More and more people today are leaving paper advertising for the internet.

Both have their pro’s and con’s when using them to promote

your business. But you need to recognize

that having a marketing tactic is just the foundation!

There are key things you need to gain from your marketing efforts to truly

create the most effective advertising system achievable.

These are the requirements you need to have to establish

effective advertisements…

I. Tracking progress is the first step to effective

advertisements and is more imperative than most people imagine

1. You need to know how many times people actually look at, read or watch the

marketed material (your ad).

2. How many of those persons actually inquired about your product or service?

3. How many of the persons turned in to actual clients?

4. Which advertisement created one of these actions by potential customers?

II. Update the ad content / verbiage (split test)

• Based off of your ad tracking you will know how effective each ad that you have placed is.

This will allow you to see if you just need to make a minor change to the ad or if you will

create an entirely new ad. There is no perfect

way to state anything and the age, location and gender of the potential

buyers will influence the way that your ad is perceived and evaluated.

This is why you do what’s called a "split test"

which is done by duplicating an existing ad and changing one detail.

This detail can be as straightforward as punctuation, capital VS. lower case,

removing or adding a word or a different headline.

You will be amazed at how one simple change from a period to

an exclamation point can change the effectiveness of your ad.

What you are trying to accomplish is to continue split testing to improve the

III. Target Your Audience (age groups, gender, location, etc)

• The most critical thing you need to do is target your ideal client so you aren't trying to sell steak to a vegetarian.

You need to hit the ideal demographic for your product or service, and if you don’t know what that is you can find out.

Because when you are advertising to the wrong people you are literally throwing away money.

As an example, if you want to precisely

market to a local audience you have to make sure that your ads

aren’t seen on a nationwide level. Targeting can be getting noticed by certain groups

and targeting can be staying hidden from certain people which is

incredibly important in order to stay cost sensitive.

IV. Be Seen & Stand out

• No matter what you do, you have to make sure you are putting yourself in a

place that will allow you to be seen.

And seen constantly and consistently since advertising can only work if people actually see the ad.

Meaning you have to not only use the most effective advertising methods to get your ad’s

out, but you have to "Stand Out".

When applying banner advertisements make sure to use vibrant colors that have maybe have animation.

Or if you are using a text ad you’d want to make sure to show that you have the best

prices, quickest service, great customer feedback or how your service solves a specific problem.

If you don’t tell people why they should click on your ad why

would they?

Why do you think so many people buy the newest "Cosmopolitan" and

"Men’s Health" magazine? Their headlines always get your attention

V. Be Cost sensitive

• This may be apparent but many people overlook

that you need to supervise and update your ads

in all of your marketing efforts. If you are not paying attention to this

you might be throwing money into ad’s that aren’t effective.

The idea is to fine-tune your ad’s until you are making more than

you are spending.

Here’s an example…

You have the flu and you just purchased and used 2 kinds of cold medicines.

Now tell me, which one actually worked? You can’t!

How can you know which of the 2 medicines you had taken actually

did what you needed to feel better. So now next time you get a flu you will

most likely buy both of the medicines again. What this has accomplished is now

instead of purchasing the one medicine that worked for you; you are buying both and

just throwing money away.

VI. Become Automated

• Having your advertising automated means making sure that all your inquiries

coming from your ads are being answered.

Doesn't matter if you automate by email or phone, its your choice.

And I know what you’re saying "how can you have someone answer the phones 24/7".

Well you can and I’ll touch on that another time.

Your time is crucial and priceless so we want to be cost effective and apply

marketing that can be updated promptly and does the work while you sleep.

To recap you must be able to:

• Track effectiveness of the advertisement

• Update the advertisements content / verbiage (split test)

• Target Your Audience (age groups, gender, location, etc)

• Be Found!

• Be Cost sensitive

• Time sensitive (your time, and how long till the advertisement is shown)

• Automated