com www.altavista.com www.excite.com

Search Engines

Pay Per Click Search Engines

www.overture.com www.findwhat.com www.kanoodle.com

Search Engines

Mirror Search Engines

www.askjeeves.com www.supercybersearch.com www.att.net www.earthlink.com www.compuserve.com www.go.com www.Infoseek.com www.opendirectory.net

Search Engines

Meta Search Engines www.metacrawler.com www.dogpile.com www.gohip.com www.thebighub.com www.mamma.com www.whatuseek.com www.monstercrawler.com www.go2net.com www.canada.com www.search.com www.searchalot.com www.iwon.com

Search Engines

Email Campaigns


About Email Campaigns

Email or electronic mail has revolutionised communication. Anyone with access to the internet and an email program can send a written message - along with attached documents - anywhere in the world within seconds via the internet.

Email campaigns are targeted emails that work much like conventional direct mail campaigns. They come in various forms such as direct email, newsletters, newsgroups, and press releases.

Email Campaigns

Direct Mail vs. Direct Email

Direct mail is very expensive compared to direct email. Most of us have received multiple versions of the AOL CD via direct mail, which in most cases makes a great drink coaster at best. Most of us can not afford to make a billion pieces of direct mail like AOL, but, fortunately, there is direct email.

The creation cost for both are about the same but the publication and distribution costs for direct email is much less. This gives you the opportunity to use direct email on the Internet on a much smaller budget.

Email Campaigns

Spam Email

A sharp line divides email marketing from spam. Basically email marketing is solicited email (requested), and spam is non-solicited email (not requested).

The gray area begins to form when you start arguing over how a recipient asks. Understanding this division is the key to ensuring you do not come across as spamming.

Email Campaigns

Opt-out Email Opt-out email is email sent to target groups who have shown

an interest in a specific topic. Once the email is received, the recipient has the option to "unsubscribe" from receiving further email from you.

Opt-out email is considered solicited email because at some point the recipient filled out a form somewhere that landed them on a list of people who have agreed to receive email.

Opt-out list may start as a legit email list, but those lists are often bought, sold, shared, rented or exchanged by others with similar lists. This results in your email address being vulnerable to anyone, including spammers.

Opt-out email is often mistaken for spam since you don't specifically ask for opt-out email.

Email Campaigns

Opt-in Email Opt-in email is email that has been specifically requested.

This email approach will be well received by your target audience since they ask you to send it to them.

The recipient must explicitly request to be placed on your opt-in list, or you run the risk of looking like a spammer.

Most Opt-in sign ups are single opt-in, meaning you enter your email address then you click a submit button and you are subscribed.

Double opt-in requires you to reply to an email confirmation before you are added to the list. This helps ensure someone else can not add you to an opt-in list without your permission.

Email Campaigns

Purchased vs Rented Email Lists

Every time you turn around, someone is trying to sell you a list of 1,000,000 email addresses. At best you are purchasing a static list of opt-out email addresses that are not targeted towards any particular demographics. At worst you are buying a near dead opt-out list of emails, and those you do reach will view your company negatively because they have already received too much spam email from the same list.

Rented email lists are living opt-in lists where people subscribe and unsubscribe daily. In most cases, you never actually see the list, but instead the company submits your email to their list for you. Rented lists are more easily targeted because you can choose a company or companies whose audience matches your target audience.

Email Campaigns

Renting a List

When you rent a list, your email is distributed for you to individuals all over the world who sign up and receive email messages on specific topics.

You can visit Web sites that have similar demographics as yours and see if you can rent their list. For example, would likely rent from www.searchenginewatch.com because of similar demographics.

Email Campaigns

Building A Better Email In direct mail marketing, the envelope has two primary

purposes: branding and to encourage the recipient open it.

In email marketing, the envelope is the email's From: line, Subject: line, and To: line. Following a few simple rules can increase the success of an email campaign dramatically.

You should start the email off with a headline at the top which is set apart from the rest of the email by single dashed line on the top and bottom of the header. The header should be two lines at most and summarize exactly what you have to offer.

The signature is the section at the bottom of your email that allows you to identify yourself and offer contact information. Using a signature at the bottom of your emails ensures that the recipient knows who originally sent the email, even if it is forwarded.

Email Campaigns

Test Your Email

Before sending any email campaign to the rest of the world, be sure to send a copy to yourself to make sure everything looks exactly the way you expect it to. Check your links in the received version to see that they all work, check the contact information for correctness, and check to see that the email meets all the length and formatting rules.

Email Campaigns

Avoid Email Attachments

Some companies have found email attachments containing postcards, slide shows, or even commercials. Though this method can have some effective results, it should be avoided as many users assume any attachment from a third party is a possible virus.

Next, if the attachment contains the bulk of your payload and is not opened, then your message will never get seen. By simply supplying a link to a Web address containing more information, you can grab the prospect's attention without the fear of a potential virus.

Email Campaigns

When to Send Email

Conventional wisdom suggests that everything should be waiting for you first thing Monday since you are fresh and ready for a new week. However, reality will show you that your email box is bulging at the seams on Monday and you just want to get through it at any cost.

Instead, email early Friday afternoon. Most people are winding down for the weekend at that time and putting off tasks till the next week. This allows for more light reading of the few emails trickling in on a Friday afternoon.

Email Campaigns

The Unsubscribe Option Even if you are using your own opt-in email list,

you must offer a way to unsubscribe from the list in every email. This applies to direct email, newsletters, and all other email promotions. This shows your respect for their time when they decide to no longer receive direct email.

The option to unsubscribe can be placed near the bottom of the email with easy-to-follow instructions. Probably the simplest unsubscribe method tells the recipient to reply to the received email and place the word "Unsubscribe" on the subject line. This is quick and easy, thus the recipient does not feel trapped.

Email Campaigns

Response Tracking

Response tracking from email marketing can be handled easily by two methods. First, the campaign can include a Web page address that is unique to the campaign, and you can track the visitors to that page. Next, you can associate a promocode with the campaign and track how often it is used.

A combination of both methods would allow you to compare how many people responded relative to how many people acted on their response.

Email Campaigns

Response Staff There are many methods for automating this process, and it is fine to

send an automated response so long as it is followed with a real person responding soon after. Many prospects rely on the human element to close the deal, therefore it is essential you supply it for them.

How quickly you can respond makes all the difference in the world. A 24-hour to 48-hour window of response time is preferred and anything faster than 8 hours is viewed as an unreal response time. By responding quickly you demonstrate to your visitors that you are very serious about customer support.

One of the most annoying things on the Internet are those sites that do not offer any phone support options. DirectNIC for example, one of the leading domain name resellers, offers some of the best rates at $15 per year and provides more free features than you know what to do with. The problem is, they only offer support via email. This in itself could cost them millions in lost business.

It is very common for visitors to ask the same questions. To help speed up the response process, your response staff is encouraged to have form emails already prepared that address the most common questions.

Email Campaigns

Newsletters Newsletters, in this case, are email messages distributed by a company or

organization to an opt-in list on a set schedule. Newsletters typically announce sales, specials, schedules, events, product releases, as well as a payload of useful information that makes the newsletters newsworthy.

There are two types of marketing opportunities with newsletters. You can either offer your own newsletter or you can advertise in someone else's newsletter.

Setting Tone: To create an effective newsletter that people want to read on a regular basis requires choosing a topic that you can be the authority on and that the readers will look forward to reading.

Setting the Frequency: You must determine how often the newsletter should be mailed out. Too often and readers feel overloaded and will likely unsubscribe. Too infrequently and readers may forget who you are and think you are spamming them.

Archive Your Newsletters: If you do offer both ASCII and HTML versions, then archiving your newsletters on your Web site will be very easy. Each month you simply add a link to your monthly newsletter within the archive section and add the new newsletter with a new name.

Email Campaigns

Newsletters (Getting Subscribers ) First, a link to receive the newsletter should be available on

your main page and maybe on all pages.

Next, the sign up process needs to be very easy, with just enough questions to understand who your readers are, but not so many that they may hold them back from signing up.

Finally, you need to clearly explain your privacy policy so your readers feel secure. You should never give your list to anyone, never email your list for anyone, and let your users know that is your policy.

Word of Mouth: Another way to increase readers is through your current reader base. You can encourage your readers to pass your newsletter on to friends by adding wording at the bottom of each newsletter letting them know you need their help to spread the word.

Email Campaigns

Newsletter Advertising Selling Ads In Your Newsletter

There are two reasons you might sell ads in your newsletter. First, the whole purpose of your newsletter might be to sell ad space. In this case, you build your revenue model around making money off advertising sales in the newsletter.

Second, if your newsletter is good, you will be contacted by those wanting to advertise in your newsletter. Unless your company is in the advertising business, you should not consider putting ads from other companies in your newsletter. Your newsletter is a great place for you to educate your readers, sell them on your products, and solve technical problems for them. It is for you and you alone.

Newsletter Special Announcements

Though you do not want to put ads from other people in your newsletter, you might want to make a special announcement about a partner company who is willing to do the same for you.

If you choose to do this, be sure that both companies are in a position to benefit from the partnership, both are in a position to give a strong recommendation about the other, and neither are competing directly with each other.

Advertising in Other Newsletters

There is no shortage of newsletters out there looking to sell ad space. Your goal is to find newsletters that match your client demographics, have a strong reader following, and the content seems worthwhile. The list below is a good place to start, but you are encouraged to sample the newsletters of your final choices to ensure they will benefit your ad campaign.

Email Campaigns

E-Promotions An E-promotion is an email sent to your own opt-in email

list about your specials, discounts, contests, or giveaways. E-promotions must be well-planned and well-timed. They should have something very worthwhile for the readers such that they merit having their own email instead of being part of the newsletter.

For example, WebYoda wanted to build new prospects' awareness about the success that past students had enjoyed. WebYoda ran an E-promotion asking for readers to submit success stories. In return, WebYoda picked a submission at random, and gave away a Palm VII to that lucky person.

Email Campaigns

Newsgroups A newsgroup is a kind of electronic bulletin board where people

who are interested in like subjects can post and respond to conversational "threads" or topics. There are literally thousands of newsgroups hosted all over the world, and covering every conceivable topic about which humans converse.

Each newsgroup has a following of readers along with self-proclaimed gurus who police each group for unwanted traffic. This means you will need to gain the acceptance of the group gurus in order to build a reputation within each group.

Newsgroups are where spam originated and thus is least tolerated. Before you begin posting to newsgroups other than the test groups, you need to understand how they work. Newsgroups are like real communities. All members have real personalities, and you must be accepted by the group before your messages will be respected.

Email Campaigns

Newsgroups Because of the spam problems associated with

newsgroups, blatant advertising is usually banned, but you're welcome to give advice, answer questions, and pass on information. Be sure to include your signature block at the bottom of all messages just as you would for an email.

Pick no more than three groups in which to participate and try to post messages at least twice per week. Don't let the newsgroup gurus for these groups discourage you. In fact, if they give you a hard time, this may draw attention to you and thereby bring you more traffic.

Email Campaigns

Press Releases An Internet press release is the same as a traditional

press release except it is internet based.

As with any press release the idea is to send a document to a news provider with the hope they find your document newsworthy enough to publish.

With an internet press release you send an email with your newsworthy document attached.

A great way to generate a lot of traffic to your web site is to get yourself mentioned by the press. In fact, a press release is one of the world's and Web's most effective marketing tools. As such, announcing your web site via a press release is a great way to create the initial promotional momentum a new web site requires.

Press Releases Though press releases are generally considered

conventional marketing and not E-marketing, it is important to discuss their importance.

For example, every press release which www.BusinessWire.com distributes in the U.S. is transmitted to a myriad of Internet sites, online services and databases.

In total, they reach over 16,000 points online, more than any other commercial wire service. They make news available in every major content syndicating service. The other significant press release company to consider is www.prnewswire.com.

Email Campaigns

Press ReleasesSetting the Tone The goal of a press release is to be informative of current and future

events within your company. It should not be written to sound like a marketing campaign. Instead, it should be worded more like a headline news story.

Setting the Time As with newsletters, it would be a good idea to publish your press release

on a day other than Monday to miss the rush. For press releases, Thursday afternoon is a good target since it won't hit most presses or online services until the next day anyway. Next if it is picked up by any newspapers, they might even run it as a weekend story, which would yield even more readers.

Press Release Tracking Response tracking from a press release can be handled easily by two

methods. First, the press release should contain a Web page address that is unique to the press release. Next you can include a special offer within the press release using a promocode to track sales. Using both methods would allow you to compare how many people visited from the press release relative to how many people purchased because of it.

Email Campaigns

Press Releases

Banner Exchange


Banner Exchange

Banner Advertising A banner advertisement is an image placed at the

top or bottom of a web page, to catch the viewer's eye and possibly prompt them to click on it.

It can either be static, that is, simply like a billboard displaying the name of a website, or dynamic, encouraging the user to click on the banner image to be transferred to that website.

Banner advertising is based on one-to-many advertising rather than one-to-one. It has traditionally been the most common form of promotion on the web.

Banner Exchange

Banner Advertising

Banner Exchange

Banner/Link Exchanges A banner exchange (link exchange) is a

cooperative advertising program where participating businesses work together to promote each other's products/services and websites on an exchange rather than paid basis.

Banner exchanges have management systems that track when and where banners are displayed throughout the network. Every time you display the banner of another member, you receive a credit. Based on these credits, the management system ensures that your banner is displayed at other sites in the banner exchange network.

Banner Exchange

Banner/Link Exchanges

Banner Exchange

Banner Branding vs. Click-Throughs(impression vs click)

There are two goals of a banner campaign, branding and click-throughs.

A branding campaign is more concerned with how many people see the brand name and not as much with how often it is clicked.

Coke, for example, just wants to bring their name to mind, visiting their Web site, is secondary.

BannerBanner Exchange

Banner Terminology Banner Impression - You display a banner on your Web site one time.

Banner Exposure - A banner company displays your banner one time.

Exchange Ratio - How many impressions you must display to receive an exposure.

Click-Through Ratio (CTR) - the percentage of clicks on a banner relative to the total number of banner displays.

CPM - Cost per 1000 impressions, a typical purchase rate is $10 per thousand.

Banner Dimensions - The standard banner size for nearly all banner networks is 486x80, meaning 486 screen pixels wide and 80 pixels tall.

Real Traffic - any visitor who clicks a banner to visit a page then subsequently clicks a link on that page.

Banner Exchange

Banner OptimizationBanner Size

How quickly a banner loads can determine whether a banner is seen at all. Many banner networks will allow you to place a banner up to 10K in size, which can take 5 seconds to load. You should avoid any banners larger than 4K as this ensures your banners load in 2 seconds or less.

Banner Exchange

Banner OptimizationBanner Colors

Bright colors get the most mileage. Yellow, orange, and green attract more attention than red, blue and black. A banner that gives the appearance of a yellow page ad is highly effective.

Banner Exchange

Banner OptimizationBanner Graphics

Simple animated graphics and animated banners which switch between three frames of text are very effective.

Banner Exchange

Banner Optimization Next, banners that look like error messages,

selection boxes, submit buttons, or a scrollable windows are also very effective.

Banner Exchange

Banner OptimizationBanner Content

Of course the banner message is very important. The message should convey what is in it for the visitor: how they can save, how they can benefit, why them, etc. The content should focus on emotions like fear, curiosity, humor, or the big promise.

The word "FREE" is still the most powerful word in advertising. Offer a free drawing, free subscription to an e-zine, free advertising, free trial offer, free download for software, etc. For example, WebYoda offers a free tour of the Internet which is pulled as a sample of the Mastering the Internet course.

Banner Exchange

Banner OptimizationBanner Branding

Since nearly 99% of all banners are never clicked on, you need to get as much mileage out of the non-clicked banners as you can. Branding at least leaves the opportunity for the surfer to see your company name, Web address or logo.

Banner Exchange

Banner OptimizationThe Submit Button Call to Action

A call to action is also known to raise response rates. Simple phrases such as "Click Here," "Visit Now" and "Enter Here" tend to improve response rates by 15%. These phrases should be strategically placed in the ad, preferably on the right side, as this is where the eye will be drawn.

Banner Exchange

Banner OptimizationCloaked Banners

One fairly new technique is to build a banner with a clear background, no border, option buttons, and text instructions. When done correctly, the banner will appear to be an integral part of the Web site and lose the banner look all together.

Banner Exchange

Pay Per Banner Impressions Overview

The www.doubleclick.net banner network is by far the largest pay per banner network, with fees starting around $15 per thousand impressions. A visit to any major site that displays banners other than their own is likely to feed from www.doubleclick.net.

Web Site Specific BannersThe key advantage to purchasing banners on a specific Web site is to

ensure a quality demographics match. For example, if you sell sports cards, then placing a banner campaign at a sports cards magazine site, such as www.beckett.com, ensures your banners are displayed to visitors who are likely interested in sports cards.

Search Engine BannersAnother method to qualify your traffic is to purchase banners on a

search engine site such as Yahoo.com, Google.com , and DirectHit.com. Google.com for example, places three banner ads to the right of all search results. The pricing is $15 per 1000 impressions.

Banner Exchange

Pay Per Banner ImpressionsBanner Program Options

If you do decide to purchase a banner campaign, don't forget you may have options. First, consider purchasing click-throughs and not banner impressions as this will yield more quality traffic. If branding is your main focus, then a banner impression campaign may be right for you.

Next, be sure to target your banners to best fit the demographics of your potential traffic. Last, be sure to check your banner statistics supplied by the banner network regularly to see where your best traffic is coming from. This can help you fine tune your banner ad campaign.

Banner Exchange

Free Banner Exchanges Free banner exchanges agree to display your banners for

free in exchange for you displaying other member banners on your Web site. For new companies with little to no advertising budget, banner exchanges are an option to consider.

www.bcentral.com is by far the largest of the banner exchanges, meaning they have the largest Web site participation base. This does not always equate to the best option however, as we will see.

It is important to note that banner exchange networks also generate revenue by selling banners across their network, but you are NOT required to purchase banners.

Banner Exchange

Grading Banner Exchanges

Not All Banner Networks Are Equal There are literally thousands of banner

exchange networks, many of which come and go on a daily basis.

Banner Exchange Ratio The typical banner exchange ratio is 1:2 or 50%,

meaning for every two banners you display on your sight, your banner will be displayed once across the banner network. Some banner networks will give you an exchange ratio as high as 1:1 or 100%, but as we will see later, this may be too good to be true.

Banner Exchange

Using Banner ExchangeChoose a banner

exchange

First you must choose the banner exchanges in which you would like to participate. The chart below ranks our top 12 banner exchanges based on how many real visitors we received each week from them, with all other variables the same.

Real Traffic Per Week

Rank Link Exchange URL RT/Week

1 http://www.hitexchange.net 4.27

2 http://www.exchangead.com 3.19

3 http://www.sitebrand.com 2.77

4 http://www.bcentral.com 2.31

5 http://www.LinkBuddies.com 2.28

6 http://nbe.net-on.net 2.24

7 http://www.click2net.com 0.95

8 http://www.ms-links.com 0.81

9 http://www.free-banners.com 0.63

10 http://www.exchange-it.com 0.56

11 http://bannersxchange.com 0.11

12 http://Webmasters.bpath.com 0.07

Banner Exchange

Using Banner ExchangeStarting a banner exchange campaign

The steps to starting a banner campaign are simple. Use the steps below as a guide for any of the banner exchanges.

1) Create a 486x80 banner. 2) Choose a banner network. 3) Enter your Web site information. 4) Upload your banner as per their instructions. 5) Grab HTML code from their site to add banners to yours. 6) Add the HTML code to the top of a page on your site. 7) Wait for banner approval. 8) You will be emailed when you are approved.

Banner Exchange

Using Banner Exchange

Test Banners

Test your banners to see which are the most effective. This is done by running multiple banners on the same banner campaign and watch how they fare against each other. You do not need separate accounts for each banner as most banner networks will allow you to rotate multiple banners at once.

You must allow banners to be displayed a minimum of 1000 times on the banner network for an effective gauge of how well they are performing. The example below was one of our banner tests.

Banner Exchange

Free Banner Drawbacks Losing Visitors to Other Sites

When using free banner exchanges, you potentially lose traffic to the banners displayed on your site. This damage should be minimal if your site truly has something great to offer the visitor. People are typically compelled to leave only when they are not satisfied where they are.

Ugly Banners On Your Site

In most banner networks, you have little control over the quality of the banners displayed on your site. Fortunately, all of the top 12 banner networks we recommend review all banners before they are displayed.

Inappropriate Banners Displayed

In this case the damage from inappropriate banners can be minimized. In some banner networks, adult-oriented banners are allowed. None of the 12 we reviewed for this course promote adult-oriented Web sites.

Banner Exchange

Free Banner DrawbacksWasted Banner Exposures

Fake Banner Exposures - Faking the banner systems to think you are displaying banners. You will be caught!

Hidden Banner Displays - Hiding the banner you are supposed to display in a hidden frame. You will be caught!

Contest Sites - Requiring visitors to click hundreds of times on a site to receive a free prize.

Free Gambling Sites - Allowing visitors to gamble free for small prizes where each page has a new banner.

Free Game Sites - Free online games that refresh banners at the top while you play.

Banner Exchange

Paid vs. Free Banners

Paid banners are preferred if your advertising budget can afford it. The truth is, free banners come at a price. You are given free banner impressions by the network in exchange for cluttering your site with banners that may lead to traffic leaving.

On the flip side, if you have a minimal advertising budget, then the free banner exchange may be the best solution for you in the early stages.

Banner Exchange

Reciprocal links

Reciprocal links are very similar to banner exchanges except there is a simple agreement between two web sites rather than an organised exchange.

Your business places a linked banner on an associated web site and they put their banner on your web site. It is common that the two web sites will sell associated products or have some sort of common theme however this is not necessary.

Banner Exchange

Reciprocal links

Banner Exchange

Business Website


Banner Exchange

Business Website Technically speaking a web site is a related collection of

World Wide Web (WWW) files that includes a beginning file called a home page. A company tells customers and potential customers where to find their website on the internet by giving them the address (or URL) of their home page. From the home page, you can get to all the other pages on their site. For example, the web site for the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) has the home page address of http://www.sbdc.com.au

Web sites may be very complex and consist of hundreds of pages of information and even provide the ability for your customers to purchase your products on the internet. Alternatively, they can be quite simple, consisting of only a few pages that do little more than inform your customers of your businesses address and contact details.

Business Website

Mobile Phone Marketing


Banner Exchange


Mobile telephone marketing is the use of mobile phone technologies such as voice, text and multimedia message services to promote products/services to consumers.

With the significant increase in the use of mobile telephones in Australia in recent years, there has been a corresponding increase in marketing via these technologies.

Mobile Telephone Marketing


Currently, the main mobile telephone technologies used for e-Marketing are:

Short Message Service (SMS) Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)


Mobile Phone Marketing - SMS Short Message Service (SMS) is a message that can be sent to and

from mobile telephones. The messages can be both text and simple line drawings. Mobile phone users can also download screensavers for their mobile telephone.

The main use of SMS is by mobile phone users especially the youth market sending messages to each other via their mobile phones or via a computer to mobile phones.

There are also technology companies that offer the service of sending bulk SMS's to multiple mobile telephones at one time.

For the purposes of e-Marketing, small business can send SMS messages via a personal computer or have a specialist technology company send the messages on their behalf to prospective and existing customers. The messages can promote almost anything such as advertising product specials, promoting a web site, inviting them to a function, to participate in a competition etc..


Mobile Phone Marketing - SMS


Chapter 04 e Marketing

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