Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

Generating and Qualifying Leads with Online Advertising 87
Use this to your advantage by placing banner ads strategically on
sites that reach the same prospects as your forthcoming campaign,
before the campaign runs, leveraging the creative work but using
it to tease the audience. The banner will then act as an electronic
advance man, preparing the audience for the traditional media
advertising to come.
5. Promote an Internet event. Banners, buttons, or other ads can be
effective alone or in conjunction with direct mail, e-mail, or e-mail
newsletter sponsorships in driving traffic to online seminars or
events. The ad acts as a teaser invitation, pushing the prospect to
an online promotion page with a registration form.
6. Use banners to launch and support affiliate-marketing programs.
Affiliate marketing (see Chapter 9, “Developing Internet Partnerships”)
is projected to grow beyond banner advertising. If you
have products or services that can be resold by affiliates on the
Internet, consider creating an affiliate program and providing your
affiliates with free banners they can place on their sites so that
they sell more of what you have to offer.
7. Extend banner effectiveness by extending your media buy. Look
for opportunities beyond the banner and you could dramatically
improve your online advertising effectiveness. Increasingly, Web
sites are moving away from banners and providing larger ad
spaces, such as skyscrapers and boxes. As mentioned earlier, some
sites offer promotional opportunities such as contests, online seminar
sponsorships, and micro-sites. In addition, many sites may
offer subscription e-mail newsletters or opt-in e-mail lists. When
you find the right sites for your online advertising campaign, also
find out what these sites offer beyond the banner. By extending
your media buy, you could reap the benefit of package deals that
include discounted prices or promotional add-ons, thus extending
the overall effectiveness of your campaign.
8. Take advantage of quick time-to-market. Banners and buttons
can be modified very quickly, and that could mean having a major
impact on results just as quickly. In a January 2001 interview
with Don Skarzenski, senior vice president of sales and marketing
at NetMason (www.netmason.com), an energy industry de-