The Truth About the E-Marketing Boom

On the 10 of March the daily headline on ITWeb was the article called "Crisis sparks e-marketing boom". This makes many marketers in an uncertain market ask a very good question: will e-marketing deliver results?

It has already been established that e-marketing, or in simple words marketing online, is cheaper in more ways than one, but is it worth it? The answer to this question is slightly more complicated than the marketing medium itself, though the medium has a big role to play in the results.

When looking at e-marketing one cannot simply look at price. That would be foolish because internet marketing itself, is not only about buying clicks and impressions on other websites. It stretches much further than that.

Firstly, any company that sells something, must ensure that whatever medium of advertising is used targets the audience required to make a sale. There is no point in hard economic times to spend large budgets on any advertising that does not bring the return.
Though on the internet, it is far easier to target the correct audience, it is just as easy to miss the correct audience.

Hence the first thing to look at when considering marketing and advertising on the internet is not how cheap it is or how expensive it is, but does it target the right audience in the first place.

Many marketers and business owners want to place their message in front of as many people as possible. That is a very good thing, but here lies a big trick. Thinking this way, the business owner or marketer goes on the search for websites with high traffic, visited by as many people as possible. Such sites are large media sites such as online newspapers, magazines and similar sites. Advertising on such sites is not bad, however, if the media has no targeted audience the budget goes to waste simply because there will be no customers wanting to buy what the advertiser is advertising. It is okay, for an insurance company to be everywhere on the net for brand recognition, but for an auto parts manufacturer or reseller, it is a waste of time and budget.

I know you may think that this is simple logic, but look around on the web and see how many adverts may be in the totally wrong places.

When turning to internet marketing and advertising to save on budget in hard economic times, such issues must be carefully considered. There is no point on wasting budget without making sales. On the other hand; branding on less targeted online website to get the odd sale while in return building a strong brand may be a different strategic consideration.

The next thing to consider. In the off line media an advert or any piece of marketing will carry some information about the company. Often this is a telephone number, email and website, this is pretty standard. When a potential customers views the advert, they choose to visit the website, or call. While in the online media the calling option from an advert can also be available users online have a tendency 99% of the time (or more) to click on the advert to see more information about the company. When is the last time you saw and advert online and you didn't check out the site before you called the company? Probably never, because in the online world more information is just a CLICK AWAY. This is great, but could also be very bad. Here is why.

There is always the consideration of the most wanted response in an advert. This is true of any advert. Off line or online, once the audience sees the advert, the marketer or business owner would want them to take action. Online this is often to click on the advert and visit the website of the marketer. And here is where things often go sour.

Just opting for the cheaper form of advertising, does not guarantee results, because clicking on an advert takes the potential customer to the website. Now here is the hard part: does the website convert to the most wanted response? Is the website up to date? Is it effective? Does it make the sale, or bring in the leads?

This is what you paid money for? Isn't it?

Here is where many businesses in South Africa lose a lot of potential clients and others spend mega bucks without the desired results and sometimes without any results at all and it is not even the fault of the advertising medium.

Many websites have been built like a product brochure, or company profile, that "thing" that you give away to a potential client on a piece of fancy paper. In the online world, brochure websites don't make money. The potential customer is approaching the website online, this means he or she has many things to click on, other than your website. If the website did not attract his or her attention, the potential customer is gone and has forgotten about the company forever. In paper they may keep the paper brochure for a while, they may even keep the magazine and look for the advert in the future, but online it doesn't work this way, if there is no immediate interest, you're gone forever from the potential customers mind with the next click.

Before spending one cent on advertising, start looking at the website to ensure that it will deliver customers and leads from the adverts.

Finding the right places to advertise, which is the first consideration, is relatively easy with research, the second part is not so easy. Websites often have to be redone, re-built from scratch to deliver the customers and leads. Many websites have not been built with sales generation processes in mind. Usability is most often never been tested even for the target market.

In conclusion, if you want to advertise online, this would be a good choice in hard economic times, but also in boom times. However, before you do that, have a careful look at what you want to achieve with the advert and decide whether your website can deliver the return once the audience has clicked on your advert.

If you have been advertising online and the clicks bring no results, meaning; no calls, no leads, no emails, no sales.

The first two things you should be looking at are:

1. Are you advertising in the right places to the right audience? if the answer is yes, then:

2. Is your website up to scratch or turning away the clients because of usability, lack of information, too much information, or the wrong information, or the wrong call to action (or everything combined).

The good news is both these things can be fixed to produce more sales in hard economic times with a reduced advertising budget.

So, before you go and spend a bunch of cash on online advertising make sure you have your strategy right, your website is up to scratch and you do the research to target the audience that will bring you the sales.