The first thing you should consider in advertising is the firstthing you should consider when buying real estate: Location,Location, Location. You want to focus all of your efforts on yourintended audience. Once you know who they are, determine whichpublications they are most likely to read.
While large sources have apparently attractive numbers ofreaders, their advertising rates are usually high. Focus insteadon smaller publications, such as targeted newsletters or Internetmagazines (ezines). There are publications for sports, hobbies,pets, business, occupations and many other areas of interest. Theadvertising rates of these smaller publications are usually lowerthan the big guys and, if you select carefully, the readersalmost guaranteed to be in your target market.
To give an example from my personal experience:
I posted an identical ad for an affiliate program in twodifferent publications. The ad ran for the same period in bothpublications and both were published with the same frequency. Thefirst was a large ezine with over 300,000 subscribers, the secondwas a publication for online business people with a subscriberbase of only 7,000. Below are the results I observed:
Ezine 1:
481 responses
3 sign-ups
Ezine 2:
168 responses
19 sign-ups
So what made the difference? The answer is quite simple. Thefirst ezine's readership was broad based. While many people werecurious enough to respond to the ad, very few were serious enoughto actually signup for the program. The second ezine's audiencewas primarily made up of people interested in owning business onthe Internet. This prior interest in products similar to the oneI offered resulted in better results. Not to mention the factthat the ad in ezine #2 was significantly less expensive. Thisexperience is a great illustration of why it is vitally importantto reach your target audience.
The number of Internet ezines is growing every month. It shouldnot be difficult to locate several publications that cater toyour your target market. If you advertise in just five targetedezines and receive only thirty responses per week perpublication, well below the averages I have experienced, you willreceive 600 qualified responses per month!! If only ten percentof these responses result in sales, it still means an additionalsixty sales per month!!! These calculation don't even include thepotential for ad-on and repeat sales. As you can see, targetingyour advertising can result in very nice profits for you business.
Even with a targeted audience, the results that you experiencewill vary significantly, depending upon the particularopportunity or product being offered. The other big factor thatinfluences how much response you will receive is theadvertisement itself. In another article in this series, I willdetail methods of writing effective advertising.
Tony L. Callahan, is a successful Internet Promotions Consultantwith twenty years of computer industry experience and ispresident of his own Internet marketing company, Link-Promotehttp://www.link-promote.com. He also publishes Web-LinksMonthly, a newsletter full of tips, trick and techniques forsuccessful web site promotions. To subscribe, send e-mail to:
[email protected]. For an online archive of articles byMr. Callahan available for reprint, visit:http://www.link-promote.com/articles
