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

88 BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS INTERNET MARKETING
veloper of e-marketplaces, conducted by B2B Marketing Biz
(www.b2bmarketingbiz.com), Skarzenski said, “I might put a
banner up and 12 to 36 hours later swap it out.…[The sites] would
tell me what wasn’t working and what was on their particular
site. For example, one site told me red didn’t work, I should switch
to green. Within 20 minutes I sent a green button over to them.
We were one of more than fifty advertisers on that site, but our
click-through rates consistently ranked number one or two!”
Online Ad Placement Is Critically Important
We have been concentrating on the creative and direct response aspects
of online advertising, but let us not forget that placing your ads appropriately
is just as important to your lead or order generation success.
Media research will uncover a multitude of potential sites for placement,
and selecting both the right media and the right placement schedule
takes skill. This is where some of the advertising networks and media
services, referenced earlier, can be very helpful.
Obviously, you will want to select sites that you believe appeal to,
or target, your ideal types of prospects. As with traditional print media
and direct mail or telemarketing lists, you should work your way down
in priority from most to least targeted Web sites. An easy way to start if
you have had success with traditional media is to map those media to
what may be available on the Web. The growing popularity of the Internet
has paid off in the fact that virtually every publication with any kind of
sizable circulation either has a Web site or participates in one. Similarly,
many direct mail lists on the market have Internet counterparts—chances
are the list owner is on the Web or the mailing list is available with
e-mail addresses. At the very least, the types of individuals found on
that list would have an affinity to a Web site somewhere.
Use this marketing information to point yourself in the right direction.
Again, start with the most targeted Web sites—those that seem to
perfectly target your audience—and work your way down to Web sites
that may only in part target your audience.
If you are targeting software developers, for example, you would
first concentrate on Web sites that appeal directly to software developers—sites
sponsored by developer associations or user groups, specialized
publications, developer conferences, and so on. You could either
stop there or extend your research to the next category—Web sites that