Web site Promotion

Online promotion uses communication via the Internet itself to raise awareness about a site and drive traffic to it. This promotion may take the form of links from other sites, banner advertising or targeted e-mail messages.

Online Advertising
Advertising on the World Wide Web is generally acknowledged to take place when an advertiser pays to place advertising content on another web site.

Some important concepts of online promotion
Banner Advertisement:
A rectangular graphic displayed on a web page for the purposes of advertising. It is normally possible to perform a clickthrough to access further information. Banner many static or animated.

Page and ad impressions and reach
One page impression occurs when a member of the audience views a web page. One ad impression occurs when a person views an advertisement placed on the web page. Reach define the number of unique individuals who view an advertisement.

Effective frequency
The number of exposures of ad impressions (frequency) required for an advertisement to become effective.

Clickthrough and clickthrough rate
A clickthrough (or an advertisement click) occurs each time a user clicks on a banner advertisement with the mouse to direct him or her to a web page that contains further information.
The clickthrough rate is expressed as a percentage of total ad impressions, and refers to the proportion of users viewing an advertisement who click on it. It is calculated as the number of clickthroughs divided by the number of ad impressions.

Banner Advertising
Objective
Cartellieri et al (1997) identify the following objectives of banner advertising:
§ Delivering content
§ Enabling transaction
§ Shaping attitudes
§ Soliciting response
§ Encourage retention

Location for banner advertising
1. Portals
2. Generalized news services
3. Specialzed interest site

Paying for banner advertising
§ CPM and run-of-site: Cost per 1000 ad impressions. CPM is usually her for run-of-site advertisement where advertisements occur on all pages of the site.
§ Web site auditor: Auditors accurately measure usage of different sites in terms of the number of ad impressions and clickthrough rates.
§ Per exposure: typically through ad impressions or possibly through the length of time the user views an advertisement
§ Per response: payment only occurs according to the number of clickthroughs that occur
§ Per action: payment according to a marketing outcome such as downloading a product factsheet, a new sales lead received when the user fills in an online form giving his or her name and address, or an actual purchase placed online.

Making Banner advertising work:
1. Appropriate incentives are needed to achieve clickthrough
2. Creative design needs to be tested extensively
3. Appropriate keywords are needed
4. Placement of advertisement and timing need to be considered carefully
5. Consider the clickthrough quality, not just the quantity
6. Build the infrastructure to deal with the response

Other online promotion methods
Promotion in search engines and directories
One important aspect of traffic building is maximizing the number of users who find a web site when searching using keywords, in a search engine, directory or a portal. This promotion technique is particularly important in view of the number of web users who use such facilities for finding information. Achieving good search rating listings is a skilled job, which is often dependent on a webmaster who is familiar with the techniques for achieving good listings in search engines.

Links from other sites: co-branding and sponsorship
The growth of Internet-based sponsorship has been compared to the transition between radio and television advertising. Sponsorship as well as taking the form of a promoter sponsoring a site can make use of opportunities for involving individual personalities in sponsorships.
Co-branding is an arrangement between two or more companies where they agree to jointly display content and to conduct joint promotions using brand logos or banner advertisements.

Using e-mail for advertising
Email is used to communicating and building long-term relationships with customers, and inform customers of new product or market information relevant to them. Email can also used for paid-for advertising. For example, it is possible to buy space for an advertisement within an email newsletter.

Recommended Book
Dave Chaffey, Internet Marketing