Well that’s pretty simple really. Show me a hunter and I’ll show you a trained marketing professional. I’ve spoken to many hunters and the thing that I have noticed is that they love the preparation and the hunting more than the actual killing of the animal. The dead animal is the proof that they had prepared properly, researched correctly, and tracked the target well. Whatever your dead animal (or the objective of your online advertising) is, the process is exactly the same as hunting.

First, know your target. The good hunters get out before hunting season to research locations where their targets may be. They monitor animal trails, foot prints, droppings, etc. All of this is to better understand the likelihood of getting the animal that they want. How many animals pass this point? How many times per day? What is the size of those that are passing? What research are you doing on your customers’ behavior patterns?

Next, know thyself. Take a look at what you are offering your target and how you are attempting to catch their attention. If the roles were reversed would your marketing campaign work on you? Hunters will scout out the best location to take advantage of passersby. They will actually pick out a couple of locations around a busy travel path, and use different ones based upon the time of day or direction the wind is blowing.

Finally, know your weapons. Familiarize yourself with what others in your industry are using to reach their target. Start with a couple of different methods and get good at them, and expand from there. If you try to do everything at once, you won’t get good enough at any of them. Shotguns are great for smaller, faster, and flying animals in fairly close range, but not so good with larger animals at a distance.

Here’s a tip for those of you that already have customers: Study them. Don’t assume that because you have studied them once, that you know them. The marketplace is always changing, study your most recent customers and track trends.

Technorati Tags: behavior patterns, hunting, marketing campaign, objective, Online Advertising, target

In previous posts I have discussed the choice between using a shotgun and a rifle, and how depending upon your business either could work. For those that don’t know the difference a rifle shoots a single bullet in a single path, a shotgun shoots many pellets in an ever widening path to the target. A rifle is exact, but there is a larger chance that you might miss. While a shotgun increases the chances that you’ll hit the target, the penetration of the pellets isn’t as deep. How about using many rifles at once? The only marketplace where this makes sense is on the internet, any other advertising medium would cost too much.

In Chris Anderson’s book, The Long Tail, he explains how the internet caters to niche markets and communities. He also discusses the fact that big online businesses have taken advantage of the niche markets that were “too small” and these niches have become a major portion of their businesses. Think about it, online, people can find the most random stuff—sure the popular stuff is still there, but so is a whole bunch of stuff that you can’t find in any store. Read more of Chris Anderson’s stuff at www.thelongtail.com .

If I am not selling a product or service that has mass appeal, but I can aggregate enough niches together, I’ll still be able to sell in high volumes.

So how do I do this?

Well, it takes quite a bit of work. I look at the possibilities, narrow it down to those niches that are most likely to enjoy my product or service, and then examine what modifications I need to make to make my product or service attractive to that particular niche. Then I pick a couple of niches that are prime targets and don’t require a lot of modification to my business to facilitate that new business. I’ll find the right mixes that work, and then I’ll start with modifications once I know it is worth doing. I’ll look at the marketing materials and campaigns, the look and feel of the website/landing page, the pricing strategy, and what modifications to the product or service will make it more palatable.

It can be a lot of work, but many companies have proven that the business model is effective in the online world. The result will be exact campaigns with an increased number of sales.

Technorati Tags: campaigns, chris anderson, niche markets, Online Advertising, prime targets, targeting

ExchangeMyAd.com unveils Ad Exchange Program!

ExchangeMyAd.com is helping businesses join together to form a free online ad sharing network using RealVu Technology’s patented online advertising tracking system to manage the Ad Exchange Program.

The owners of ExchangeMyAd.com have long been involved in the marketing and advertising worlds both online and off-line.  Both have a passion for working with small businesses and entrepreneurs and felt that this would be a great way to help them—especially with the current economic uncertainty.  Business owners have been cutting back on their advertising budgets, but want to remain visible to their customer bases.  ExchangeMyAd.com knows how difficult it can be, and found a way to help out.

The Ad Exchange Program is set up such that businesses place our advertising module (ad “window”) on their website.  As the ads are seen by people visiting that business’ website, that business earns ad credits that it can use to advertise its business on other non-competing sites that are participating in the Ad Exchange Program. 

Technorati Tags: Ad Exchange, ad exchange program, exchangemyad.com, Online Advertising, Tough Times

Big Money. Come on, Big Money!

Many business owners that I have spoken with view advertising is often looked at as a necessary evil…something they know that they have to do, but there is inherent risk…sometimes the ad campaign works (or they think it does)…sometimes it doesn’t (or at least it seems that it didn’t).  Either way it is often hard to quantify the returns–sometimes other factors cause business to go up or down regardless of the ad campaign, and the business owner has no clue. 

Even amongst advertising professionals, there are differing opinions as to what gets results–ROI. I have found it to be tricky to get the right medium, the right message, the right promotion, in a way that hits the right audience in the right way.  I have been wrong, more than I have been right with ad campaigns, just like anyone else who has done a lot of advertising.  In traditional advertising they have all of their standardized methods of calculating the “value” that has been delivered, but it is all rediculous.

In online advertising and marketing, it is different.  Everthing can be tracked–impressions, “views” (we’ll talk about this more later), clicks, leads, sales, registrations, subscriptions–they all can be tied back to the campaign, the website that the ad was on, and much more.  With all of the measurements out there, I just have to find the best measurement for a specific campaign and business.  I pay per lead on some campaigns with certain businesses, pay per acquisition on others, and views on still others.  With things tightening, I tend to go more with the per lead and per acquisition more often than not.

The other beautiful thing about online advertisements is that if something isn’t working, I can change it.  I can make changes quickly at little to no cost.  That cannot be said for a billboard, tv commercial, or other traditional media.

With the Ad Exchange Program, I use my exchanged “views” to try out new concepts, sometimes I roll out a few at a time.  Then after I can see the performance, I make adjustments or drop the campaign.  When I have a winner, I buy more ads than the ones I earned through the exchange, and sometimes use the campaign in traditional media.

The most exciting part of it all is that I am able to know my ROI before I invest advertising dollars.

Technorati Tags: ad campaigns, business owner, business owners, campaign works, Online Advertising, roi, traditional advertising, view advertising