Sure, it is important to have well-worded and visually appealing ads with strong brand messages. And yes, it is also imperative that these ads reach as much of your target audience as possible for maximum and repeat exposure. But you can put the most wonderful ad in front of throngs of potential buyers and still fail with poor ad placement.

Ad placement can mean a myriad of things depending upon the format of marketing being discussed. For example, website ads should be built into the main framework, such as within a sidebar, so that they show all the time on all pages of the site, regardless of new content. And you’ll want them placed ‘above the fold’—which means that viewers can see them without scrolling down. However, ad placement in a newspaper could mean placing a small ad for your gym next to an article about vitamins, rather than a page-spanning ad next to an article about things that can be done at home to save money.

Sprint recently posted an extremely concise and clever ad on CBS.com. Viewers watching the network’s television shows are exposed to two consecutive 30-second spots on every commercial break. Sprint bought an ad proclaiming they the network helps you get exactly what you want, when you want it—and to prove it, the screen simply shows a click-through button that lets the viewer skip the rest of the ad. This instant gratification associated with the brand name is extremely smart, doing more to make a good impression and convey a clear message in one or two seconds than a full-minute ad might. The problem occurs when this ad comes first in the series of two ad spots. Rather than send the viewer straight back to their program, by clicking (following the CTA) the viewer is merely rewarded with…another commercial. Simply by swapping the placement of the two ads, Sprint’s advertising endeavors could have twice the power.

Similarly, the Associated Content website raised the hackles of its loyal readers when ads were placed mid-article, interrupting their reading flow. In this case, the ads became associated with interruption and frustration—so a viewer’s first impression and relationship with that brand was negative. But while more discreet advertising has its merits, tricky ads (such as invisible links on websites) also never win consumer favor.

Marketing experts must do more than place expensive media buys for amazing creative. They must have a hand in the ad’s placement from unit purchasing to proofing the final result. And of course you’ll want your marketing team to come to your defense against the venue if an ad is inappropriately handled in any context—and prevent future mishaps.

To ensure that you’re getting the best ad placement possible, you should not only confirm that intelligent human eyes or ears land on and approve your company’s ad in every context, but also seek ways to measure the success of various ad placements. While this is easy to do online, you may have to be more clever with other marketing formats. For more on this subject, visit last week’s blog about Tracking and Coding.

For a laugh, you may want to browse this list of Top 10 Unfortunate Ad Placements.

It always makes sense to ask successfully acquired clients and customers how they came to hear about your business. By carefully comparing how well each of your advertising efforts performs, you can bulldoze past a lot of trial-and-error and simply direct your budget toward what works, both in quantitative and qualitative units. For example, if no one’s seen that ad in the newspaper but everyone heard about you from a friend or relative, you may wish to pull your print ads and focus on buzz-generating word-of-mouth campaigns–or even reward former patrons for referring a friend. And if you’re reaching a higher caliber of clientele via brochure than billboard, you’ll certainly want to bring your message down to the smaller scale, which can also cut back cost.

These days, tracking is everything when it comes to building successful campaigns. Online, it’s perfectly easy to determine how a person landed on your page; analytics mark each click-through by its referring links, search engine source, browser type and even the viewer’s physical location—it’s not only effortless, but also automatically built into most website content management systems. But even online there’s always more you can do; when it comes to e-commerce, many shopping outlets utilize codes. Asking buyers to enter a code before they take advantage of a sale helps marketers to track which sales and campaigns were more successful than others, and to help determine if shoppers heard about it from a newsletter, referral or ad. This is why you might see several usable codes available for the same sale, depending on where you hear about it.

In what other ways can coding and tracking be used in your business endeavors? Mad 4 Marketing recently posted job listings on several career search websites. But each posting required us to pay a fee, and since we weren’t sure which websites or which wording would be most successful for attracting the best new teammate, we decided to generate a few different ads. We asked job candidates on each board and posting to reply with a different subject line. This took a little more time and thought, but we were able to see from where we were getting hits, and what kind of prospective employees were nipping the bait. After the first week we cut our ad placement (and cost!) in half and only used phrasing that was clearly expressing our desires to the most qualified candidates.

Another example is Satori’s text message campaign. In 2008, we used a lot of on-the-scene guerrilla marketing to advertise for the newly opening apartment rental community in Fort Lauderdale. We wanted to reach out to those who already lived in and loved the surrounding area of South Florida. At each event (such as street fairs, art shows and the boat parade), we advertised the chance to win six months’ free rent by texting a code to a given phone number. At each event, the code differed. That way, we could see which community event had directed the most participants to our giveaway, as well as which regions or crowds were most interested in Satori. This information turned out to be extremely valuable in later marketing endeavors, such as choosing local ad placement.

The bottom line is that tracking efforts are a smart investment in the future. It means looking past today’s brochure or even tomorrow’s website, toward next year’s entire marketing strategy. Tracking provides you with the tools to always understand and surpass prior tactics–and no matter what, this means that you will ultimately succeed.

Last week, we introduced the premise of using blogs in marketing, and what to do once you have your own blog. In that same vein, this week we are following up with tips for keeping your readers once you have reached out and engaged them in the first place.

Getting Readers to Stay on Your Site

In a world where single impressions are used to measure website results, one might wonder why it’s important to care how long readers actually stay on your site. When it comes to marketing, keeping readers engaged means that you’re increasing their familiarity with your voice and information. By staying on your site, readers are able to connect to the content, which may make them think about your ideas later or want to return (more on this below). You’ll also want visitors to move around on your site, which is why you should always provide links to other areas that might be of interest. For example, if you published a complementary article last month or previously mentioned the topic at hand, you’ll want to refer back to that old post. When readers move through your site, it increases your impression rate click by click–getting you more bang for your buck per visit or guest.

Getting Readers to Revisit Your Site

Why allow readers to have one single good experience on your site when you can encourage them to create a pattern? Readers make pivotal decisions about whether they might want to return to your blog in the first few seconds of landing on it, so inviting them to come back again begins promptly at the start of their very first visit—even with your blog’s title. An easy-to-memorize name will make it easy for one-time visitors to find their way back to you. The look and layout of your blog are also invaluable tools that can influence how the general populace—or your targeted audience—perceives the value of returning to your blog, so don’t skimp on the creative. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

The next step is to make your content as subscribable as possible by providing easily identifiable links to RSS feed, your newsletter or other forms of content subscriptions; this includes ‘following’ ‘friending’ ‘liking’ ‘fanning’ or other ways to connect with the page. It also helps to flat-out prompt readers to bookmark your hyperlink. Anything that removes the middle step of making your reader remember that your blog exists will be useful, so be sure to try to lock them to a mailing list or feed as soon as possible.

You’ll also want to make your blog extremely user-friendly so that it’s a welcoming and easy-to-navigate space that readers will want to revisit. We’ve previously discussed the importance of user-friendliness on the Web, but there are a few differences when talking about a blog rather than a website or forum. For example, utilize your blog’s sidebar to chronicle past posts, organize content by key words or add a search feature. Don’t just load this valuable space with heavy text and ads; besides, a busy blog will generally overwhelm readers and dissuade them against ever coming back.

Of course, no effort goes so far as introducing frequent, fresh content and enforcing quality control. By providing plenty of new, engaging content (that must, must, must be typo-free), readers will come up with the bright idea to come back again all on their own.

These aren’t stand-alone suggestions; each relates to one another in order to create a plotted process by which readers are easily directed and re-directed to the blog. Much like with all advertising, it takes several interactions or impressions before marketing tactics can truly take hold; and it’s those who have been most often exposed to your messages who are likely to convert to customers–and spread the word.

These days, it seems like everyone has a blog. In fact, most business websites would not be complete without one. The trick is to stand out from the herd—because in today’s fast-developing and competitive world of websites, just having a blog is only status quo. In fact, it may even be a waste of time and money if your voice is only going to get lost.

But before you can adequately market your blog, you have to understand the reasoning behind it. Not all techniques are suitable for all blog types, so what you use should be determined by the site’s overall goal. Some people build a blog in order to increase traffic to their website, while others create blogs in order to generate revenue. Of course, many blogs are also stand-alone pages created to exist as singular discussion forums.

In terms of marketing, most blogs are used to enhance SEO. They help business-oriented websites attract attention, build brands and communicate with prospective clientele. With this in mind, here are three top tips for marketing your blog:

1) Create an e-Newsletter.

Whether or not your company already sends out a regular newsletter, embedding links to your blog or even re-posting eye-catching selections from its posts might engage current e-mail recipients while informing new subscribers that the blog even exists. You can also see who’s using the links to click through to the blog to determine which posts and topics are generating the most interest. Just remember, re-posting your blog posts in full is a bad idea; it deters readers from ever actually needing to visit your website.

2) Build a Community.

Having individuals visit your blog on a regular basis is excellent. But each lone reader is actually an opportunity to expand your entire community. The first thing you want to do is inspire readers to leave comments so that they can bond with other forum members, who can serve as a reason for readers to return. This can often be done by including interesting topics and asking questions directly within the content of your post. You’ll also want to visit blogs similar to your own and get to know the readership there; as discussed above, it’s easy to make connections and participate by replying to others or leaving your own comments. You can also ask these website owners if they’d like to participate in cross-posting, guest posting, link exchanges or other ideas that allow websites serving the same readership to gain exposure on your blog while you contribute a new voice to theirs. In blogging, there is a focus on community, not a sense of competitiveness—and this benefits everyone in your interest group or business field.

3) Ensure Consistency and Quality.

No matter how well you succeed in attracting readers to your blog, your endeavors can never succeed if visitors only stop by once. In the blogging world as much as in the real world, first impressions are vital. To keep readers coming back again and again, an attractive website with appealing content is necessary. Next week, we further discuss how to encourage return readers and turn them into customers and clients–or just loyal fans.

So come back next week to find part two of the Top Ways to Market Your Blog.

On the heels of this article, which explains how Hulu.com uses surveys to gauge an audience’s opinion on ads, comes a recent story out of Australia. The down under nation’s Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) is dealing with less-than-positive feedback on its published content. But not only is this feedback negative, it’s also out of left field. Naturally, when you ask for your audience’s opinion, you have to take what you get. And as every suggestion-box-key-holder knows, every informed and constructive comment comes with a dreary downside: the throngs of merciless, inapplicable complaints.

Surveying is one of the most useful tools for marketers, and having eyes and ears in the field is invaluable. How else to accurately and objectively measure how well your work is doing? But when you solicit for comments, it means taking the good with the bad (and having the wisdom to know the difference). Someone has to read them, and someone has to sort them, but is there any easy way to whittle down the winners from the whiners?

As outlined by the Sydney Morning Herald, examples of useless reports included:

- A dancing child as being too perverse.
- A child eating an ice cream cone as being sexualized.
- A rude redhead as being vilified for her coloring.
- An errant wool ball as promoting violence against Victorians.

Tactfully, the ASB states that the real problem comes down to allocation of resources, stating that time and money can’t be spent addressing irresolvable issues. Marketing survey site Mumbrella, which analyzed a sample of received complaints earlier this year, was far less restrained, calling the task a matter of dealing with “idiots” and “single-issue zealots.” Many of the criticisms led the agency to believe that complainers might even be reporting out of spite for a particular brand or product, rather than actually taking issue with the commercial itself. However, due to quality control regulations currently in place, even one raised issue warrants an investigation by the ASB. And the number of incoming complaints has more than doubled in the past half-decade alone.

Even if a significant percentage of feedback is coming from “the nutty fringes of society,” according to the ASB, how can the bureau separate the wheat from the chaff? A system of standards is being implemented that takes into account a new set of clauses dictating what is and isn’t nationally pre-approved. For example, dogs on a leash are not examples of animal abuse. While it may seem painstaking to parse out the more minute depictions of questionable behaviors, these guidelines are expected to make it that much easier to quickly sort and reduce complaints so that only the most practical are left to consider.

Chief Executive Fiona Jolly of the Advertising Standards Bureau informs that an estimated 10-30% of incoming complaints would be filtered out by this system. The percentage of previously discarded pre-filter complaints is unknown, but at least will be markedly reduced—making it that much easier to focus on the comments that can actually be used to approve quality advertising content that appeals to most audiences.

In an age of downloadable music that is listened to online or on your phone or on an iPod—not to mention any other ubiquitous handheld device—is it still relevant and cost-efficient to advertise on the radio? At Mad 4 Marketing, we are frequently asked about the merits of radio advertising. The truth is that there are still plenty regular radio listeners out there—approximately 230 million, in fact. But the trick is knowing who is listening and when. As with most marketing formats, the greatest value in radio advertising comes from doing your homework in order to hit your niche demographic as often as possible with a memorable, informative ad.

Picking the right station and time slot for your ad to air is rather important, but you also have to buy enough time. Radio commercials are traditionally offered in 30-second formats, although you may also be able to purchase a full minute of air time for a steeper price. Another option might be to sponsor a section of radio programming, so that announcers themselves mention your product (and this can be backed up by regular advertising during commercial breaks). Regardless of the amount of time one commercial takes up, it is vital for that commercial to be heard over and over again. One trick is to continuously buy air time during the same short time period (such as 12-2pm). That way, the same very targeted audience (like workers who have a daily lunchtime commute) will hear your commercial over and over again, giving it time to sink in. Exposure on the radio is known as ‘frequency’—which is not the number of times your ad airs overall, but how much exposure you have to your preferred audience.

When it comes to crafting commercials for radio, you must keep in mind your formatting. Creative cannot take on the same hurdles as print, television or online advertising, which come with enticing visuals and interactivity. With radio, sound is the most important factor. Your ad needs to catch listeners’ attention with the right music, jokes and sound bytes. And because listeners cannot click on your ad or rewind it, key messaging must be extremely tight and make an impact the first time around. Contact information must be at the forefront—after all, what good is even the most entertaining, persuasive call to action if your potential customer cannot reach you?

Additional benefits to advertising on the radio include:

• Cheaper than television commercials, but with the same big-audience outreach
• Smaller cost to produce than television commercials or broad online campaigns
• Can be used to supplement other marketing efforts (‘See our ad in the Daily Post’)
• Easy to adapt and re-place ads according to effectiveness
• Catches the same people at the same time on a regular basis (built-in audience)
• Utilize trusted on-air personalities by buying sponsored segments or endorsement

Interested in discussing the logistics and pricing for how to put your business on the radio? Contact Mad 4 Marketing as the radio media buying experts to get you the most effective scheduling at the best cost so that you can be heard. Contact us for a consultation.

We have previously mentioned the importance of being transparent when advertising on the Web. As page viewers become increasingly frustrated by pop-ups, covert ads and run-arounds, they reciprocally appreciate websites that are up-front about what elements are sponsored–as well as those that tailor advertising to most accurately reflect products and topics that readers may actually want. When distrust brews toward online advertising, the entire framework of interactive marketing–and how it can positively impact and support websites and businesses–is compromised. Earlier this year, popular review site Yelp.com came under fire for practices that walked too close to the fine line between acceptable and deplorable ethical behavior.

Yelp is a website that features every kind of business (from restaurants to dental practices) and allows anyone to sign in and post a review about that business–good or bad. That way, interested parties can get an unbiased, comprehensive overview of that company. Yelp offers free listings as well as paid memberships which come with additional features such as enhanced content control, videos and photo slide-shows. Paid accounts may also add sponsored posts–which means that their business page can come up first in a search for chosen key words, or an ad can even show up on a competitor’s page. Cost may depend on impressions or clicks, according to individual account terms.

Problems began to arise when it seemed like Yelp was ’selling’ positive reviews to paid members through ‘Favorite Reviews.’ This feature pushed better reviews to the top of the page, and confused the matter of what were reviews and what could be constituted as advertisements. Even when these were genuine reviews–that is to say, not written by a company exec–the confusion and doubt that page visitors experienced when they saw positive reviews highlighted was enough to draw ire and attention to the site’s other questionable policies.

Another practice that bore review was Yelp’s filter, which automatically removed some reviews according to a quality control algorithm. Because only paying members had the filter in place, which most often managed to weed out negative reviews, this device made business pages seem even more like ads in disguise. For example, when soliciting paid accounts from businesses that were currently listed for free, Yelp made offers that essentially said negative reviews could disappear…for the right price. Many of the businesses that were contacted found the offer extortive, and some went so far as to contact authorities. The wording seemed to take advantage of a not-quite-illegal loophole–but one that could still be considered immoral.

In the spirit of total transparency, Yelp now offers readers the option to view every single review written, regardless of relevance or content–but only through a special, segregated link. Some critics have frowned upon this compromise. They believe that all posts should be shown at all times–or that the filter removal should be more prominently feature on the site (it is currently tucked into the bottom of review pages). However, having this option—and other changes that Yelp has made in recent months—have thus far been enough to satisfy contemporary ethical guidelines for transparency on the Internet.

In 2009, Hulu.com caused concern with investors when advertisers were not lining up to buy slots alongside the premium streaming video content of the site. Despite a strong surge in traffic and viewership that same year, competition from other video websites and Hulu’s relative newness on the scene led advertisers to remain cautious.

However, halfway into 2010, advertising on Hulu is not only flourishing, but also undergoing revisions in order to provide more targeted commercial experiences. For example, viewers may choose to watch one longer commercial and then view their video without interruption. Or, they may choose between 2-3 themes to view during commercial breaks that occur at regular intervals, much like advertising during traditional television broadcasts. Providing viewers with options helps Hulu gauge what format their followers prefer, and offer advertising encounters that adhere to those expressed choices. Viewers may also be less annoyed by their television interruptions when they feel they have some say in the way advertising is presented to them.

Unlike television commercials, online video viewing provides a much better idea of how many eyes are actually landing on ads—the numbers are much more traceable and can be broken down by hits, replays and other factors. But that doesn’t mean advertisers are in a hurry to convert formats, even to save money. Many companies would still rather throw big bucks at television advertising than pay more per given, engaged viewer online.

But Hulu hopes to take advantage of the TV/Web differential by tailoring its content to viewers in an effort to get advertisers greater bang for their buck, further antiquating the advertising notion that more eyes equals more buys. They mean to do this by really utilizing the interactive element that is also unique to ads on the Internet. Not only does Hulu allow viewers to often choose from the outset what type of advertising experience they prefer, but the website also recently added an instant-feedback system. At first, this feature was designed to show two options: thumbs up or thumbs down. Currently, a bar at the top of each commercial asks, “Is this ad relevant to you?” Viewers may choose yes or no. To further focus advertising, Hulu may also provide short surveys that viewers can fill out in lieu of seeing any ads at all during their playback.

By asking viewers what kind of advertising experience they prefer and allowing them to watch ads only for products and services that are most relevant to their lifestyle, Hulu can assure advertisers that although online ads may not cast the same broad net as television ads, at least they can narrowly focus who is seeing them—and provide advertisers with a much better return on their investment, with a higher chance of conversions, by reaching out to those most likely to need or want what they’re selling. Smarter advertising—not merely more advertising—continues to be the trump card that online formats hold over conventional television broadcasts when it comes to video-adjacent advertising.

When it comes to online marketing, the main touchstone for success is user-friendliness. An obvious example is e-commerce websites, which must make it as easy as possible for visitors to complete transactions from first search to shopping-cart check-out. But every website—from static information pages to dynamic social media forums—must ensure that readers can quickly locate what they’re looking for—be that a desired product, specific factoid or overall experience. All it takes is a moment of confusion or distraction, and visitors are just as likely to click away and take their business elsewhere.

Sitemaps and very clear menus can also help with user-friendliness. Speed (in terms of fast page loads), navigational organization and clarity of layout are also vital. Even the most engaging content must be edited and streamlined to ensure that virtual passersby don’t move right along, because this generation’s ‘window shoppers’ increasingly refuse to jump through hurdles to get what they’re seeking on the Web. In a nutshell, the main tactic is to get visitors from Point A (their landing page) to Point B (the intended conversion) with as few clicks—and as little frustration—as possible.

Recently, profitable partner sites Catster.com and Dogster.com underwent makeovers in order to improve user experience. Even though these two popular sites had no shortage of traffic, realizing that they could absorb even more by enhancing appearance and services led to a complete overhaul of the pet-friendly websites. While the old adage states not to fix things that aren’t broken, this attitude has no bearing when it comes to the Internet. In this case, the sites took initiative based on perceived needs, and noted a full four percent of new traffic coming from iPhones thanks to improvements in small-screen usability.

On the other hand, when does too much become too much? These days, it seems that whenever users discover a glitch or imagine an upgrade, they increasingly expect their favorite websites to predict unprecedented solutions and implement complex programming changes overnight (see: Facebook). Web managers can spare a few headaches by anticipating user needs well before they clamor for change. Strategies include extensively testing the appeal of upcoming features, and keeping abreast of return activity rates. Of course, nothing will ever usurp the time-tested method of trial and error.

And then there’s the good ol’ Suggestions Box. Be proactive: ask users to tell you what they want—before they come around to inform you in the form of a complaint. For marketers, this is doubly beneficial: feedback can be used to help target what users really want, which can influence the success of future campaigns. It’s not rocket science; it’s just basic smart marketing. It’s safe to assume that users are seeking, at minimum, consistent demonstration of your willingness to improve.

With every website, there’s always room for improvement when it comes to usability. Any site that considers itself a finished product rather than an organic process is already on the fast-track to failure—or, at the very least, can look forward to its users becoming a lot less friendly.

Collecting a random survey group to test products and offer unbiased feedback is one of the bedrock systems of marketing. Whether this method means dragging a clipboard outside for street polling or years of formal data collection, one thing is for certain: As technology advances, so do survey methods. But how advanced is too advanced? And when does surveying cross the line between enlightening and overblown?

Well-known soup brand Campbell’s recently conducted extensive surveying to test how a remodel of their iconic logo would go over with consumers. Understandably, tweaking a design that’s been used for more than one hundred years is not a decision that the brand would want to take lightly. But they didn’t just ask what people thought of different images. Rather, they hooked participants up to monitors that would gauge their biological responses as they viewed various soup cans. This process is known as neuromarketing.

Campbell’s decided to use this tactic rather than polling or verbal surveying to avoid the discrepancies that traditionally exist between what people say they like and their actual buying habits. Executives decided not to rely on consumers to accurately report what they liked. Instead, they based their decisions on pure physical responsiveness such as pupil dilation, heart rate, sweating, breathing and posture. Scientists and specialists monitored participants as they went on simulated shopping experiences and browsed the aisles for soup. Campbell’s new soup can design is based on these results. For example, if survey members salivated over a soup can displaying a bigger bowl of soup, that bowl would now be on the label. This testing took place over the course of two years.

It would probably take a lot of surveying to determine if this sort of investigation is considered worthwhile in the conventional world of marketing. But one thing is certain: Most businesses cannot afford to dabble in the same kind of pricey testing as Campbell’s.

A more realistic option with time-tested results is a focus group, which can be arranged by a marketing agency such as Mad 4 Marketing. Unlike the Campbell’s technique–which cuts consumer opinion right out of the picture as if it’s out of style–a focus group really explores what select candidates think and feel about brands, services and products. Unlike a poll, which can be out-of-context and impersonal, focus groups go more in-depth as participants familiarize with the topic at hand. And rather than cutting a broad swath of random survey participants, a focus group can be tailored to really reflect a company’s audience. If you’re selling women’s sneakers, for example, you’d collect a group of athletically inclined females who regularly shop for gear, as well as those who have expressed an interest in becoming more active. Naturally, the process of choosing participants would be based on previously collected data and demographical information that would also be used in all future marketing endeavors for that campaign.

Overall, focus group testing is shorter and simpler than neuromarketing—plus, it’s a much more cost-effective research method. And despite what Campbell’s seems to think, asking people what they want and letting them provide thoughtful and voluntary responses is still a viable technique when it comes to marketing.