If you've been reading SmallBusinessNewz for a while, you may recall an article I wrote earlier this year about branding a need. The basic point of this was that one effective advertising strategy is to make potential customers realize that they have a need, and that your product is the solution to that need.
I was reminded of this again today as I read an article by Svetlana Gladkova at Profy who talked about online advertising, and how it will be affected as our economy worsens. She provides a very thought-provoking analysis on the subject, comparing it to what advertising was like in the great depression.
Surprisingly to some of us who weren't around back then, advertising actually did pretty well according to Gladkova:
There was quite a number of examples of successful brands during the Great Depression, including Chevrolet cars, Camel cigarettes and Procter & Gamble (that gave birth to the phenomenon of soap opera during those hard times). And all of them relied heavily on advertising because they realized that they needed advertising to create and maintain brand loyalty. They simply pretended there was nothing particularly wrong with the economy and consumers still had money to spend - and this proved to be the right approach for them.
We should also keep in mind that advertising is one of the measures to demonstrate to consumers that the company is healthy. After all, not all the consumers have a daily habit of tracking stock market behavior to know what’s going on - yet when they see a company spending money on advertising, they think everything is fine with the company.
Contrary to what some might think, online advertising is still doing pretty well. Spending is up 15.2% in the United States according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the United Kingdom, it's up 21%.
Even though there has been a lot of news recently about layoffs in Internet companies, ad sales are still growing as iEntry CEO Rich Ord points out. The bottom line is that online advertising is not likely to go show any major drop off in the foreseeable future. If anything, I think it will continue to grow, particularly as online video continues to grow in popularity and Google seems determined to expand it's advertising efforts all the time.
Online advertising is a global medium and lets businesses reach global audiences, and targeted ones at that. How many other forms of advertising are as effective in either of these categories? When it comes to a weak economy, it is just important to note that people's "needs" may change.
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Online Advertising
While I see that some of this is true, it's still the bottom dollar that the company has to offer to the marketing dept budget, allowing them to determine where they'll put their money.
I own a family friendly site that gets over 7.5 million hits each month, and make some money off of the banner advertisers at the top. I've got a truly targeted market available, but it is hard to get new advertisers at this time. I don't see how it could be my pricing as my packages start out at just $75 / month ranging to $375 / month.
Trust me, I'd really like to see the economy turn around and pick up more companies wanting to advertise on my site. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, and I'm open to ideas. My banner ad package prices are less than comparable sites with even less traffic. I don't have a marketing dept, as I built the site, I own the site, I manage the site... It's just me.
I originally had considered the Google Adwords, but decided against that, since it would encourage potential advertisers to spend money directly with Google and not me. I would rather have the business relationship directly with the company helping support my site, keeping it free for all who use it.
I own www.WinePress.US, which is the largest winemaking & grape growing discussion forum on the Internet. There are over 8,500 members worldwide in the forum. Please take a look and give me feedback if you have any recommendations or would like to have a banner ad on the www.WinePress.US site.
If anyone has ideas or recommendations, please let me know. Cheers, Joel
To Joel
Hi Joel,
As requested by you, I am one person who checked your site out. My first impression is that your home page is very busy in appearance. I recommend that you create a more sectioned look to it. I too own several sites and subject based forums.
I feel that your view of Google Adwords should be turned around into thinking about Google Adsense. Your potential for making ad income from displaying Google ads is much greater than that of making revenue off of your rotation ads. My guess is that you currently do not have many direct advertisers from my observations, and cannot possibly charge a rate that will grab attention for vendors to be part of a rotation program.
I currently bring in over 3,000.00 per week and growing from my Google ads alone in addition to my direct ad sales.
Also, although you are asking for advise on this article, most people are turned off to others who plug their business and site via sites like this via reply to article as you have. It looks desparate.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes
Reply to Guest
hello guest, and thanks for the input. This was my first time on this site, and I didn't fully understand how my post could sound desperate. I apologize. You mentioned that you have 3 sites bringing in about $3,000 per week or $12,000 /month. That's great. I was curious to learn of your sites so I could check them out, and learn from your success.
My direct contact and relationship from my one site, brings in just under what one of your sites brings in each month. I don't think that I'm that far off. I have about 25 customers currently.
I'd be interested in learning how you've been doing things, and perhaps integrate that into my program. Thanks for your input. Did you by chance take a look at the forum part of the site? I appreciate the input on the "clutter" and need to clean it up on the home page.
If you would, please email me the URL's of your sites, so I can check them out and learn a bit if you don't mind.
Cheers, Joel
This is SO true!
I'm so glad someone sees internet marketing as the BEST, most cost effective way to go during this tough economy. I've already shifted well over 50% of my marketing dollars online, and will continue to move more as the year goes on. Social marketing is the next step for me. Great article!
RE:
Small businesses can afford it?
Internet marketing seems the way forward, it's true. We're putting as much of our marketing resources to market our various services: uk company formation, company services, company reports & anti-money laundering, on internet marketing.
But it's a very difficult balancing act indeed for small businesses, because at the moment it's a case of surviving the down turn! SEO costs a fortune and Adwords don't necessarily work. So what is the best way for small businesses to advertis on internet?
Very True...
Thanks, Chris! I actually read the article you quoted and tend to agree with it. As a consumer, when I see a nice ad during a hard financial time, my impression is that the business is sound and I feel secure doing business with them. My small business is completely located on line so I either do online advertising for my safety and security web site or I use social marketing to raise awareness for my products. I'm on FaceBook, MySpace, Jasons Network, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many Ning sites. It's nice to interact with people who might need the products I offer and it doesn't cost me anything but time.
Choosing an online advertiser?
This is very interesting data. I have had some interest from other sites wanting to advertise on my site. Does anyone have information on resources to help bloggers, like me, find out more about opening up my blogs at BullsEye to advertisers? I have had people contact me, but I have not been interested in the product offerings. Am I being too picky?
Pay Per Click Prices will Decline
Online Advertising will surely suffer some pull back. In my opinion, that won't be so much as in quantity of advertisers, but in the amount that those advertisers are bidding. Some of the pay per click rate categories have really gone up to the point where they can't possibly be profitable any more and these advertisers will be more conservative in the future.
Online video ads
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