Thursday, November 29, 2012

8 Steps IP Lawyers Should Take To Improve Their Email Marketing And Attract Clients

If you are an Intellectual Property legal services professional whose email marketing campaigns have failed miserably in the past, then this article will show you what you need to work on in order to be more successful.

You should not abandon email marketing campaigns altogether, but improve them in order to attract and retain clients.

When IP legal services professionals use emails effectively during marketing campaigns, they should:

Educate prospects, and not simple list the services they provide. Point prospects and clients towards resources that answer questions they may have. This could be reports, articles, webinars, seminars or presentations. Show prospects and clients how to achieve desired outcomes. Great examples of this are step-by-step guides prospects can download or order, and which give some sort of road map that would need to be followedto reach a certain conclusion. Form part of a well-planned sequence of online and offline communications to prospects that helps build trust and stops IP legal services professionals being perceived simply as intrusive salespeople. Some of the key mistakes IP legal services professionals make that result in poor email marketing campaigns include: Email headers that get emails more likely to be captured by SPAM filters. The lack of personalisation, which means readers are less likely to feel the email is important to them. Emails that do NOT have any information that is of value to readers - just stuff about the company or IP legal services professional(s), types of services provided, length of time principle players have been in practice, qualifications, etc. Emails with no call to action - i.e. with nothing that would get readers to respond with a specific action within a given time or to take advantage of an extremely good offer. Given the above, here are a few things IP legal services professionals should do to make sure their email marketing campaigns are affective and, more importantly, produce measurable results that can be monitored:

Think about a specific end-goal for each email. What actions do you want the reader to take after the reading the email? Keep the desired response simple. For example, do not try and get prospects to download a free report AND call you to book a free consultation at the same time. Try to aim for one or the other. Learn how to write effective headlines. If you don't capture a reader's attention with the headline, they will lose interest immediately. What resources do you have that your readers are dying to get hold of, and which the email is promoting? Do you have reports, webinars, interviews or demonstrations that address your readers' fears and frustrations? If your answer is yes, then your email should explain how the information you have will give readers the end result they are looking for or need. If necessary, get a copywriter to draft your emails if you don't have the time to learn how to write powerful emails yourself. Do you have a call to action that increases the sense of urgency for readers and gets them to respond within a given time to your marketing campaign? If not, you better think of one. Are you selling your services directly in the emails you send out? If so, how about stopping and focusing on the information you have available for prospects and clients. If you are as good as you say you are, the prospects you want to attract will come to you. You don't want to do the written version of picking up the phone and cold calling. The results are the same the and the feeling you get is no different...sick! Have you prepared a sequence of emails to your target niche in order to keep them updated on the information you have available, or webinars/seminars you are running to show them how to solve their problems? On average, it takes 7 touch points before prospects buy anything. Plan for this, but make sure the email sequence is logical and moves prospects down a sales funnel. Use autoresponders to capture your prospects details and systemise your email communications. I use AWeber, but there are other companies out there that have great tools you can explore as well. Think about the timing of emails you send out - readers are less likely to act on marketing emails sent at 9.30 am on a Monday compared to 2 pm on a Wednesday as they recover from weekends and are making plans for the week ahead. Tuesday, Wednesday and, to a lesser extent, Thursday are the best days to send emails out to prospects. If you want to create a position of authority within a target niche as an IP legal services professional, and get prospects contacting you for your services, you need to think carefully about how you craft your emails and plan your email marketing campaigns. Getting your readers' attention is absolutely vital if you want to prevent your emails being deleted, getting caught by SPAM or simply ignored...not the kinds of thing you what happening when trying to attract new clients. Every Innovative Irish Idea Deserves to Be Protected Correctly in Law   Intellectual Property Infringement and Patent Law   Why You Need a Loan Modification Attorney When Your House Is On The Line   Intellectual Property Lawyers and How to Tackle IP Litigation   Basics of Trademarks for Small Business   Managing the Unmanageable for Law Office/Firms Management   

2011: The Legal Challenges for the IT Industry

Social media, SaaS digital and on-demand broadcasting will continue to dominate 2011 and the legal world will still be struggling to legislate and regulate online copyright issues, new licensing models and content licensing issues. These rapid technology developments are once again seeing intellectual property straining to catch up and to address things like costs of obtaining permissions from existing rights-holders and the complexity of enforcing IP rights within the UK and internationally.

ISP liability: not a new issue but definitely one that continues to be relevant here because under the Copyright Directive and The Electronic Commerce Directive internet service providers can be liable for failing to take down offensive, defamatory or IPR-infringing content. In such circumstances, corporate customers should seek an indemnity for any loss suffered as a result of material being unnecessarily deleted or moved and should insist on being notified in advance if any content is to be removed. The Digital Economy Act is also making ISPs responsible in the event of online copyright infringement activities.

: with the convergence and synergy of action of various equipment/technology, trying to apportion liability and responsibilities in the event of IP infringement is going to get very difficult.

Content licensing: obtaining permissions from existing rights-holders for use of pictures, video or audio content, and the cost and complexity of enforcing IP rights within the UK and internationally. Generally, the standard terms and conditions include a broad licence allowing them to use any content stored on its servers. Customers should take particular care in identifying any rights they are agreeing to provide to the vendor. The content provider will look to exclude all liability for content stored or posted on its services and will normally include a right in its standard terms to remove any data from its servers. Privacy: including online employees and children protection

Cloud computing: as service-based computing continues to move towards becoming a utility paid for by metered access, "platforms as a service" (PaaS) where third parties can host their software applications in order to distribute them to customers, software as a service and fabric-based infrastructure, where a system is aggregated from separate building block components by means of a fabric (a stack of switches on a backplane that connects together the functions that a PC or laptop performs today, like processor, memory, input/output and system software) will be used more often.

SaaS/PaaS vendors have very high numbers of contracts globally, they generally seek to offer their services on standard terms. These terms tend to be strongly supplier-centric, excluding all but the most limited of warranties and any liability for data loss or corruption or service failure. In the UK, standard terms (and in particular any exclusions or limits of liability) are subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) and therefore must be reasonable but it is far safer to seek to negotiate key provisions in advance rather than rely on statutory protection after an issue arises. It is also likely that customers will need to ask for service levels and service credits to be proposed.

Also in a SaaS/PaaS scenario, appropriate software licences need to be granted to the customer. This is because users have online use of software at a PC and, without a licence, this would amount to copyright infringement.

The SaaS vendor will not always own the intellectual property rights in the software that is the subject of the SaaS arrangements. Where this is the case the SaaS vendor will need to arrange for the right to sub-license the software to its customers, or for a direct licence to be entered into between the customers and the relevant third party licensor. In these latter circumstances, the SaaS contract should make it clear that the SaaS vendor is responsible for the management of the third party licences, together with the payment of any licence fees. The third party licensor should also be informed that the licence arrangements relate to licensing only. All other issues relating to the provision of the software, such as delivery, installation and configuration requirements, should be dealt with in separate agreements between the customer and the SaaS vendor.

The inclusion of intellectual property indemnities in SaaS contracts is important, because SaaS customers have to rely on the SaaS vendor to ensure that software licensing issues have been resolved so as to entitle the customer to use the software as part of the SaaS. However, if the arrangements are not properly made, the customer may still infringe the IPR of a third party even though it may have no knowledge of the infringement. SaaS users need to be aware of the possibility of patent infringement through the use of SaaS arrangements. Patent protection is increasingly available for computer software in the US and, to a lesser extent, in the EU. Where SaaS arrangements are established on an international basis, the IPR indemnity needs to be sufficiently broad to protect the SaaS customer in all jurisdictions in which the software will be used.

In conclusion the attention and contract negotiation swifts but not disappears. In stead of software licensing or outsourcing contracts, attention will be given to services agreements, image rights and data protection issues.

All articles are for general purposes and guidance only and do not constitute legal or professional advice. Copyright 2010 Anassutzi & Co Limited. All rights reserved. Information may be shared or reproduced only if accompanied by the author's name and bio.

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What Patent Strategies Can Be Used to Improve Competitiveness of a Business?

Introduction

The concept of patents can be traced back to the 14th century and it has consistently evolved over time. The concept of patents was introduced to encourage innovators by awarding exclusive rights over the improvements in technology made by them. In essence, a patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a country in exchange for a public disclosure of their invention. The rights granted to a patentee, in most countries, include, the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, importing, offering for sale or distributing the patented invention without permission of the patentee. This set of exclusive rights is granted for a limited period of time, and in most cases the right is limited to 20 years.

The exclusive rights granted to a patentee have business impact, some of which are listed below:

A patentee gets the liberty to enjoy monopoly over the patented invention for 20 years A patentee can monetize his patented invention by selling or licensing out his rights, in addition to other ways of monetizing Engineers and scientists can access a rich pool of patent information and improvise on existing technology Competitors will have to create non-infringing products and processes

The business impact of patents can be used to enhance the competitiveness of a business. A wholesome, systematic and customized approach towards patents is required to use the power of patents to positively impact your business.

4 fold approach for enhancing competitiveness

Build a patent fortress Proactively safeguard your business interests Respect others intellectual property Intelligent approach to product and process development

Build a patent fortress

One of the approaches for improving competitiveness of a business is by having product differentiators. Product differentiators are brought about by developing products that are technologically superior, has newer/better features or addresses specific needs of customers. Sometimes, there might not be any changes made to the product, however, companies might differentiate themselves from competition by offering products at reduced prices. This might be possible by making changes to the processes used in producing the product. Such modifications made to the products/processes might be patent worthy. Hence, when a company feels that they have made some modification that might be patent worthy, it is important to contemplate the idea of having such improvements protected by a patent.

It shall be noted that such improvements give added advantages to a business. If a company hasn't taken any measure to protect the improvement made by them, then competitors might as well copy such improvements, thereby diluting the advantage gained by the business. Further, competitors might copy the products and introduce the same at lower prices, as they would not have invested in developing the product/process. By protecting the improvements made to the products or processes, businesses gain at least the following advantages:

Create an entry barrier for competitors Maintain product or process differentiators Protect products or processes from being copied by competitors Enjoy monopoly over improvements for 20 years Increase valuation of the company

Proactively safeguard your business interests

The previous approach dealt with protecting technological improvements made by a company. While, the previous approach dealt with building a patent fortress to safeguard ones business territory, it is equally important to monitor the patent fortress' built by competitors.

It is often seen that, in a bid to build a patent portfolio that is as strong as possible, companies tend to protect things that already exist and sometime try to protect improvements that are not novel and are obvious. If they do succeed in protecting such existing and obvious technology using patents, then they might stop others from using such technology, or they can at least stop others from using such technology till somebody proves that the patents were wrongly granted.

It is important to take necessary actions to avoid being in a situation in which a company uses patents granted to an existing or obvious improvement to stop you from using such technology. This can be achieved by monitoring and opposing the patent applications filed in the technology that is of your interest

One can monitor patent applications filed by competitors and oppose grant of patent to such patent applications. On the other hand, one can also monitor patents that are getting granted in related technology fields, and opposes the patents even after the patent is granted. By taking such proactive steps, businesses gain at least the following advantages:

Ensure against obvious improvements being protected by competitors Enhance the valuation of patents held by you in a technology field Avoid being sued for infringing patents that shouldn't have been granted in the first place Easy access to freely use and adopt minor improvements in technology

Respect others intellectual property

In the previous two approaches, we dealt with building a patent fortress and ensuring that competitors do not strengthen their patent fortress using minuscule technological improvements. In the current approach we illustrate why it is important to respects others Intellectual Property rights.

As highlighted in the introduction, patents give exclusive rights to the patentee to exclude others from making, using, selling, importing, offering for sale or distributing the patented invention without permission of the patentee. In other words, if you copy, intentionally or otherwise, an invention patented by others, then you will be infringing on their patent right. A patentee can sue you for violating his patent rights, and if the court finds you guilty, then the damages that you might end up paying could be significant. Hence, it is important to be aware of patent rights held by others while carrying out your business.

A well proven approach to ensure that your products or processes don't infringe on others patent rights is by carrying out a Freedom to Operate (FTO) study before introducing a product in a country. It is important to dig out the patents that exist in the field that you operate in and determine if your products or processes infringe on others patents. If found that the products/processes might infringe on others patent rights, then necessary steps have to be taken to avoid such infringement, and thereby avoid expensive law suits. By taking such precautions you will at least gain the following advantages:

Ensure against introducing infringing products to the market Avoid expensive patent infringement suits Ensure that brand name is not tarnished by such infringement

Intelligent approach to product and process development

Remember, no one got too far by reinventing the wheel, neither will you; hence, there is no point in reinventing the wheel. It is important to appreciate the fact that most of the problems that we might be trying to solve, might have been solved by somebody else in some part of the world. Therefore, it will be intelligent on your part to look at such solutions and improvise on them. Patent data is considered to be the richest source of scientific information, and using this information is an intelligent approach to product and process development.

By harvesting information provided by patents, you can work on improving solutions provided by others. Hence, the solution provided by you might end up being much more superior and also different. Further, one reduces the possibility on developing something that has already been developed, hence, your investment in R&D yields better returns. Furthermore, one can bring down the cost of developing a product by simply copying a patented invention and introducing the same in a country where the invention has not been patented. Additionally, patent data can be used to analyze technology trends and plan your business accordingly.

The ways in which patent data can be used by businesses is endless, and the advantages gained by using patent data are tremendously valuable. Some of the advantages of using this approach are:

Enhanced returns on investment in R&D Development of products/processes that have improvised on existing technology Reduced cost of development of product/process Better business forecasting and planning

I hope you find this article helpful in crafting a patent strategy that is aligned with your business objectives.

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Hire Patent and Trademark Attorney to Accelerate the IPR Procedure

Trademark is the most valuable asset of a business establishment. People recognize the company by its logo, slogan, and package design, and these specified marks differentiate the goods and services from others. At times, it is violated which lead to unfair competition in the market. If you are at the receiving end of this trademark violation, then you need legal guidance from a patent and trademark attorney to defend your rights. These professionals will make sure that your idea and trade symbol is not copied by any rival company. And whatever idea or invention that you have incorporated into your business will be well protected. The patent and trademark attorney will help you in taking legal action against those who have infringed your rights.

If a person invents something, then he or she is given an official document called patent to stop others from using, copying, distributing and selling. Intellectual property rights take care of this patent violation including copyrights as well. As a patentee, you have the legal rights to sue the patent infringer in a court. If you have any issues related to this violation, first consult a NY Patent Attorney of a recognized patent law firm. While choosing an attorney, you must check the qualification and experience of the professional and the legal existence of the law firm. Based on these things, you can contact the firm for initial consultation through phone or e-mail. After going through your case, an attorney will decide on the best course of action. Make sure that you hire an attorney who is experienced and provide cost effective services.

The cost of the services differs from case to case. Services provided by the patent law firm are trademark applications, patent applications, copyrights, initial draft of contract etc. As per your case, the patent lawyer will prepare the legal documents and will present it to the court. If you have invented something, you must know how to patent and commercialize it. NY patent law is a very long process and complicated and it's not easy to go through the process all by yourself. You must hire an expert from an intellectual property law firm. Here, you will get the attorneys specialized in different fields, like IT, music, writer, movie, book, painting etc. You have the option to choose the attorney as per the requirement.

Whatever may be your profession or invention, for any patent and trade violation, rely on NY trademark lawyer of a reputed firm. Get your patent for the invention easily and quickly with the help of a Putnam County Attorney. It doesn't matter which part of the globe you belong, you have the chance to seek legal counsel for your invention and get your licensing rights. Our patent lawyer service exists in almost all fields like mechanical, chemical, biotech and many more. So without any delay, consult the attorney and get all the trademark and patent solutions in your favor.

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Is Banner Ad Marketing Still Worth It?

During the good old days of the Internet banners used to be everywhere. It was really easy to just throw up a banner on a website and get a huge response because people would click on it all day long. There's been a rumor going around for a few years now that banner advertising just isn't that effective anymore. The truth is Banner advertising still very effective but you have to know how to use it right.

One of the biggest myth states that people make when trying to use banners is not tracking their results. If you don't track your results it'll be hard for you to even figure out whether or not your banner ads are profitable. Another big mistake people make is putting banner ads on any site that they can get exposure in. This can be a problem because if the website doesn't have a proven track record of sending targeted traffic you may just be wasting your time.

If you're just getting started with banner advertising, it's a good idea to first start with the most popular banner advertising network. A few of them include buysellads.com, adbrite.com, and Google.com. The first thing you need to do though is get some banners created for your product or service. You can go on websites like Odesk and Elance to get a web designer that will create all the banners you'll need in order to advertise. What you want to do is make sure your banner stand out without looking too crazy. You don't want them to look too crazy because he still want it to look professional. Test different variations of your banner ads to see which ones get the most clicks because you don't get clicks you can get leads and you can't make sales. Once you figure out which banners get you the most clicks then it's your websites turn to convert those leads into sales.

If you follow these simple strategies and continue to test out different banner ads eventually you'll find a great combination that works for you all the time. Banner advertising is still very a that did it used the right way. Once you found the perfect formula for your business continue to milk it and grow your network by putting your banner ads on every website that is related to your product or service.

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How To Make High Quality Effective Banner Ads

How long does it take to create a banner ad? Hundreds of hours you might think and a lot of people think this too. In reality you can create one very easy with a fee design software program downloaded from the internet. Do this and you can create free banners ads in less time than you ever thought which means if you are into internet marketing it helps your business grow faster.

What You Will Need

Unless you are already a Photoshop professional you don't need it at all so forget about putting up hundreds of dollars and spending way too much time to learn Photoshop. In the learning part of creating banner ads you need to download one simple program called paint and you get it at GetPaint (use Google to find it) for free. Paint.net is a photo and graphic editor and has the tools you need to successfully make banner ads. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Photoshop has but it isn't $500 dollars either and is sufficient.

Make a Banner Ad with Paint.NET

Start your banner ad creation with the setting of the canvas size. A very common size is a horizontal 468 x 60. There are many more sizes of banner ads that you have likely seen on the internet such as 250 x 250 known as a block ad. Or the skyscraper banner ad which is 60 x 960 vertical. Try setting the canvas size at double or triple the size of the banner you want to produce, this will ensure that high quality images scale down just right when you upload to the location where they will be displayed.

Next thing to do after the canvas size is fixed is put on the graphics or background color this can be one color or can be images that are very complex. Try the simple background color to begin with then you can layer an image on top if you want. The key is not to flash the colors and images and take away from the message which is usually effective with text.

Banner ads are to convey information to visitors so using text is the best way to do this. If you where using banners for branding you would want to use images but if you need clicks to offers you should stay with text and a basic color background. Images can be used to complement text but not in place of it.

When you choose your colors for background and text they should be complementary it is common sense when creating banner ads that they should be pleasing to look at. Yellow and red go together well but some greens and blues may be harder to look at, I suggest a quick look around the web to see what looks good and makes you want to engage the ad. This will help you when choosing colors for creating your banner ad.

Flash and big ugly colors can make a potential customer turn away from it so be careful when using moving images and animation. Small amounts can have an effect and bring people into the banner ad but too much and you will have them leave the site completely.

Do You Want To Create Banners Faster

Remember to look into outsourcing if you don't want to create your own banner you can get this done many ways like RentACoder.com, Elance.com, or warrior forum. Some places like 20DollarBanners.com are just what it says $20 for a banner. I use Paint.net for headers also not just for banners and if you want you can get a program like XHeader or XHeader Pro which has templates for you to choose from. You can adjust the dimensions and make banners with the software.

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Have You Made These Banner Advertising Mistakes Yet?

In addition to making a great deal of money with banner advertising, you can also build a marketing list with all the traffic you receive. It doesn't matter at all that lots of people have forgotten about banner advertising because of Google and Bing, that's fine for all the banner advertisers out there. Why do you think huge corporations and media outlets spend millions on banner advertising each month? Since way before the web was invented there have been banner ads, and the net just took it and ran with it. However, if you're a beginner to this medium, chances are that you'll make easy to avoid mistakes.

So it's prudent and wise to prepare and learn something so you don't flush too much down the hopper. In this article we will be looking into a few such mistakes that one can make when trying to use banner advertising.

Sometimes, often actually, marketers look at different aspects of their funnel separately, and when you place banner ads you should pay closer attention to things like your landing page. Forget how great people will think your banner is, they don't care; if they click, will the promise you made in your banner be kept, is what they're thinking. So if your banner ad says that the prospect will get a certain offer, then he/she should find that offer on the landing page. After they click through, if you have not delivered on your basic promise, then they are gone forever and will never return.

You need to be honest and transparent with your prospects and give them exactly what you're promising them. Always avoid great differences between the graphic image/theme of your banners and the page you send them to; they should be similar for greatest conversions on your landing page. You never want to ever do anything that will confuse your prospects. If you need to, you can look at examples on page one of Google.

Last but not the least; don't invest all your money in a campaign unless you've tested it out on a small scale. This is something that is so apparent when you perform a small-scale campaign test. If it's not giving results, chuck it and move to a new one.

All in all, from the above article it's clear that banner advertising is all about doing the right thing instead of doing your own thing. You should focus on these basic rules so that your campaign is successful. It's okay to make mistakes because that's how we learn. There are mistakes that are easy to learn about before they happen, so be sure to keep reading. So make sure you do your homework before you invest into banner advertising for your own site.

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When Should You Use Advertising Banners Online?

Every website owner knows that to succeed online they are going to need to get traffic on to their sites. Once visitors arrive they can then stand a chance to bring in some revenue. But just how do you go about getting that traffic?

Well the first thing you should try to do is bring traffic to your site for free. I always recommend free traffic to begin with as you can get a feel for how your site will perform when you venture into paid advertising.

Now I say paid as you will perhaps come across free online advertising but you really need to weigh up the benefits of that particular option. Free just means you aren't paying cash but you are going to be providing something in return as nothing comes for free. Especially traffic. It is more often than not a link back to the site providing the free advertising to you. It you are linking into a somewhat unworthy site you could quite easily damage your own reputation. So free is not always the best.

Then there is pay-per-Click advertising. This takes a long time to get the complete hang of the methodology and can be sore on the bank balance if it doesn't perform and has a high budget set. You will need to do extensive keyword research to find the terms to advertise under, analyze the competition to see if it is even worth going after. If it is saturated then it will be more expensive making it harder to get a return and if the search volume isn't there then the profits will take longer to come in.

So, you could then consider moving into using advertising banners online instead. Using banner exchange networks you will be able to get exposure across a variety of niche specific websites and most banner exchanges have price plans to suit a wide variety of budgets. The best part of banner advertising is that you get the same control with them as all other online advertising, like geo-targeting. It is also getting under used due to the amount of people shooting for Google AdWords. So in effect you can get paid traffic for much less than the cost of pay-per-Click advertising. Granted the results aren't as fast but they do get results over time and are fairly simple to get started. It is a good way for starting out with paid search advertising.

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Easy Banner Ads Ideas That Give Outcomes

Banner ads could be employed to deliver main visitors for the business. Campaigns are easy to begin, effortlessly executed, and supply quick outcomes. But to be able to make it work, you will need to bear in mind several critical ideas, which we will likely be discussing inside the following article.

You need to have a sturdy name to motion to make your banner ad work. Site visitors cannot give you what you would like unless you let them know what that's - like telling them to click on the ad. This will only take place whenever you give them a reason to. The best method to do this would be to supply instant gratification inside the name to motion. What this means is that you'll be able to provide an enticing freebie through your banner ad and gather leads from those who click on. The name to motion should be particular so your audience knows the motion you would like them to take. This isn't the time or place to be mysterious - straightforward is much far better.

You should next move on to make positive the text is appealing inside the banner. Banner advertising merely won't yield great final results with out a sturdy name to motion no matter how much time you invest in research and graphics. It's as easy as that. With this in mind, focus a large quantity of attention to producing appealing text for the ad. See what the competition is doing and let that inspire you. Let your creative side soar in this region and see what you'll be able to come up with. Ask your self what would compel you to click on the ad. You will get a much far better return on your investment for producing powerful text in your ads than any other aspect of producing a banner ad campaign.

Keep your graphics easy but make them efficient. Do not go for the gaudy or flashy graphics or they'll get you final results you do not want. Your ad need to attract your audience not turn them off. Inside the early days of banner ads you'd see badly designed banner advertising, but they still managed to get the clicks, due to the fact that was the initial stage. These identical kinds of ads won't net the identical outcomes right now. Your objective in banner ad design is an ad that's elegant and easy.

In conclusion, from the above suggestions we come to comprehend the banner ads isn't that complicated, but at the exact same time it could be hard if you do not know what you are doing. Just make certain you follow these 3 suggestions to make it occur.

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Easy Banner Advertising Suggestions That Give Outcomes

As a banner promoter, you've the possible to get into tons of distinct markets simply because it really is that big. But, to be able to get the most advantage from your banner ads, you need to make certain that they reach clients and truly get them to your website. Below are three easy to comprehend and use banner ad suggestions that you simply use correct now.

The text that you simply enter on your banner ads is often short and straight to the punch, which is really a excellent reason for making use of effective phrases like totally free, effective, wonderful, easiest, etc so that you just readers are pulled in towards them. It's recognized that when an ad has a great deal of motion phrases it tends to make the customer take motion too. As well as the only thing which is truly crucial for the banner ad is how numerous individuals click on through to see your ad. So when someone sees your ad has such confident phrases carefully weaved in with the graphics, they're bound to get curious and click on through.

Next, you need to work to make the text appealing. Graphics and research have their place but with out a strong call to motion, you won't get the final results you would like from your banner ads. That actually is the bottom line. Write compelling headlines for the banner ad with this in mind. Look around you and see how the others are doing. This is one region exactly where you'll be able to literally play with creativity and get the most out of your ads. Ask your self what would compel you to click on the ad. Creating compelling text within your ads gives an exceptional ROI for the business.

Finally, it really is time to connect your banner ad with the keywords you might be targeting. It is crucial to have your banner ad placed on a page with content that matches the keywords within the ad as well as the keywords being searched for. It really is not sufficient to just do excellent keyword research, you should also pick your ad location properly.

Overall, these modest ideas have proven to us that getting excellent outcomes from banner advertising will need you to continually work difficult to get much better final results. There will likely be times when you'll see fluctuation inside your impression and your conversion ratio, do not worry, just make a note in which you believe you are going wrong and enhance it as you move along.

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Affordable Banner Ads - How Much You Should Spend to Get the Best Results

As a marketing expert, I am often asked to assess new methods of advertising for my clients. One recent request came from a car accessory company who has a very successful e-commerce website as well as an Amazon store, both of which I created, manage and maintain. By reviewing daily reports on Google Analytics, I am fully apprised of how many visitors arrive at his website, where they come from, what pages they view and how long they spend, among many other parameters. Through our ShopSite shopping cart, we also have extensive reports about which products sell best.

One of the most valuable pieces of information among all this data is the source of referral. This client is extremely fortunate to have developed a very loyal following among previous customers who liberally discuss their interests, purchases and post photos of their prized custom-enhanced cars on a number of popular, special-interest automobile forums on the Internet. Each time my client is recommended, his URL address for his website is posted within the discussion thread which in turn gets repeated whenever anyone comments or asks further questions on the subject. As a result of this, his website has hundreds of linkbacks which has driven his search rankings up to the tops of any relevant Google searches. We can only count our blessings. Of course, his impeccable business practices, unique products and excellent customer service have given his company an enviable reputation for reliability which he works hard to reinforce on a daily basis.

In an effort to show gratitude to these forums and their participants, he has suggested many times that we look into costs for banner advertising, which is a certain format of advertising used on websites with a variety of payment options to choose from. And, dutifully, I have requested media kits and cost information from a number of forums only to be stymied by the intimidating prospect of buying ads by the number of impressions as opposed to some more traditional mode of measurement. Having been in this business for over 35 years, we get a little flummoxed by common claims of exorbitant numbers of visitors per day which seem somewhat far-fetched, to say the least. However, with recently established auditing procedures set up by an organization called The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), buying banner advertising by number of impressions is now more comparable to buying print advertising by audited circulation figures, as an example. This is not to say that every Internet banner advertising claim is audited but at least there are guidelines and standards with which to correspond.

Despite our reservations, the need and desire to advertise to such an appropriately targeted market remains, so we've finally bitten the bullet. Having visited the site of a particular automobile forum of interest, one which boasts 170,000 unique visits (note: "visits" not "visitors") per month, I was immediately attracted to banner ads which appear prominently in key spots on the page. I quickly learned that those ads are placed by Google who only entertains advertising budgets of immense proportion. I know this is true, having been left in limbo waiting for Google sales reps to give me the courtesy of answering my picayune cost questions, which so far has proven futile. However, in repeated efforts to learn more from the endless documents Google has available on every possible facet of this subject, "image" (banner) advertising through Google can be on a "cost-per-click" basis, the cost of which is determined by bids submitted by competitive participants within a given industry, or on a "cost-per-thousand" (cpm) basis based on number of impressions the ad receives and a predetermined budget you arrange with Google. Your ad is then placed on a particular website or group of websites you specify, or is circulated among Google's choice of appropriate websites based on keywords you have selected. Unless you have a sizable budget to invest in this program, Google does not encourage your participation.

If you haven't heard of "affiliate marketing, it is appropriate to discuss here. It is the popular relationship between a website with ample traffic, an online merchant who wants to place a banner ad to draw interest to his product, service or website, and sometimes a third-party Internet ad placement service who acts as a liaison between suitable high-traffic websites and appropriately related banner advertisers. Google itself is an affiliate marketing service as described above, as are Yahoo and countless others all over the Internet. Besides arrangements for pay-per-click, there are also pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead setups, all of which require payment of a commission by the banner advertiser to the affiliate at an agreed, predetermined rate. This could be the equivalent of pennies or dollars, depending on the relationship and contract. And it is based on the age-old tradition of rewarding anyone who contributes to your sales by fruitfully promoting your product or service. If you think paying by ad impression is worrisome, paying by click is even more terrifying when you read about cases where advertisers rack up thousands of dollars worth of commissions due because someone from a competitive business targets your ad with a clicking scam designed to put you out of business with hundreds of meaningless clicks! While these are the exceptions, it is enough to undermine your courage.

Alternatives are available, however. It is possible to bypass Google and other affiliate marketers by placing ads directly on a website you choose for merits you openly recognize, without any strings attached for profit-sharing. In our case, we appealed to the automobile forum's marketing department which offered very reasonable banner advertising rates through a professional, attentive and eager sales rep who was happy to guide us through the entire process, including late at night and on the weekend!

First we decided on a large banner size of 728 x 90 pixels, also known as a "leaderboard," which is a horizontal unit about the size of the window on a window envelope. As long as we kept the banner ad file size to 20k, we were allowed to submit either a static ad or an animated Flash ad. But we were warned that it is quite difficult to get Flash ads down to 20k and would be charged extra for a size that exceeded 20k.

The client agreed that we should try to make the ad a Flash version because it gave us the option of showing more than one product and delivering more than one message, all while attracting attention with the ad's movement. After working on the ad's construction, the smallest I could get the size down to was 25k. But, as always, even after 35 years, I learned a couple of tricks in the process thanks to Google searches which provided some tips on file reduction by some knowledgeable people who are unbelievably generous with their free information.

What contributes to oversize in a Flash SWF file are a number of elements including size and type of Photoshop images used, failure to convert every layer's components to symbols and the number of frames used in the ad (or length of time the file needs to complete its action.) By addressing all of these parameters, I finally got the file down to 20k and, as a result, we were charged the flat fee of $130 per 50,000 impressions for a contract total of 300,000 impressions over a 3-month term, or $780. That's less than a penny per impression. Certainly that is an affordable rate to test the market both for ad effectiveness and market reception compared to the need for a $20,000 minimum budget with Google.

A day or two after the ad had been placed and started running in rotation, taking its turn appearing in the very same ideal spots as the Google ads I had seen, the ad rep contacted me to say that when the ad is clicked on, our website opens in the very same window the ad occupies, the skinny 728x90 pixel space, which obviously is not what we had intended! All of our tests had shown the website opening in a new full-size window. Luckily, the ad rep said if I can fix the ad to open a new window when clicked upon to accommodate the large website page, he would restart the contract at no additional cost. (Talk about customer service! What a rare, exceptional human being!)

Self-taught at everything I do, I needed to solve this new challenge with an appropriate script within the Flash file to open a new window when the ad was clicked upon. Although I thought I'd have to specify the size of the window needed, I discovered through trial and error that the new window which opens is entirely dependent on the size of the window of the users' browser, any size of which would be acceptable in this instance, since it would surely exceed the relatively "tiny" size of our banner ad.

Upon submitting the new file, the ad rep confirmed that the problem was solved. A new large window opened when the ad was clicked upon displaying our website in all its glory, and the contract was restarted from zero.

What prompted us to use this particular forum for our banner advertising test was its focus on a model of vehicle which is least popular in our product sales history. We attribute this phenomenon to a supposition that this model of car attracts a younger market who may not be as affluent as older drivers who buy lots of our products for vehicles that appeal to a more mature taste. But our choice of product advertised is one that appeals to every market worldwide because it is so desperately needed by drivers of the make of car in which we specialize, regardless of model. This is crucial to accurate measurement of the banner ad's effectiveness.

While we are still grappling with a number of variables which can affect banner ad visibility, such as how often it appears to the right audience at the right time, something which is common to all other types of advertising as well, we can see through Google Analytics at this early stage of review that a respectable number of website visitors are coming directly to the page to which the ad is linked. It is not common for visitors to know the exact address of that special page thereby making it their "landing" page. With this knowledge, we can safely assume that those visits are a result of the banner ad. Otherwise, Google Analytics tells us the name of the source of referral, which could be Google, Yahoo, a specific automobile forum URL or any number of other possible referring sites. In the case of the banner ad, the referral is called "direct," meaning that the user's click brought him to a specific address without depending on the use of a keyword or search term.

Still, there are other concerns which control the effectiveness of a banner ad. Just as technology was developed to rid the TV viewer of the necessity to sit through annoying commercials which interrupt programming, there is similar technology which blocks banner ads from a website visitor's experience. Combine that with the limitations surrounding reception of Flash animation on certain mobile devices and you begin to understand the many constraints which affect banner advertising success.

As with any advertising or marketing efforts, it is fair to say that our expectations about banner ad effectiveness are hopeful for an actual return on investment in the form of increased sales, but at the same time, realistic if the only benefit is one of corporate exposure, professional image and product awareness. In time, all promotional efforts contribute to a cumulative rate of success. As businesses, this is something we accept as going with the territory. And as a final rationalization, we take solace in the adage "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

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Banner Design and CTR

In the business world, business owners take risks all the time. See, risks are taken when you are unsure of the end result. You take the risk to do your best and get the desired results, but you also keep telling yourself that you might not get what you need. This is why R&D or Research and Development is an integral part of every successful business, because this way they do their best to eliminate the chances of failure. If you begin a task without proper R&D, then you increase your chances of ultimate failure and, thus, you don't achieve the desired results.

As banner advertisement is an effective way of promoting your business and increasing your sales, it is advisable to use this method for business growth. But, if you try to do it without any research, then the chances are that this method won't work for you and you will only end up wasting your money on banner design advertisement instead of gaining advantage. See, the main purpose of a banner design is to promote your business and increase your CTR aka Click Thru Rate. How can you promote your business and increase your CTR? Well, you have to find some really busy and relevant sites and display your banner there.

Now, what risk is involved here? It all seems so simple and easy. You create your banner, find a portal, send them your request, make a small payment and make your banner appear on their busy site or portal. Well, easier said than done. If your banner is not of good quality then the CTR won't be as good as you expect and your sales won't increase according to your expectations. So, what will happen ultimately? Well, you will end up losing your money that you had spent on banner creation and advertisement.

Now, your question will be that what sort of R&D is required to ensure that you enjoy a good CTR and increased sales? See, the first and the foremost thing that you have got to do is to scrutinize the premade banners of your very close competitors. Since they are trying to capture your market as well, you will be able to judge what strategy they have used to capture the attention of your market and take them to their website. This helps a lot in creating your own banner as you will know about the current design trends and what's hot in your niche.

Another crucial R&D is the evaluation of the site where you intend to display your banner. This is very important if you really want to increase your Click Thru Rate. The reason behind this scrutiny is that you want to create a banner that will look perfect on the site. If it looks odd, then the chances are that no one will click on your banner and your CTR will not be good at all. So, to ensure that your banner looks well, you need to analyze the portal first and then create your banner design accordingly.

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Three Ways to Make Your Banner Advertising A Success

As a banner advertiser you have many chances to tap into numerous markets because it is enormous. But, in order to get the most benefit from your banner advertising, you have to make sure that they reach customers and actually get them to your website. The following are 3 simple banner advertising tips that are easy to understand and utilize today.

The most important thing about your banner advertising is the number of times that people come to it and click through it. So when a reader is attracted to your ad because of the wonderful graphics and nicely placed power words weaved all in it, they will want to get closer and click through.|Make your point clearly with as few words as possible in your banner ad text.

There isn't a lot of space in a banner ad and that makes every word matter. Make sure you choose wisely so that you can get the most results from your headline in few words. It's very much like the headline for the front page of a newspaper. You must make your audience understand what you want from them in very few words. Also, make sure you're not using heavy jargon in your banner ads just to save space. Make it brief and use words that are easy to understand.

The first banner advertising tip that you must remember is to do research before you really begin making your banner ads. This provides you with a chance to learn from previous banner ads that have succeeded. There will always be main concepts that will stay the same and you will always have to use them, no matter what happens. When you begin researching, you will discover that there are a lot of banner ads that are successful and have good feedback. Your job will be to study these ads and figure out how to adjust them. For example, you can notice and learn how they played with the graphics or the kind of text they used. This brings in more ideas and opens up your mind for creativity. The bottom line is that when you have so much available to learn from, it doesn't make sense to start from the beginning. One of the main reasons that advertisers with banner ads don't do well is because they do things based upon their own assumptions and ideas that aren't really set in stone. Unless you have a large amount of experience working with banner ads, you should just learn how to do things and then modify them a bit.

An important thing that you need to do is to make sure that your ads are not too heavy to load. The last thing you'd want is your visitors waiting for your banner ad to load. Your ads have to be lightweight and carry graphics that can load easily at any Internet speed. If you have to use animation in your banner ads, ensure that they start up easily.

Although this might seem obvious, many banner advertisers use these things to get more customers. If you have to use them, try to not use as many graphics, which should greatly cutback on the ad size. Once you understand the type of ad you are using, there will be no holding you back. But until then, you should test out various banner ad sizes so that you have a fair idea of what to expect.

Finally, when you make up your ads, make sure that they go with the web page that they will be put on. In easy to understand terms, if you are not going to concentrate on the little items like co coordinating the color of your banner ads, they will not look like they are good and will not fit in.

So if you are advertising the same item on 5 various web pages, then attempt to at least customize the look of these ads according to each page. This might appear to be an easy tip, but it will really help you in the long run.

All in all, banner advertising is an advertising format that is sticking around. But with time, the competition is getting larger, which is why you must ensure that you are utilizing these suggestions to enhance your campaign for the better.

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Right Ingredients Necessary to Create the Right Design for Banner

Just the way a chef tries to add the right ingredients into a dish to enhance the flavors in the similar way designers try their best to accumulate all the necessary elements that go into creating designs that look extremely attractive and successful. Anything that is good whether it is about the taste of a dish or visual beauty of a sight or about a person's habit, people do remember about it. So the theorem applicable upon the process of creating an effective design is to create something that is unique, striking and efficient to get results.

It is good to take suggestions from people relating the design since you never know someone might offer a successful tip to you! The entire procedure of deciding upon what all should be added and what is to be removed from the creation is tiresome yet it is likely that the hard work would not go waste. All this while, this as well is important to remember that a single mistake could literally destroy all that brainstorming session that went into creating a design. As told earlier, you could take suggestions since it has been rightly said that two heads are better than one!

You might have come across about the basic rules laid by the experts which if followed could fetch great results but then there is something called 'innovation and experimentation'. However for the same you need to be highly creative with your thoughts and work. A few believe that alphabets written in capitals possibly can be more effective but scientifically it has been proven that text in upper and lower case is far more legible from distance. When text is mixed in various cases it generally looks better to the eyes. While giving the right message is important, so are important the font and the size of the text. Using more than two text styles could irritate the eye, so it would be wise if it is avoided. Try giving a message that is short yet bold. Bold does not mean you use difficult words but a tag line that is really catchy and forceful in its own way.

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Is Banner Advertising the Way to Go?

Trying to figure out which direction you want to go with your online business advertising can be a tricky decision to make. There are so many options for internet advertising available it can cause us to freeze up and not be able to decipher the route to take for our advertising to market our business online effectively.

For search engine marketing there are a few major players like Google, Bing and Yahoo all with their own advantages but also with at times fierce competition. There is article marketing that while the competition isn't really a problem provided you do some thorough research can be a great route to get started with your online Internet advertising it will be extensively time consuming.

The main benefit to banner advertising is that it will provide a cheaper alternative to search engine marketing and isn't as time consuming as some of the advertising routes that can be taken. The best part being that with some of the software that is available there is no need to be a graphic designer to get decent looking ads together that are pleasant to look at and provide the information necessary for users to know exactly what your banner ad is promoting and what is on offer to entice users to click on the banner and be directed over to your site.

The costs are greatly reduced in comparison with search engine marketing as banner exchange networks provide cost effective pricing plans that you will be sure to find a plan that will fit your advertising budget.

The best part has got to be that your banners get strategic placement across specific niche websites that give you have total control over by selecting the terms that publishers need to have their site based around that will allow you to laser target the audience you want to drive to your site. It is a very cost effective marketing strategy to break into paid search advertising.

We all know that working with search engine marketing is a competitive route to go down and requires an extensive deal of learning to be able to turn profit before going broke with the advertising overheads that can be incurred.

So if your looking for a cheaper alternative to market your business online that can get your site more exposure and generate traffic for less then banner advertising just might be the way to go for your business to move forward with more exposure to your target audience.

Internet Marketing Advice: Your List For A Craigslist Clickable Banner   Online Banner Ads - 5 Tips to Make Your Banner Ads More Effective for Your Small Business   Online Advertising With Banners   Tips for Using Local Internet Advertising   Do You Need to Use a Banner to Get Good Traffic?   

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