The design is 100% ours, we here in NY provided every detail for its design. Esolz also did not do the great programming you see on this site. The checkout system and all the terrific Ajax programming came from a great company we highly recommend for web development, Omkar Soft.

Sanjiv Agarwala and his team at Omkar were instrumental to this site’s complex structure. So lets be clear - The visual design of VirtualAdAgency.com was 100% ours here in NY and its development was Omkar Soft.

Esolz did not work on this site, only a preliminary build. Glad I could clear that up!

Using the internet to your business’s advantage has certainly changed in this new marketing landscape. Marketers might make it sound fancy and complicated, but all it means is that the internet is now, more than ever, an interactive, dynamic place where marketing your business relies heavily on social interaction and making personal connections with users. By interacting with users and providing a more social, informal environment, you’re better able to influence their buying decisions and suggestively sell things than with old-fashioned business practices like cold calling and hard sales pitches.  

By utilizing social networks, you can easily connect with customers and other people in your industry to build relationships and strengthen your networking. Instead of having a cold, formal business approach of years past, though, you need to be friendly and informal, making people feel more like your friends than your customers. You will be a better person for the relationships that you establish, and your business will grow and thrive easily because of these connections that you make. It doesn’t matter if you set up a Facebook page for your business or if you start a blog on WordPress. Both are actually useful tools for your business. Even in this slow economy, your business can thrive if you properly embrace social networking and use it to your business’s advantage.

Sometimes these things can be complicated to execute on your own, because you’re not sure of the tools to use or what steps to take. For that, you can consult with internet marketing companies that specialize in driving your business through the slow economy and to success. Internet marketing companies serve to help your website and your business become the best that it can be, and will custom tailor a marketing solution that works for you.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a new business, if you’re new to the internet, or even if you’re just trying to spruce up your business and make it more successful. Building relationships and using the social networks that are available to grow your business will be essential to your success in this day and age. Larger businesses are able to thrive because of their name or standing in the community, but small businesses need to focus on socializing and creating a personal attachment to their business so that people will want to be a part of it. For more on social networking or how to build a business in the world of web interactions. Let us know if we can help!

Because there is no sure fire marketing method, the fight over where to spend advertising dollars is one that every marketer faces. Unlike a lot of other advertising mediums, direct mail allows for a very quick ROI gauge. Whether using email or postal mail, there are several ways that the responses can be measured for effectiveness. Think about all the junk mail you receive – virtual and postal. Most of this flow is direct mail campaigns at work.

Let’s first look at the conversion rate. Conversion rate is applicable to both postal mail or email and measures the response to your “call-to-action” of your sales offer. Did you tell interested clients to sign in to your website? For postal mail recipients, did you ask that they call a specific number and mention a sales code for a discount on your product? Did they buy your product after receiving your ad? These are all ways of measuring conversions for postal direct mail.

Measuring conversions online is becoming very accurate, thanks to web cookies. Cookies, as per www.whatis.com, are “…information that a Web site puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time. Typically, a cookie records your preferences when using a particular site.” A website can track when a user visits the site for the first time, possibly in response to a call to action from your postal or email direct mail ad.

Considering the extended use of email nowadays, for all sorts of communications, it’s safe to say that it’s easier to measure direct mail responses when the ads are sent online. There are three possible ways to do this, and they are all useful in gauging the success of your direct mail campaign.

The bounce rate of an email measures the percentage of the email that is undeliverable. Either the address doesn’t exist, the recipient server is having issues or you’re email gets dumped into a SPAM blocker. The reason for these bounces can be searched out by your ISP, Internet Service Provider, or your technician. By analyzing the reason behind the bounced emails, you can update your recipient address list to be more effective.

The open rate, the percentage of email that arrives at the destination email and is opened, also lets you see how accurate your contact list is. If you have sent an opt-in email, asking for the recipient to sign up to your website, you’ll see the highest percentages. HTML emails with graphics allow the server to generate a count when the email is opened. Be careful with HTML, as recipients email servers can junk emails with graphics or leave out the picture altogether for security purposes, making the email unusable. Adding a message in the email that it must be viewed in HTML can help with this problem.

Along with HTML emails, a click-thru option within the email can be used to allow your direct mail recipients direct access to you website. This measuring tool acts like the conversion rate to track replies in that it can be counted thru software attached to your website as the user “clicks in”. Some software comes with a reporting service that allows you to view the success rate of the click-thru option on an interim basis.

Measuring direct mail response is integral to increasing your rates of a successful ad campaign. Keep in mind the many options that exist to do this, and that they can all work together to paint a very clear picture of your direct mail campaign’s viability to make the most of your advertising dollars.

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“Anyone can use my product/service” - If I had a nickel for everytime I heard a business owner say that…I’d have about $7 and that would be enough for about 6 targeted ppc ads. As a marketer I am repeatedly asked to broaden a concept or add items to reach a wider customer base. Kitchen sink marketing - pack in everything in order not to lose anyone, when in fact they really are losing everyone.

As a scrappy upstart now is the time to really think about your target audience, your niche.

If you continue to market to everyone your ad dollars are likely to be wasted. You need someone to engage with what you’re saying, only those truly interested in your product will spend the time and money on them. It’s not enough to say your target is “Fishermen” You want to get it down to “lake fishermen…who use lures…and are likely to just fish on weekends”

Target your limited ad dollars to those publications and web sites your niche use while honing your message to speak directly to them, no more shotgun blast marketing. Get targeted.

Define what your customers want to hear - how will your product or service benefit me? Be specific. Talking to weekend-only lake fishermen? Don’t just say “You’ll catch more fish” get in their heads, “More fish in less time!”

Do some research and determine what other interests this audience might have. Get to know them. Join a fisherman forum, not every single one, just where you can be most effective. Remember, targeting. Eventually you can start directly asking what their needs and concerns are, make sure the dialog is two-way, let them know what you plan to do next with the information.

When your efforts are targeted and more focused its easier to gain conversion and in this economy every dollar counts. So stop trying to be all things to all people and target yourself to those you really can reach. And when you think you have a target drill down some more, don’t be satisfied until you know exactly who your customer is and what they want - only then are your limited ad dollars going to do the most good.

If you look at the 2008 election in terms of return on investment there is something deceiving about the numbers.

Looking at the dollars spent and votes cast we see McCain spent about $3.50 less than Obama. But in the end we know the net result and the brand that Barrack Obama has built.

Among the things not factored in is the general intangibles - in this case Obama’s win plants him not only in the White House but firmly in the American zeitgeist as well. How do we measure that? If that were a point on the metrics when establishing the ROI what dollar figure would be appropriate?

In the end marketing investment metrics need to not only ask what is the “sales goal” but what is the intrinsic value to the brand? The hardest part will be quantifying that.

TutorialBlog has a good article: 7 Things You Should Know About Web Writing

It discusses some essential thinking that should go into writing for web.

Including:

Reading onscreen is hard on the eyes -
Use one third the number of words for onscreen as you would in print.

Keep blocks of copy short-
About half your readers will not bother to scroll down a page.

You need to play into the way readers scan your pages-
Any good journalist can tell you paragraphical writing is essential.

One idea per sentence-
Two or three sentences per paragraph. One idea per paragraph.

Use links-
Add color to body copy and give readers a place to pause as they skim

Get to the point-

Write in a natural, conversational style-
Drop the industry jargon when you can.

If you’re a BtoB product or service provider like we are, events and publications like this are great opportunities to get your message out there. Even if you don’t plan to attend the conference reach out to the hosts and find out what opportunities there are in terms of print ads, or even sponsorships.

The guides that are handed out to every attendee at these conferences provide great ad placement. The audience tends to be well engaged and in a purchasing mode. Also, sponsoring a lecture or segment of the event offers an added element of prestige to your organization.

If you’re running an ad, try to offer a specialized discount code for attendees, or instead of driving them to your home url - try a custom landing page instead. BtoB conference advertising is a great opportunity any small business should consider. Contact us if you need some guidance.

As a scrappy upstart you have to consider what’s fundamentally necessary for your site and business to succeed, and what’s just fancy trimming. This certainly comes down to cost-control, but knowing what features to focus on that can be cost-effective and sales inducing is most important.

So fundamentally, what’s essential to your site? Solid page structure, effective navigation, and a point of contact - Simple enough.

Now what elements are you convincing yourself are just “bells & whistles”? But may deserve a second look?

Flash intro animation?

.

Probably the most overdone feature of any web site, not needed, usually skipped save the money.

Often called “mystery meat navigation” and probably the worst violation of using dolalrs and time unwisely. Stick to the fundamentals of clear web navigation. What are they? Well, if your site have navigational features you’ve never experienced online before, then you do. The fundamentals of navigation have been refined over a decade stick to them and users will thank you.

On site Blog/news section?

An area that contains consistently updated content is always a good thing. It helps in SEO, it helps bring your users back, and it can even engage you in your own site. BUT if you don’t plan to commit to updating it weekly or more, than don’t bother.

Analytics?

While google analytics arguably has its faults - it’s free, enough said. You or your developer can easily paste the code and start monitoring.

Forum?

This one has a few caveats. Does your product need to invoke a sense of community to succeed? If yes, then go for it. What do I mean by this? That’s for another article.

Custom checkout?

Sometimes the simple shopping cart plug in from your provider is good enough, or even simple paypal payment links can get you there. But if your product requires some specific upfront information then you may want to consider customizing your cart - costs can run deep for this kind of optimization, so watch it.

I’ve heard conversion rates being increased as much as 40-60% with the use of a trust seal, I can’t speak to their accuracy. But at the very least it’s a small price to pay to give your customers peace-of-mind that you’re a legitimate enterprise. Trust-Guard verifies your company info, policies etc, and is a good upstart alternative to the more expensive McAfee and Verisign.

Toll free number?

At approximately $50 a month the features being offered by services like onebox.com and ifbyphone.com should make this a pair of shoes. But in this climate you may get by at launch with just a contact form.

Solving every IE6 compatibility issue?

Currently IE6 accounts for 20% of browser use, and 98.8% of web development ulcers. Its usage is dropping month-to-month. If you’re a web developer - fix your errors. If you’re a non-developer on a budget? Focus your developer’s billable hours on the other shoes.

Entrepreneur.com’s Mark Stevens recently wrote an article entitled Sales and Marketing: Separated at Birth - I believe his intention was to discuss how one is nothing without the other, not sure he succeeded.

He writes:

The question arises from the fact that most marketing people dislike salespeople. They don’t understand selling and, even worse, have a disdain for it.

I read that statement expecting the next paragraph to explain how sales equally does not understand marketing, it wasn’t there. I was surprised at such a statement because any marketer knows that their lives are intertwined with sales, and we certainly “understand” it. Often, it is the only by-product that matters of the work we do.

Mr. Stevens entitled his article “…Separated at birth” but only delivered one twin. So allow me to pick up where he left off.

While marketing’s main role is to serve the sales force, that cannot always mean sales gets exactly what they want. Marketing also has a responsibility of building a reliable, cohesive brand. If done correctly, this shouldn’t come at the cost of sales.

Sales folks are notorious for going “off-the-reservation”, (eg; having their own sales piece designed, business card, title, etc). believing as long as it results in a sale, all will be forgiven by senior management, and it often is. But the best senior managers know there needs to be mutual understanding - the marketing department has the brand’s big picture in mind. While some senior managers may forgive a rogue sales person, the marketplace may not, hurting the brand for the next sale. The overall brand stewardship falls to the marketers. And this is more than having the right logo or the correct PMS color. Fundamentally it involves a consistent message, even if the supporting points differ from sales piece to sales piece.

Marketers and agency creative have the added challenge of building collateral that is un-aided. No one is going to walk the customer through the ad in the NY Times. Sales people want marketing they can talk off of, have a dialogue with the customer about - your agency needs to recognize that, and your marketing needs to be optimized accordingly. This requires sales people that articulate their needs and marketers who can craft the right story.

Lastly, please, don’t do as Mark suggests, and only send sales people to trade-shows. If you never let a marketer see exactly how sales are started or closed then how can you expect a marketer to deliver relevant sales material?