Get Your Brand Out There: Strategies for Online Advertising

Back in the 90’s the first banner ads emerged with a high click-through rate; however, the effectiveness of banner ads has since plummeted.  Through the benefits of social media, now we have endless possibilities of online advertising strategies.  Vivian Wagner of E-Commerce Times addresses a few ways to engage your audience and create better brand engagement. 

Virurl is a real time advertiser that drives traffic to your content.  It uses highly targeted links on blogs, social media pages, and other sites.  “Our mission is to better distribute content on the Internet,” explained Diaz-Mitoma, CEO of Virurl. “As long as the advertiser has created a piece of content that is engaging, that’s the kind of content we use on our system. It can’t be a regular ad.”  You need more than just to plaster your advertisement on a banner and call it a day, you need engaging content to get it seen.  “Over the next few years we’re going to see advertisers creating an unprecedented amount of content, and it’s going to need a platform,” said Diaz-Mitoma. “Our company is developing the tools and technologies to support the shift from traditional banner ads to content-based marketing.” 

If you are more interested in personally engaging your users through advertising and marketing campaigns, here are a few ideas for you:  Share content from industry leaders, like and follow brands and other people in your industry, lead a webinar, post a weekly podcast, create a Facebook poll or a Facebook app, guest post on notable industry blogs, engage in a twitter chat, let users vote for their favorite ads, and update your campaign based on user feedback.  These are just a few of the endless possible ways you can start to engage your users and create brand awareness.  The most effective social strategies engage their audience where their demographic is active and receptive to learning more about your company. So, do a little research to see what social sites your potential customersare on and allocate your time based on where you think you will get the best ROI.

Zeroing In

Targeted campaigns are taking over social media. Businesses are using each social media site to their advantage by using the unique advertising opportunities that each has to offer.  Linked in, for example offers recommendation ads, sponsorships, and partner messages.  The greatest part of using targeted campaigns on social media is that you can really zero in on the specific demographic you want.  “LinkedIn enables marketers to drive results by nurturing meaningful relationships with its members,” Fenot Tekle, senior manager of corporate communications at LinkedIn, told the E-Commerce Times. “It’s the only place on the Web where marketers can engage such high-quality audiences, with relevant content, in the appropriate context.” 

Facebook also enables you to advertise your message to just the right people.  In addition to your standard display ad, you can now create social ad to engage users directly in their news feed.  Banner blindness can occur when you just place your ad on the side or at the top.  So, news feed ads are extremely beneficial because it puts your ad right in the center where the user is already engaged. 

Adaptive Advertising

Handling multiple complicated campaigns, creating interesting content, and maintain a distinctive brand and voice simultaneously can be complicated at times.  “To be effective, an ad has to reach the target audience with the right message,” Kim Troy, cofounder of PR Brigade. “The advertiser must have a deep understanding of who they are trying to reach, and the advertiser must say exactly what that particular audience wants or expects to hear.  Social media has forever changed the marketing and advertising landscape.  Pre-social media, marketing and advertising were broadcast-oriented—a one-way conversation from business to consumer. Post-social media, marketing and advertising are matrix-oriented—dynamic, multi-directional, ongoing conversations among consumers about the business.”

“Every company, no matter its size or industry, must now be a nimble, around-the-clock marketing entity just to survive,” said Troy. “Marketing one’s business on social channels requires a lot of oversight and a lot of relevant, compelling, engaging, valuable, on-brand content that’s not blatantly self-promoting. That’s very tricky, and very different than in the old days, where you simply declared yourself the best, and your customers, for the most part, believed what you told them.

Information from this article was derived from The E-Commerce Times and can be found here.