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Marketing is a complex field that includes different strategies designed to improve visibility, establish a brand presence, engage prospective customers, and earn more revenue as a result. Business owners need to invest time and money into marketing if they want to stay ahead of the game and stand apart from the competition. A good marketing strategy can help businesses grow and enjoy more success.However, many small business owners hesitate to hire professional marketers to handle their marketing campaign. It could be lack of trust, no budgetary means for it, or that they feel it’s a manageable task. In the end, they struggle to share responsibilities and delegate tasks while they run a business; which means they don’t outsource marketing and rely on inexperienced in-house employees to plan and implement the strategies that they end up overseeing.Why Hiring a Marketing Expert can HelpModern marketing is an expansive field, and it includes everything from digital marketing online to traditional offline marketing. Business owners rarely have enough time to learn different marketing techniques and understand how to implement them well on their platforms. All kinds of businesses, especially small companies, can benefit from professional assistance. Here are some reasons why hiring a professional is a good idea:1. To Navigate the Complexities of Modern Marketing StrategiesModern marketing strategies involve a wide range of techniques, tools, skills, and platforms, which is why people work in teams to implement it. The digital marketing team includes professionals with different skills and qualifications who handle different tasks. These strategies are just too complex for a single person to manage, even if they’re qualified in the field. Even the simplest marketing strategy requires steps like:

Establishing Your Audience

Branding the Service for the Audience

Graphic Design & Collateral Creation

Creating a Website that Sells

Making the Website SEO Friendly

Promoting the Website

Creating Social Media Profiles

Establishing Brand Presence

Generating Content

Creating Ads for Paid Platforms

Managing Ad Spend

Managing Authoritative Links to the Website

All of these things require different skills and most business owners have to invest time to learn these skills if they want to handle marketing without professional assistance.2. To Create Content that Establishes Industry AuthorityContent is an important aspect of modern marketing strategies because it helps establish authority in the industry, engages with customers, distributes information regarding products and services, and include keywords to catch the attention of search engines. The Internet is saturated with content, so users are very selective about what they read. It’s not enough to just create generic content and include relevant keywords in the text. The content should provide the target audience with significant value.

Content should be well-written with sound grammar and spelling.

All the information should be current and relevant to the keywords included in the text.

The content should be in long-form and range from 1,000 to 2,000 words. The average word count of the web pages search on the first search engine results page is 1,890.

The keywords used should be specific, and the content should include long-tail phrases.

All information should be well-researched and as accurate as possible.

The primary purpose of content marketing is to attract organic traffic to the website and to ensure that users stay long enough to become interested in the products and services offered. The secondary purpose of content marketing is to establish authority and win the trust of the visitors.Skilled and experienced content marketing experts know just how to generate the right kind of content for their target audience. This job requires skills, training and deep knowledge on the nitty-gritty of writing for online audiences. It’s something most individual business owners aren’t able to manage.3. To Develop Creative and Interactive ResourcesContent marketing doesn’t just involve text though it is one of the most commonly used formats in modern marketing. Text content is easy to create, and business owners can develop good articles and blog posts if they put in some time and effort. However, experienced marketers know content marketing must be diverse and approach the target audience from different directions. A sound content marketing strategy will include:

Videos and tutorials

Podcasts and live streams

Infographics and animations

White papers and research papers relevant to the industry

These types of content require different skills and software, and a business owner doesn’t usually have access to them. In comparison, professional marketers have all the tools and knowledge required to create visual and text content and can handle it with a marketing strategy in mind.4. To Deliver your Brand SociallySocial media is a great platform for small businesses because it allows them to reach out and connect with their target audience. They can engage with their audience regularly, establish a personal relationship, hear customer concerns, complaints, and provide resolutions promptly; this helps ensure customers remain interested in the brand.However, social media is a double-edged sword if it’s not handled properly. Even the smallest mistakes can compromise the reputation of the company and alienate the target audience. Experienced social media professionals know how to navigate these platforms well and will:

Understand different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., and develop unique strategies to engage audiences on every platform.

Explore the paid ads, promoted content, and other such paid marketing options available on these platforms and use them to the best advantage.

Monitor engagements and interactions between the business and target audience to understand customer preferences.

Handle complaints, questions, and requests from customers on the social media platforms.

Build and maintain a good reputation on these platforms and establish authority through content.

Professional marketers will use sophisticated social media management tools to keep track of all this activity and ensure nothing goes wrong. Managing social media requires time and commitment, but it can be very rewarding. Social media marketers are very savvy on these platforms and know how to engage the audience efficiently.Many small business owners struggle with this aspect of marketing and have neither the time nor knowledge to keep track of their social media accounts. The time to update, post content, respond, and then interact with their audiences just isn’t there.5. To Develop your Brand and Website ConceptsA marketing campaign will fail if the business doesn’t have a well-designed website and a carefully crafted brand presence. A website is the foundation of all marketing campaigns and needs to provide a good user experience to visitors, regardless of the platform they approach it from.The website should be easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, SEO-friendly, quick to load on all platforms, aesthetically pleasing, and informative. It should be designed in accordance with the branding to ensure it conveys the right message to the target audience. Experienced website developers and marketers will consider the factors mentioned below when they create a platform and branding:

Target audiences and their preferences

Type of products and services provided

Competitors and the industry in general

The company’s ethics, goals, and message

The location of the company

All of these factors are considered in the website design and branding process to ensure the online presence is unique and appealing to the target audience. While business owners know their industry, product and target market well, they don’t have the skills and knowledge on how to position themselves best when it comes to branding. A haphazard approach or unplanned branding strategy can have a long-term impact on the success of the venture.6. To Research and Analyze Your Engagement CampaignsModern marketing strategies are fluid and dynamic. They need to change and evolve in response to the changing market conditions, search engine regulations, target audience preferences, and other such influential factors.A marketing campaign that’s successful today might not be as successful six months down the line, which is why experienced marketers always keep an eye on the campaigns through analytics and research latest marketing trends regularly. Here are some of the many analytic reports professional marketers browse through regularly:

The analytic reports containing website activity like a number of visitors (repeat and unique), duration of the visit, bounce rates, most popular pages, etc. This information will help them improve the overall quality of the website.

Analysis of paid ad campaign performance on search engines, social media platforms, and even off-line strategies like direct mail marketing. They keep an eye on the performance of the paid ad campaigns and determine if the ads provide sufficient ROI.

Analysis of organic social media interaction. This often includes impressions, opened posts, comments, likes/dislikes, shares, etc. Experienced social media marketers will study these reports and alter their social media strategy accordingly.

Without regular analytics, it’s difficult to determine if the campaigns are performing well and delivering the right amount of ROI. The information from marketing analytics can also help with content creation, marketing campaign planning, social media campaigns, etc. A business owner will find it extremely difficult to handle all the aspects of analytics, which can lead to the failure of the marketing campaign.7. To Save You Time and MoneySmall business owners have many responsibilities and not a lot of time to attend to them all. Marketing can be an additional burden they don’t need, which is why DIY marketing is never a good idea. While DIY marketing seems affordable, it can have a long-term negative impact on the business, cause the business owner a considerable amount of stress, and draw their attention from tasks that can’t be outsourced and need their attention.While there are multiple avenues and sources providing information about digital marketing strategies, nothing can replace the training, skill, and experience professional marketers have. They also have connections with different entities in the marketing world that can make developing effective strategies easier. Professional marketers will achieve more with less money so even if the initial investment of hiring a professional marketer seems a bit expensive, it can help business owners save money in the long run. Marketing research can prove it.

Throughout this ecommerce project we have gone over the value of customer service and providing the customer what they want. Treat your website like you would your retail high-street shop, the customer will dictate how you design, market and manage your online business. Being adjustable in these economic times is one of the major attributes to your business surviving and becoming successful.As the rate of spending is increasing year on year online the need to move with the times is an essential trait for all ecommerce solutions. There are still a huge amount of websites that have poor usability throughout the ordering process and this occurs in potential customers dropping out of the shopping basket and not converting. These steps should improve the usability of your ecommerce software and maximise your conversion rate. In this final step of how to build user-friendly ecommerce solutions we look at the importance of sending out a verification email to the customer once the order has been placed on the website.Once a user has placed an order on the ecommerce solutions, a confirmation should be sent out immediately. This provides the customer with confidence and assurance that there order has been accepted and processed correctly. The confirmation email should include the customers details, name and delivery address, be brief as the customer does not want their personal details being sent over the internet by email. Only put in the relevant details that are important to the order. Include the product details such as order number, title and pricing. Some ecommerce software includes a tracking number for delivery where the customer can track their order in the postal system.The email should be a commercial for your ecommerce store, eBay store or Facebook store, so adding branding and relevant information regarding the business and order is crucial to customer satisfaction. A well designed and thought about confirmation email will add to the customer experience and market your online business as confirmation emails are rarely deleted and remain in an inbox for many weeks. So by adding marketing triggers such as ‘special offers’ button or ‘sale’ button within the email will cause repeat business traffic and conversions.By adding important information within the email will also cut costs for the ecommerce store, eBay store or Facebook store, it is much cheaper for someone to resolve a problem online rather than having to call a customer service line. By thinking about what the customer wants and needs within the confirmation email, such as delivery time, the customer service can be minimised and there will be more time for promotion.The last few articles have outlined ten steps of how to improve the usability of ecommerce solutions. The past few steps should make your ecommerce site more usable and therefore more successful. Using these ecommerce guides can only take you online business so far, which is why constant testing and analysis is needed for all ecommerce solutions. Ecommerce software has become increasingly more advanced and with analytics software you should be able to monitor every aspect of your website. Putting all of these tools and guidelines together your online business should become increasingly user-friendly and therefore successful.

As you may have gathered from the title, the focus of this chapter is largely on banner advertising but don’t for one minute believe that banners are the be all and end all of online advertising. “Banner advertising” is a bit of a misnomer – modern online creative advertising is about a lot more than just banners.The Multi-Purpose Nature of AdvertisingAdvertising, whether online or offline, always has a number of objectives:o Building brand awarenesso Creating consumer demando Informing consumers of your ability to satisfy that demandBut when you really think about it, they can be distilled into just one action: Increasing Sales!Advertising is based on the simple economics of demand and supply. Advertisers aim to stimulate a consumer need and then satisfy that need. Create the demand. Then satisfy the demand.Building Brand AwarenessMaking people aware of your brand or product is an important long-term goal. Once customers know about you, you’ve taken that first big step towards gaining their trust… and their patronage. It’s a simple fact that the best known brands do more business. And therein lies the rub.The ultimate goal is to do more business and sell more.Building brand awareness is perhaps the key strong point of online creative advertising. It’s largely visual, making it an ideal channel for promoting brand collateral.Creating Consumer DemandBrand and product awareness is also about creating demand. Advertising needs to convince consumers about what they should want and why they should want it. Modern online advertising can provide a great way to communicate the USP’s of your product, thereby helping stimulate demand.
Aspiration is a function of knowledge. You can’t want what you don’t know about.Satisfy Consumer DemandOnce your consumer wants something, they need to know of your ability to satisfy that want. If your brand building has been effective, they know you exist. Now tell them how you can deliver what they need.Driving Traffic and SalesIf your Online Advertising campaign doesn’t drive traffic, then there’s really no point in it, is there? All forms of online marketing need to drive traffic in the long term. But what about the short and medium term?That’s where the immediacy of Online Advertising comes to the fore. Unlike traditional media advertising, Online Advertising can turn the potential customer into an actual customer right there and then. What’s more – you can track exactly how effectively your campaign does this.Payment ModelsDepending on the primary goal of the campaign, different payment models can be used:CPM or CPIPaying for exposure. CPM refers to Cost Per Thousand and CPI to Cost Per Impression. This is usually how a campaign would be priced when brand awareness is the primary goal. It’s also how most banner ads are priced in South Africa.CPCPaying for clicks. CPC stands for Cost Per Click. Normally associated with Paid Search Marketing, banners can be priced this way when the aim is to drive traffic. This is seldom used in South Africa.CPAPaying for acquisition. CPA refers to Cost Per Acquisition. This model means the publisher carries all the risk. The advertiser only pays when an advert delivers an acquisition.If you’re into buying banner advertising, this is the best way to pay – if you’re selling it, it’s the worst way to charge.
Not surprisingly, the CPA model is not commonly used for banner advertising and is generally associated with Affiliate Marketing. Of course, the lines blur when you’re publishing an affiliate banner.Flat RateSometimes, owners of lower-traffic sites choose to sell banner space at a flat rate i.e. at a fixed cost per month regardless of traffic or amount of impressions. This would appeal to a media buyer who may be testing an online campaign generally targeting niche markets.So What Exactly Are Banners? In simplest terms, a banner ad is a hyperlinked image. The image carries the message and the hyperlink takes the visitor to the advertiser’s landing page.Of course it doesn’t have to merely be an image. In fact, this form of advertising has come a long way since the early days of images that say “click here!” and drop you off at the homepage of the advertiser’s website.Banners can contain other forms of rich media as well and many use interactivity and sound to draw attention. The use of action scripts and technologies like Flash has taken this form of Online Advertising to a whole new level.Types of Banner Ads – Size Matters! As mentioned before, “banner advertising” is something of a misnomer. Banners come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Perhaps calling it “rich media advertising” or “online creative advertising” is more descriptive.If we break it down traditionally, banner advertising can be separated into various categories according to their size and shape:o Banners o Full Banner: 468 X 60
o Half Banner: 234 X 60
o Micro Bar: 88 X 31
o Vertical Banner / Mini Skyscraper: 120 X 240
o Leaderboard: 770 X 60o Buttons o Button 1: 120 X 90
o Button 2: 120 X 60
o Micro Button: 80 X 15
o Square Button: 125 X 125 / 120 X 120o Rectangular adso Medium Rectangle: 300 X 250
o Square Pop-Up: Any size, but 200 X 200 is common
o Vertical Rectangle: 240 X 400
o Large Rectangle: 336 X 280
o Rectangle: 180 X 150 and other variationso Skyscrapers o Wide Skyscraper: 160 X 600
o Skyscraper: 120 X 600
o Half Page Ad / Super Skyscraper: 300 X 600While the sizes above indicate the generally accepted dimensions of ads, rich media technologies mean the ads themselves can expand beyond the allocated area of page real estate. Expanding ads, that “pop-out” on mouse-over, overlay ads that appear on top of site content, and ads that incorporate interactive elements have become very popular.But Why Banner Advertising? In previous chapters we went on and on about the value of marketing tools that focus on giving consumers what they want when they’re looking for it. Now, all of a sudden we’re changing course and suggesting a method of interruption marketing? What’s that about then?Horses for courses – and some campaigns are just better suited to visual means.o You’re promoting travel packages. What stirs more emotion – an image of a tropical paradise? Or the words “tropical paradise?”o Want to build your brand within a specific sphere? Why not brand, through banner advertising, the websites of every major player in that niche?o Running a competition? Keep your target market’s eye on the prizeo Launching an exciting new sports car? Images with a call to action – “test drive it now” – or interactive rich media that highlight all the exciting new features as you mouse-over that part of the car on the imageInteractivity Since banners can contain rich media, they offer levels of interactivity that other forms of advertising can’t reach. Get your target market to not only see your banner, get them to play with it too. Interaction builds a bond and improves the chances of the consumer remembering your brand tomorrow.Animations, games, video, flash – and you thought banner ads were just hyperlinked pictures. Modern Online Advertising is able to bring together a number of other online marketing tactics:o A few years ago, flash micro sites were all the rage – now the same functionality can exist right within the ado Viral Marketing: clever viral marketing games or “send to a friend” functionality – again from right within the ado Video – check out video previews from within the adTargeting Online ads can further directly target your intended market by various means:o Geo-Targeting – Online Advertising has the ability to target by country, province or city, and can even drill down to IP addresso Network / Browser Type – Markets can further be targeted via networks / browser types such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, MAC etco Connection Type – Users can be segmented on broadband or dial up connectionso Day and Time – Chose any time of day, any day of the week. This usually depends on the client objective of the campaign or the product itselfo Capping – Limiting the amount of times a user sees a particular adMeasurabilityBanner ads, like all eMarketing tactics, are measurable. Track click-through rates and you get an idea of exactly how many people are responding to your call to action. Some publishers even have the ability to do post-click tracking i.e. you can track the user all the way to a sale if that is the purpose of the advert.Similarity with Traditional MediaeMarketers regularly bemoan the fact that it’s sometimes difficult to educate the market on the value of Internet marketing techniques. Traditional buyers of advertising have been conditioned in a certain fashion and have come to understand advertising in a certain way.Banner advertising goes a long way towards bridging the advertising divide. Ads have a set size, they can look very similar to print ads and they occupy a particular bit of real estate in a publication with a particular number of eyeballs looking at it. It’s easy to understand and it does the things buyers are used to expecting advertising to do.Bottom line – if done correctly, online advertising also builds your brand, and increases your sales!