The idea that the digital advertising market is like public relations advertising, or direct marketing is flawed. The digital market is just a different tool for technologies that have been around for a long time. Some people believe that the digital market is a large enough field to be considered its own market but that should not be the case. The digital field is just another advertising venue like television, radio and printed materials.

Many of the strategies used for digital marketing are not “new” strategies, but rather reformulated ideas from older marketing methods. Social marketing falls under the category of public relations marketing. Making brand-driven websites is more of a brand agency advertising method. Promoting online sales is part of the direct marketing field. These are just examples of ways that digital marketing is only borrowing and modifying advertising traditions that have existed for hundreds of years. Digital advertising is not new; it just has a new coat.

The digital advertising market is very popular right now. Most advertising agencies are advising clients to put a large portion of their advertising budget into online advertising. But to counsel someone to put all of their advertising into digital advertising would be doing them a disservice. While the digital world is an important piece to the marketing world, it is not the whole pie.

Some completely online retailers also conduct offline advertising. This just makes sense. EBay grew much more popular when they started their television campaigns. The shoe store Zappos advertised on billboard style advertisements, and also was mentioned numerous times in different television shows.

One of the main allures of digital marketing is the price. The cost of online marketing is very low, which means that more advertising can be purchased for the same amount of money that would buy a lot less space in another medium. However, the difference between advertising and producing a sale can be quite large when digital advertising is used.

The digital field is very large. One of the reasons it’s so popular right now is because of the downsizing economy. People who once would have seen other advertising mediums such as cable television and magazines may be eliminating that extra expense from their lives. This means that more people will be online more often and have a greater chance of seeing the online advertisements. However, just as many people may be eliminating their Internet, so there is no one place that advertising can occur and produce the same results as a company that advertises in many different places.

Digital marketing is a niche market. This means that it comes under the direct marketing field. The same rules that apply to other direct marketing fields should also apply to the digital market.

The digital market is a great advertising resource. However, if they do not start opening up to other forms of advertising and marketing their popular reign in the marketing world will be very limited.

The phenomenal growth in online advertising has attracted advertising dollars like never before. Millions of dollars are being spent for online ads in a great experiment to determine which strategies and tactics are going to be the most effective. Ad agencies are implementing new direct response strategies designed to increase responses from consumers in more predictable and cost-effective ways. Direct response is still the best form of advertising and is being used in new and improved ways. In today’s economy, every advantage helps.

Ad agencies should be focusing their efforts beyond the limitations of brand advertising to the new direct response strategies. Internet advertising dollars utilizing the Internet technology’s ability to track searches and immediately present ads related to the searched content are more effective than ever. A similar offline advertising strategy is found in the grocery line when certain items keyed in by the cashier produce related item coupons on the sales receipt. A customized presentation of advertising in the new direct response strategy is perhaps the best way to invest advertising dollars in today’s lean market. Targeting the right consumer with the right data at the right time will produce sales.

Contracted ad agencies are on the hook to provide ever more effective strategies to elicit the desired response from consumers. Today’s buyers are increasingly researching the web before purchasing anything from cars to cell phones. The goal of new direct response advertising is to get the consumer to react and buy. The well-placed ad is placed to capture the attention of those already motivated to buy, whether that response is to make the purchase right now or to call for more information.

Brand advertising is how ad agencies have historically approached the consumer. The approach typically seeks to shotgun the message to as many consumers as possible in order to create brand familiarity or brand loyalty. The goal is to make the brand synonymous with the itself in the minds of consumers, such as when a “Coke” represents any number of brands of soft drinks at the fast food restaurant checkout line.
Ad agencies historically have been given the task of incorporating logos, facts, persuasive arguments, testimonials, and images to accomplish the task. And it’s still an effective way to advertise. But it’s time to move beyond brand advertising to the new direct response strategy.

New direct response advertising is characterized by the specific targeting of interested buyers, especially on the web. The Internet is the new frontier in advertising. The possibilities are virtually undiscovered, nearly limitless, and ever changing. Creative advertising strategies can capitalize on a market that so far has not developed a significant sales resistance and that is willing to spend money for products advertised online. Web technology can attach advertisements to keywords used in a search and immediately present opportunities to explore related websites before the consumer has a chance to click on the list resulting from the search.

Understanding the motivations consumer in today’s economy have is important. Getting the best deal possible has always been high on the frugal shopper’s list of priorities. Consumers in an economic downturn are looking for overall value for their dollar. Online advertising is ideally suited to bringing the advertising and the consumer together.

The new direct advertising markets are as varied as the web itself. Consumers are visiting websites, blogs, information portals, and a host of other Internet-related sites in record numbers, and all of them are potentially bonanzas for direct response advertising. Even in today’s economy, only the sky’s the limit.

Why use Reverse Auctions?

Online reverse auctions are a great source for competitively priced supplies. More and more companies are turning to online reverse auctions to acquire goods and services they need to run their business. They allow a company of any size, from small businesses to huge multinational conglomerates, to procure necessary materials and contracts at the lowest prices available. By obtaining the best possible pricing for the products and labor used in generating their products, companies can lower their operating costs and possibly the price of their merchandise giving them a competitive edge in the market today.

How do Reverse Auctions work?

The majority of people are familiar with the standard, or Dutch, auction that has become so popular online through sites like Ebay. These auctions start with a product or service being offered to any and all interested parties at a low starting bid. Then in an attempt to procure the product or action offered the involved parties or companies endeavor to outbid the previous bidder. Outbidding in traditional auctions means agreeing to pay a higher price than the other prospective purchasers. This results in the highest bidder winning the auction. Most of these auctions are not “silent” meaning the bidders are privy to the value the last bidder offered.

In reverse auctions, a company or person states what service or good they wish to purchase and the maximum price they are willing to pay. Then those who can provide the requested item bid on it. Bidders in this type of auction are competing against others in the same industry to be hired on. They outbid each other by offering the service or product either at a lower price than the person or company before them or by offering more of the product for the same price. As with standard auctions, bidders can view what others engaged in the auction have already bid. This is what drives the offering price down or amount offered up, further insuring the most competitive rate for the client seeking the service. However, in contrast to the Dutch auction, reverse auctions are won by the lowest bidder or the entity that offers the most quantity or quality at the lowest price. Another feature present in reverse auctions that is so advantageous to receiving the best bid possible is a moderator. The moderator adds comments to keep the momentum brisk since many of these auctions have a small window for bidding, often just minutes. All these factors contribute to what has made reverse auctions so appealing to companies both large and small.

Where are reverse auctions held?

Most commerce today is done online as it is so time and money efficient and with the right advertising and networking reaches the largest amount of potential customers. So naturally reverse auctions have found a wide audience on the internet. The best source of online reverse auctions for media is Enversa Media Marketplace.

Enversa complements, rather than replaces, the current media-buying process. Enversa, a Web-based media bidding tool, is used for print, online, outdoor, TV and radio media buys. Used during the negotiation phase of the media-buying process, Enversa delivers significantly more inventory than the current market rate.

Contact Marc Pickren for further details as to how the program works.

In the War on Bad Economic Times, two sides visibly square off: Cost v Value. Are these two natural enemies? Or, is this merely a symptom of business adjustments and business trends?

Since fiscal budgets are pre-planned, on average, in the last two quarters of a prior fiscal year, out of necessity, businesses must apply financial insight into all possibilities, good or bad. In a bad economy, cost glares out of every budget like a Fourth of July fireworks display. Stretching budget dollars in a tight economy is difficult. In a pronounced bad economy, this task requires financial acrobatics to accomplish.

In most businesses, marketing is the first consideration because it can more easily be manipulated in contrast to operational costs. This is where cost and affordability come into conflict. Without an inherent marketing strategy and proper market planning, sales dip and profits follow suit.

In bad economic times, the challenge is to remain profitable while tightening the financial belt. Thus, marketing strategies must be finely honed so that nothing of significance that would impact profit falls through the cracks. In a bad economy, quality supercedes quantity. This is true of all public relations and advertising budgeting. Often, attacking the problem can be as simple as an overview of prior fiscal years and revisiting marketing and advertising costs that proved most successful and increased profitability. Such success is synonymous with quality.

The 800 lb. gorilla in the room is the inability of affordability to compete successfully with cost. In terms of financial definition, the highest inflation causes the highest deflation when costs are out of the realm of affordability. Most businesses feast at the table of grand denial rather than admit that increasing costs for marketing and advertising means self-improvisation or slicing business costs elsewhere. Definitively, businesses can’t grow if they can’t live within their means.

Continuing to increase prices in a bad economy places all commercial trade in jeopardy of huge loss of profits. Continuing to increase prices in a bad economy flies in the face of realistic budgeting and acceptance of current business economics. The bad economy is a direct result of runaway inflation. The only recouperative action is opposite reaction. If basic marketing and advertising is too costly, staying a course of least resistence is the wisest reaction. This is accomplished by selective planning and purchasing. Spend only on media advertising where the saturation is greatest over a longer term and where public visibility is, at the very least, most concentrated. With proper marketing and advertising strategy, whole portals of less expensive, perhaps even free advertising, is revealed.

Devise new month-to-month strategies based upon current business trends to sustain adequate budgeting. Discard “boom time” marketing and advertising strategies that are incompatible in today’s trade markets. The power of profitable marketing relies heavily on astute professional technique as well as vigilance of business trends before they occur, not after.

The single most important aspect of any business is client retention. When devising marketing and advertising strategies, pay it forward to clients with business longevity.