We've all heard of dismal banner click-throughs of less than 1%
as being the industry standard.
This means that less than 1 person in 100 will actually click on
the banner displayed on the web page he's
looking at!
If you're an Associate selling a product via banners on your web
site, this is simply not good news.
Because you will never close 100% of your prospects. And if your
traffic count is only 100 a day, it would mean you only have 30
actual prospects a month (one a day). And assuming your
Principal's Killer Sales Letter sells one prospect out of every
10 (which is a great conversion rate, by the way),
you'll be making only 3 sales for the month.
But what if you could get all or almost all of those 100
visitors to click on your banner? You'll
have close to 3000 prospects, and 300 sales for the month based on the same
conversion rate!
You've just increased your sales by 100 times! But are we
dreaming here?
Here's the good news:
You CAN get almost ALL, if not all, your visitors to click on
the banners while they're at your site!
All you need to do is to understand a little psychology. Because
when you know the reasons why very few prospects ever click on a
banner when they see it, you'll be able to devise a strategy and
the right tactics to override their reasons and achieve whatever
you wanted them to do all along.
Get ready now. This is proven, exciting stuff! ;-)
THE REAL REASONS FOR LOW BANNER CLICK-THROUGHS
They are so simple that
I'm still surprised why nobody even
thought of them, as I simply don't
see anything radical being
done to solve this problem. Here they are:
1. Most Banners Look Like An Ad
Your visitors are not at your web site to look at banners. If
they are, you don't have to provide any content on your site.
Just slap up a web site containing banners, submit it to the
search engines and sit back and watch the millions come rolling
in.
Yeah, right.
2. Most Banners Are Placed In The Same Positions
It's usually at the top of the web page, before the content of
the page is seen, or at the bottom, after the content of the
page. Now when you know that these 2 positions are usually where
banner ads are found, would your visitors even look at them when
they're waiting for your web page to load?
Of course not. They'll immediately scroll down or look elsewhere
to the first available text that make up your content! And
what's worst, your visitors are doing this subconsciously due to
habit. They quite simply and literally don't
see your banners!
That's it! With this knowledge, we can create miracles.
And I have. ;-)
THE AMAZING, SIMPLE CURE
Now for the simple, magic "cure" that makes low banner
click-throughs a thing of history. It'll
require some work, but it's nothing you cannot do.
1. Re-Design Your Web Site
That's right. Keep your content, but:
i. dump the design where you have your banners at the top or
bottom of your web pages; AND
ii. dump the usual navigational buttons or links on the top,
left, right or bottom of your web pages
Do BOTH of the above. Then:
2. Make Your Content The Main Focus Of Your Site
You can have a series of great original articles, with each
article having its own heading and web page. "Content" can take
many forms, however. Articles are only one form. A tutorial is
another. Whatever it is, your content takes center stage simply
because your visitors are there for your content, not your
banners. And you should give it to them first prior to leading
them on to clicking on your banners eventually.
3. Create A Table That Is Of The Same Width As Your Banner
This table should have at least 3, 5 or 7 rows.
4. Put Your Banner In The Middle Row
That's the reason for the table being at least the same width as
the banner. If your table has 3 rows, place your banners in the
2nd row. If it has 5 rows, place it in the 3rd row. If it has 7
rows, place it in the 4th row.
5. If You Have More Than One Banner To Display:
Insert a javascript that rotates your banners within the table
with a new banner appearing every time a new page is loaded.
6. Now Fill Up The Other Rows With...
...links to your other web pages on your site! You'll
need to divide these rows into several columns to accommodate the number
of links to your other pages. The more web pages you have, the
more rows and columns you'll need.
7. Then Place This Table At The BOTTOM Of Each Of Your Web Pages!
By doing this, your visitors will first and foremost see your
content, before arriving at the navigational table that contains
the banner.
Putting it at the top of your page doesn't
make senze as we've established that he'll likely not click on
it in that position. Therefore your mission is to interest him immediately with your
content so that he'll want to navigate your site further,
subscribe to your e-zine or otherwise "warm up" to your site.
And once he's interested, and since he cannot otherwise navigate
around your web site without clicking on your table containing
links to the other pages on your site, he'll have to look at
your table of links containing the banner - with the banner
staring straight at him!
This will increase your banner click-throughs simply because
it's a novel way of displaying banners, and
he's now looking at your banner when previously he's been
ignoring it.
In addition, because the banner is in close proximity with the
links, you'll also get some "accidental" clicks!
See exactly how this is done on my site at http://www.senze.com
right now! (Note: I'm not putting up banners for products that
I'm an Associate of because that is not the business model for
my site. However, the principle is the same.)
HOW TO GET ALMOST 100% CLICKS ON YOUR BANNERS!
The above technique on its own will increase your banner clicks
many times over.
However, if you want to get almost ALL of your visitors to click
on your banners, take the following extra steps:
1. Re-Design The Banners Given To You!
Don't just put up banners given to you by the Associate Program
owner - because they all look like banners!
You'll need to create your own banners using your own words and make it blend
within the color and theme of your site.
If the color of your web site background is white, design the
banner in white. Don't even put a border around it!
Your mission is to make your banners not look like a banner.
Simple enough?
(Actually, a better solution is to dump the banner graphic and
simply put up a text link - but since
we're discussing how to increase banner clicks, we're not going
to do that.)
2. Dump The Animation!
Animation is used by banner artists to draw attention to them.
However, they are synonymous with banners, and where they used
to work, they don't work now because animation screams
advertising.
Make your banners as plain as you can, as if it's
a link to another area of your site - which is the reason why their
background color should be the same as the background color of
your web site. Just don't make it look and sound like banners
normally do, and you've won half the battle already even at this
stage!
(Note: the banner on my site is animated, but I can afford to do
this because I'm selling a free subscription to my e-zine - which
forms my overall site in the first place. This reason overrides
the "disadvantage" of animating my banners - but if you're
placing your Principal's banner - make sure it's not animated
for the reason discussed here.)
THE REFRESHINGLY SPECTACULAR END RESULT
You'll get close to 100% click-throughs with a combination of
all the tactics above! Which means you'll
be a far happier, richer Associate, as well as being one of the rare breed of web
site owners out there who truly understand what Internet
Marketing is all about.
Try it out and see just what a HUGE difference a little brain
power can do!
About the Author
Get the uncommon, eye-popping and jaw-dropping
"All Uncommon Senze Internet Marketing Secrets" fortnightly e-
zine written in the exciting Sen Ze style to instantly increase
your profits by sending a blank e-mail to
mailto:zsubscription@senze.com now!