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: roenb@hotmail.com