Internet Marketing

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Internet Marketing
Traffic and Brand Building
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Topics

• Smart browsing
• Traffic as value
• Traffic through visibility
• Domain branding
• Managing your portal presence
• Publicity and word of mouth
• Paying for traffic
• Alliance and co-branding
• Online ads
• Evaluating traffic sources

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Traffic as Value
Value and Scarcity

• Value is based on scarcity of supply, not
  necessarily benefits
• The supply of Web content is growing faster than
  the number of users
• While the volume of online material provides
  ever-increasing value to network users, the the
  battle for attention is severe

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Headline
Publication Date
Paraphrase current articles on the battle for
traffic
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Traffic as Value
Elements of a Web Traffic Plan

• Acquiring traffic is expensive
• And critical to Web marketing success
• First step make the site easy to find by new
  users
• The steps in Figure 9.3 build on each other

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Traffic as Value
Elements of a Web Traffic Plan

• Retaining traffic is profitable
• Site loyalty dramatically lowers the cost of
  maintaining web site traffic
• Fewer new users must be attracted to maintain a
  profitable user base

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Traffic as Value
Elements of a Web Traffic Plan

• Developing Traffic Requires Value
• Visit duration is the online equivalent to time
  in a store
• Long visit duration allows
• More time to communicate the message of the site
• Additional opportunities to engage in commerce
• More chances to build commitment and loyalty
• Exposure to more advertising or alliance partner
  impression

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Traffic as Value
Elements of a Web Traffic Plan

• Visit duration is a good measure of customer
  value
• The higher the value of a site, the longer the
  duration of visits

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Traffic Through Visibility
Traffic Builders Domain Names

• A domain name is the address a customer uses to
  find your site
• Poorly chosen names can hinder success
• Once chosen, domain names can be difficult to
  change without significant expense
• A domain name strategy should
• Reinforce branding
• Build traffic
• Anticipate consumer behavior and mistakes

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Traffic Through Visibility
Traffic Builders Domain Names
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Traffic Through Visibility
Guidelines for Effective Domain Names
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Traffic Through Visibility
Traffic Builders Portal Presence

• Search engines and directories are common ways to
  find a companys web site
• Problems
• A single search often produces thousands of
  results
• Less than 1 percent of Web pages show up in all
  four of the most popular search engines

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Traffic Through Visibility
Traffic Builders Portal Presence

• Search engines retrieve pages on the basis of
  keywords, meta-tags, page titles other content
• Secure a high ranking
• Classify your site with proper keywords,
  descriptors and categories
• Make sure important Web pages are listed with all
  major search engines
• Multiple listing is important to ensure exposure,
  as each search engine will return a different set
  of results to a query
• Work with directories (like Yahoo!) to make sure
  they properly locate your site

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Headline
Publication Date
Its usually possible to find current news on
which search engines and directories drive the
most traffic
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Traffic Through Visibility
The Emergence of Specialized Portals

• A specialized portal focuses on a specific
  industry
• Special directories provide editorial control by
  industry experts, categorization schemes and the
  ability to reflect rapid change in a particular
  industry

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Traffic Through Visibility
Electronic Word of Mouth and Diffusion

• Positive word of mouth and publicity motivate
  potential users into trial
• Loyal users are the main source of positive word
  of mouth
• Nonusers and disgruntled consumers are more
  likely to provide negative comments

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Traffic Through Visibility
Net Word-of-Mouth Technologies

• E-mail among friends and biz acquaintances
• Usenet groups
• E-mail listservs
• AOL and other online forums
• Industry portal discussion areas
• Online and traditional media coverage of the Net

The Net amplifies the power and accelerates the
speed of user feedback
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Traffic Through Visibility
Opinion Leaders Online

• Opinion leaders are well-respected industry
  participants journalists, or lead users known for
  expertise
• Reaching opinion leaders is a key success factor
  of an e-commerce strategy
• Opinion leaders can be reached via e-mail and
  social networks

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Traffic Through Visibility
URL Placement

• Integrate your domain name wherever possible
• Manuals, warranties, software programs
• Familiar advertising settings
• Billboards, buses, bills, company brochures,
  radio advertisements, public speeches, menus in
  restaurants, park benches, shopping bags
• To track which medium is driving traffic
• Use unique identifiers
• Use different Web addresses with different media
  messages

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Paying for Traffic
Interactive Advertising

• Banner ads are the dominant form of online
  advertising
• Clickable graphic images that take a user to
  another Web location
• Pricing is usually based on the number of
  impressions
• Negotiated prices, volume discounts, and barter
  arrangements are common
• Each banner also carries a unique identifier
• This allows a business to track the
  effectiveness of each placement in generating
  traffic

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Paying for Traffic
Online Advertising Effectiveness
From Visits to Purchases
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Paying for Traffic
Online Advertising Effectiveness

• Online ad banners are simple to create and
  implement
• Experimentation is cheap and easy
• Click-through rates are fairly low
• Higher click-through rates associated with
• Bold colors
• Top-of-page placement
• Animation
• Call to action
• Limited frequency of exposure

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Paying for Traffic
Brand Building with Banner Ads

• Banner click-through rates are often as low as 2
  percent
• This reduces the effect of online brand building
• Many feel that branding still requires the power
  and imagery of television and radio until users
  have better technology

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Paying for Traffic
Brand Building with Banner Ads

• Paid advertising may be necessary to create the
  initial visibility to search engines
• Several of the search engines use external links
  to traffic to determine a sites indexing
  frequency and placement in result lists
• Advertising reinforces the effectiveness of free
  media
• Initial studies indicate that banner ads can help
  build brand awareness
• Even with no click-through, banners can trigger
  post-exposure visits to sites

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Paying for Traffic
Online Advertising May Not Fit All Companies

• Some sites generate sufficient traffic with other
  measures
• If a business has a regional market, its best to
  avoid online advertising on sites with national
  or international scope
• Regional sites, however, may be a great
  opportunity for online advertising
• CitySearch, SideWalk, JustGo, Yahoo!

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Evaluating Traffic Sources
Measuring the Returns

• Measurable sources of traffic include
• Search engines and directories
• E-mail promotions
• Publicity campaigns aimed at building awareness
  and trial
• Links from newspaper articles and press releases
• Dedicated software updates and links
• Paid advertising expenditures to steer traffic to
  the site
• Alliances and co-branding to generate traffic
  from affiliate sites
• Web-log and commerce server data enable marketers
  to measure these sources

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Evaluating Traffic Sources
Tracking Search Terms

• Important to monitor the top-ranked keywords
  visitors use to find a site
• Provides useful snapshot of the ways visitors
  remember and categorize a site

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Evaluating Traffic Sources
Measuring the Returns
Revenues per Visit and per Page View are quite
high