Can the Internet Work for Small Business Marketing?

Small businesses have always been overlooked in preference to the larger conglomerates. Small businesses are in fact the larger contingent.

An internet business can be in front of 10,000 - 50,000 potential customers each month, with those visitors accessing your own business web site at a click.

It seems like these sites do not exist when it comes to press and marketing articles: the cause is simply due to a lack of visibility on the part of the mid-range web sites.

What About Paying Referral Fees to Web Publishers Instead of an Advertising Fee?

The idea of a Referral fee is that a banner (or just a text link) is placed on a web site and anyone clicking on the banner (taking them to your web site) will be identified as coming from that site and any subsequent sale will earn the originating site a Referral fee.

To enable the tracking of individual customers, a small software addition is required at your site to identify who bought what, when and how much. This is normally a few lines of HTML to be included on your index page.

As a customer clicks on the banner or link, the details are recorded in a database to enable the payments and tracking of the sales in the same way as if you were running an Affiliate Program .

The Cost of a Web Advert

Low traffic: Start up web sites, and business brochure type websites give you a well presented run through of company and product, with contact details if you want to make a first approach to the supplier.

Medium traffic: Well established webs with 10,000 to 50,000 visitors a month. These sites have some of the most targeted visitors as most of the visitors come by 'word of mouth' or by reports in other web sites newsletters who have recommend a visit. They do not have a significant degree of 'surfers' at this stage of development therefore most visitors have an interest in the contents of that web site: its like the 'passing trade' that a shop would expect to capture in a prominent position

High traffic: Over 50,000 visitors a month is a big web site when the site has targeted traffic i.e. a garden web site that has 50,000 gardeners looking at it every month is worth up to 1,000,000 visitors to say You will find many sites with over 50,000 visitors that you can place an advert with for the price of a monthly magazine. Sites in this category may well have marketing agencies dealing with the placing of adverts and therefore the cost will be inflated ..

The 'medium traffic' webs offer real opportunities and also offers the best prospect of finding out how well your product is suited to web marketing. But do ensure that the web host is prepared to respond to your realistic need for information. It’s a case of asking around .

How Can I Spot a Web Site With a Good Marketing Deal?

Go to your favourite web site that is common to your business, or enter a search in any large search engine. Look for the web site that has a modern feel, with room for your advert without being lost in the masse.

Will My Advert Work Immediately?

It is said that an advert needs to be seen by Joe Public at least a dozen times in a newspaper before it has an effect on sales.

The key is Continuity, keep the advert for a reasonable period, This will differ according to the product being advertised.

On a good website the right advert can attract a return visit rate of 1 - 2 times a month: look at the web site that you are interested in advertising on and ask yourself if a customer of yours would have the need to return to that particular site, is their sufficient updating of the site, will visitors look at the page your advert is on: i.e. is the page updated with information or is it used for linking to other parts of the web site.

- 02nd September 2004

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