By Shahnaz Rauf
Though I don’t profess to be an ‘advertising guru’,
yet there are certain things I have learned the hard
way while advertising my own website and Newsletter.
You are probably aware of the concept of repeated
advertising, your ad has to be seen 7-10 time before
you can expect to hit a mark. Well guess what, this
holds absolutely true even today. Whatever the level
of technological development, human psychology cannot
change. The brain is still where it was. The more
exposure you get, the more familiar you become, the
more people start liking you.
Where-ever you may live, you have most certainly
experienced an electoral campaign first hand. During
this period they step up the advertising: sending out
press releases, appearing in talk shows, traveling
around the country giving power talks, making public
appearances at various functions, launchings,
openings, dinners etc; taking out ads in papers, in
general being seen anywhere and everywhere at the same
time.
Think about it. Even this holiday season an ad was
aired where Santa was shown drinking a bottle of coke,
although no words were spoken about it. Now why does a
leading brand like coke need to make sure that it
stays in front of it’s customers?
First the basic truths:
1. Don’t let your memory fade away or die, keep
yourself fresh in front of your audience.
2. Keep up an active ad campaign.
3. Don’t use just one advertising medium, use as many
as you can at the same time.
4. Also once you have got your killer headline/ad
stick to it. So people recognize you as soon as
they see it, and the familiarity concept clicks in
to action.
5. The human mind works by association, when they see
your ad every where, they automatically develop the
following instincts about you:
 |
You can be trusted because you are advertising so
aggressively. |
|
You must be making money that’s why you are spending
it on advertising. |
|
Your product must be good, that’s why people are
buying it. |
|
Others are buying it, am I missing out on something
important? |
|
So let me try it too. |
Now let’s make a home run. How does this apply to your
online business? more so if due to budgetary
constraints you cannot sustain your advertising for
long periods of time. How do you Plan a practically
sustainable ad campaign?
Here’s how to start:
1. Send out your classified ad in all the ezines using
cheap submission services.
2. Do an automated site blast – your classified ad
appears on millions of sites online. This is where the
newbies usually start.
3. Once you have tested your ads in low cost ventures,
take the best ones, do some background research about
your targeted audience and take out top and solo ads
in the highly targeted ezines.
4. Write an article. Besides announcing the article
and hoping for it to be published, go for paid
placements on high traffic sites or prominent
placement on high traffic article directories and
Country specific trade and marketing association
sites.
5. Order (a million) guaranteed visitors, while
creating a special landing page with a powerful
freebie on sign up to your list. This works extremely
well for general interest products.
6. Announce a good affiliate program.
7. Create joint ventures with some of the targeted top
leaders in the industry.
8. You might even go for power branding tactics, by
creating an interesting banner and placing it on
prominent high traffic sites.
9. Do send out a press release if you can make it news
worthy.
Make sure you are seen everywhere at the same time.
Start small then you can keep the ball rolling by
re-cycling the profits that will pour in. Keep at it
until you kick up an avalanche. And then advertise
some more.
