The key to success in any business is to know where you want
to go and how to get there. Easily said but very hard to put
into practice. Some of the very best of plans and programs go
astray because we rely on gut feelings and instinct instead
of actually acting in response to hard data concerning the
effectiveness of what we are doing.
You work your tail off. Formulate business, promotional and
advertising plans and do your level best to follow those plans.
Unfortunately this is not enough. You must find a way to test
the effectiveness of these plans and programs as you go along.
To do this you must have a means to obtain feedback from
consumers plus the means to test the effectiveness of your
advertising.
A sad truth in advertising is that some ads appeal to some
people and some to others. The same holds true for the
advertising media selected to get your message out to the
world. A killer ad for one segment of the market is a dud
for another. That’s just the way it is. Big Corporations
spend millions in the never ending quest to find what type
of ad and what media is best for them.
Most of us do not possess the millions to waste money trying
to find the ’don’t miss’ ads and the proper media. We must
proceed within the financial capabilities we have. We cannot
afford to waste money on advertising which is not effective
for our purpose. Small business people offline or online are
faced with some tough problems in their advertising programs.
There is never enough money available to do everything that
needs to be done. This being the case we must be careful in
what we do and when we do it.
We can help ourselves by learning the basics of writing good
ads and doing some simple research to discover what specific
media appears to be most effective, at the moment, for
businesses like our own. The data is there it just takes
a little time and research to discover it. OK, fine we have
done our research and are satisfied that we can produce
effective ads and know the media we wish to use. What now?
Remember we don’t have a whole lot of money available so
we want to get the biggest bang for the buck that we can.
Well, if it were me I would look for a program through which
I could visibly see the results of my advertising. If I placed
an ad, I would wish to be able to see what the exact response
to that ad has been. I would want to know who saw the ad? When?
How? Then I can measure the effectiveness of the ad by the
actual response of the viewers. How many viewers actually
asked for more information or purchased my product or service
based on the ad they viewed? Pretty strong stuff is it not?
This is exactly the type information you need to judge the
effectiveness of your advertising.
Would you believe that programs exist on the net, now, which
can actually do this for you? This is true for all online
media. Just go to your browser and search for ’Ad Trackers’.
What you must look for is a system which is fully automated,
easy for the user to work, and one that in fact does furnish
all the basic data you need to determine the effectiveness
of you ads. Some systems are better than others and they all
cost money. You must carefully examine the benefits you receive
compared to the costs involved. You have more than likely spent
money placing your ads and now you are spending money to track
how well these ads are bringing in customers. You must make the
judgment here. Only you can judge where these activities are
taking you.
It makes sense that money considerations dictate that you start
something like this on a small scale. One or two ads on one or
two media so you may learn first hand what is working and what
is not. We must throw away any pride of authorship regarding
the ad copy we write. The only important criteria here is that
the ad works or does not work. If it works you use it more
widely and keep using it until it loses it’s effectiveness.
You keep this process going on a constant basis, exploiting
effective ads and replacing bad ads. And you do it based on
the factual data you gain from whatever ad tracking system
you employ.
For those of us who are really serious about making a success
of our own business it makes a lot of sense to be able to know
what our advertising is doing for us. Not only that but we
need to identify the ever changing audience out there so we
may change directions as we may need to. Tracking your ads
is a key to this capability. None of us can afford the
millions the large Corporations spend for this purpose but
we have to dig in our pocket and somehow find the money to
purchase one of these affordable ad tracking systems.
Such an action is critical if you are going to successfully
compete for business on the Internet. Some would say that
your survival counts on it.
About the Author
Gary Layton is co-owner of PathTrax.com. By providing their users
the ability to measure and track results connected to a specific
ad or advertising media, PathTrax is helping small businesses
expand the profits in their bottom line. PathTrax delivers
flexible tracking URL's to track Who, Where, When, How Many?
All for only pennies per day. http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/GL121,1