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Direct Response Marketingby yatin patelAs marketing dollars dry up, targeted advertising is gaining. How do you run your direct response program? IMAGINE THIS: YOU OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN A MAJOR search engine by charging $10 to your credit card. You then place highly focused ads in the account pointing to the relevant page of your e-commerce site. By the end of the day you have received 2000 visitors to your site at the cost of $1000, ($0.50 per click). And best of all, you haven’t even had to pay for the ads yet.. Further imagine that you have made 20 sales at $500 each, ending the day with $10,000 revenue. You just made a $3000 gross profit. You then pay the search engine $1000 and you are left with a net profit of $2000. Direct Response Marketing – Redefined Search is one of the Internet’s most essential and wanted services. As popular as email, search has morphed into an advertising avenue that leverages the web’s inherent ability to link consumers and small- to mid-sized businesses in ways that traditional media alternatives cannot match. Where else can advertisers “self-serve” themselves to an audience of 200 million-plus consumers, communicate directly with only those prospects who are specifically and currently seeking the goods, services and information that the advertiser provides, and at a cost of $0.15-$0.50 for each customer lead? No other advertising avenue, online or offline is growing as fast as search is currently. In my opinion, search’s impressive growth through the worst ad market in a decade is a testament to its value proposition and potential. Controlled ROI By using some simple software like GOTOAST you can do this optimization across the board in all the search engines, portals, directories and intermediate syndication channels such as Overture. These apps automatically check the status and position of your bids as often as you choose and makes appropriate strategic bidding changes based on your parameters. It saves you money by making sure you do not overpay for your preferred position and helps increase sales by ensuring your listings are located where you want them, at the price range you are willing to pay. Whether you have thousands of keywords or just very active, competitive listings, for only dollars a day, it makes your life easier and puts more money on your bottom line. Instant Gratification Search and Search Engines In fact, the Internet boom all started with search during the initial public offerings of Yahoo!, Excite, Infoseek, and Lycos in 1996 and 1997. Since then, search has “reinvented’ itself several times - from search engine, to portal, to traditional media partner, to struggling .com’s, to re-emerging survivors. Ironically, four years of “progress” reached this tipping point: search is now a business, not just a feature. A Web search is like a three act play: it starts with the consumer who would like to make the search, who then uses the software and other technology in Act Two which makes the search possible, and ends with the protagonist’s arrival at the web page that was searched for. Value is added to this interplay when consumers are able to easily find the information they are looking for. Consumers gain value from arriving at sites that fulfill their needs or suit their interests; destination sites derive value from an inbound flow of visitors who are interested in what they have to offer; and search hosts and intermediaries extract value from making the introduction and the link between the two. It is estimated that approximately 60 million households, or 90% of the online audience, use Web search services each month. Internet users typically conduct about 6 billion Web searches with over 10 million different search terms employed regularly. The most popular search sites today are Google.com, Yahoo!.com, Microsoft’s MSN, and AOL. The most-used search technologies are offered by Google, Inktomi, FAST, and AltaVista, which are cannibalizing each other at an alarming rate. Paid Listing Phenomena These paid listings allow you to truly buy your way to the top of the major search engines. All you have to do is bid on search terms related to your product or service, and then provide a listing for the search results. The amount of traffic you bring to your site is limited primarily by how much you bid. Here is a summary of the many unique advantages of paid listings: • They generate large volumes of site traffic easily. How can you capitalize on a paid- listing program? And good luck! About the Author Catagories:
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