The first thing you should consider in advertising
is the first thing you should consider when buying real estate: Location,
Location, Location. You want to focus all of your efforts on your
intended audience. Once you know who they are, determine which publications
they are most likely to read.
While large sources have apparently attractive numbers
of readers, their advertising rates are usually high. Focus instead
on smaller publications, such as targeted newsletters or Internet
magazines (ezines). There are publications for sports, hobbies, pets,
business, occupations and many other areas of interest. The advertising
rates of these smaller publications are usually lower than the big
guys and, if you select carefully, the readers almost 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
two different publications. The ad ran for the same period in both
publications and both were published with the same frequency. The
first was a large ezine with over 300,000 subscribers, the second
was a publication for online business people with a subscriber base
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. The first
ezine's readership was broad based. While many people were curious
enough to respond to the ad, very few were serious enough to actually
signup for the program. The second ezine's audience was primarily
made up of people interested in owning business on the Internet. This
prior interest in products similar to the one I offered resulted in
better results. Not to mention the fact that the ad in ezine #2 was
significantly less expensive. This experience is a great illustration
of why it is vitally important to reach your target audience.
The number of Internet ezines is growing every month.
It should not be difficult to locate several publications that cater
to your your target market. If you advertise in just five targeted
ezines and receive only thirty responses per week per publication,
well below the averages I have experienced, you will receive 600 qualified
responses per month!! If only ten percent of these responses result
in sales, it still means an additional sixty sales per month!!! These
calculation don't even include the potential for ad-on and repeat
sales. As you can see, targeting your advertising can result in very
nice profits for you business.
Even with a targeted audience, the results that you
experience will vary significantly, depending upon the particular
opportunity or product being offered. The other big factor that influences
how much response you will receive is the advertisement itself. The
next in this series of articles will detail techniques for developing
ads that produce results.
