Small Business Perils of Banner Advertising By Naz Daud At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Despite what you might sometimes hear, banner advertising is still very successful for many small businesses, but only if carried out in the right way. What is the right way, and how does your business avoid the pitfalls of advertising on the internet? The answer is to understand the customer more than many advertisers seem to. There are very many examples of poor advertising on the internet. It is only by being aware of the poor tactics used by those businesses that fail to understand their visitors that you can make sure your own banner advertisements are successful.

An example of a banner advert can be found on the overwhelming majority of web pages across the internet. However, of course, prevalence is no testament to either quality or success, and in many cases, neither attribute seems very evident. Most people have become utterly tired of the clichéd banners flashing like a Las Vegas neon sign that is trying to outdo the rest of the website. Typically, these adverts congratulate the visitor on being the 100,000,000th visitor to see the advert, in which case you feel deeply sorry for the other 99,999,999 people who have also had to risk having a seizure and getting nothing for their trouble!

Similarly, banner adverts which try to frighten potential customers into clicking on them have tended to become shunned, ignored or blocked, such as those suggesting that, in the microsecond since the web page was loaded, they have managed to scan your entire hard drive and discover a virus which was evidently missed by that expensive, award winning anti-virus software you keep updated every day.

Visually nauseating banner adverts, or those which either try to frighten people into clicking no longer have very successful click through rates, and do more harm than good. Yet banner adverts persist. Why? Simply because there are enough examples of good and effective advertising out there that work, for them to remain economically viable.

It takes a great deal of thought and effort for a small business to achieve success with this form of internet advertising. Avoiding repulsive flashing colour themes, fear or trickery are just the first pitfalls to avoid. Another major problem is trustworthiness. Most visitors tend to view banner advertisements with a deep sense of distrust. You’re already starting on the back foot, having to somehow persuade the visitor you are trustworthy, honest and reliable, intent on doing no harm, nor of assaulting the senses or of pulling some kind of unpleasant stunt. All this in a handful of words and a small image is asking a lot, but it is possible.

One of the other dangers banner advertisers tend to leap into like lemmings having a bad day is trying to fool the visitor into clicking the advert. This isn’t quite the same as frightening them into clicking the advert by making it look like a virus alert or system message, but in visually disguising the advert to appear as though it was a genuine portion of the website. This is not a tactic which your business should employ.

The reason is because visitors do not like being deceived. Clicking on a link because it looks like part of the website menu, and then finding that you’re whisked off to a website far, far away on a server somewhere in Eastern Europe is not a good way to encourage repeat visitors.

Remember, your banner advertising is often the very first impression people receive of your business. Take a good long hard look at your internet adverts, and ask yourself if that really is how you want your business to be perceived by your potential customers.

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