4 Secrets for Driving Traffic to Your Website

Every day there are new websites popping up on the internet. That means it gets more and more difficult to get people to visit your site. Even if you cater to a special niche market, chances are there is still at least one other website out there competing for your audience. Here are 4 great tips to help drive traffic to your website, ensuring you get the number of hits that you want.

Target Your Audience

In any kind of advertising, targeting your market is always key. It is important to know to whom you are catering, before you plan out how to reach them. Understand your customers and research the types of places that they frequent online. Are there specific forums that your audience regularly visits, or is there a specific social networking site that caters to your same demographic? It is on these sites that you want to place your content, drawing these readers to your site as well.

Know the Benefits of Multimedia

The more media you can offer your website visitors, the more enticing your site becomes. Enhance your text with graphics and pictures. Include videos and audio clips for users to listen to and watch. Having this diverse material not only attracts more visitors to your site, but also allows you to upload your content onto a number of different sites. Using social networking sites like flickr, YouTube, or digg gives an untapped audience access to your photos, videos, and articles, creating interest in your site.

Use Web Directories

List your site on as many web directories as possible. Look especially for ones that specialize in your business area, i.e. Real Estate, Restaurant, etc. These directories are not all free, but the more times your name is out there on the web, the higher the chance of new eyes clicking that link to your site. Being on many directories also helps with search engine placement, further increasing your site's visibility.

Link Exchanges

Foster connections with complementary businesses. Get in touch with a site that attracts the same audience as you want to attract with yours. Ask if they will place a link to your website on their page, and in return, you will host a link to their site. This link sharing is one of the oldest and most effective ways to increase site traffic.

The above information was gathered from online sources including multiple Ezine Articles.

Tips for Advertising in Slow Economic Times

A common assumption during slow economic times is that because money is tight everywhere, customers will be spending less; and therefore, money spent on advertising will be wasted. The fact is families will continue to seek food, entertainment, prescriptions, autos, and other goods and services. Uncertain customers need the assurance of known brands.

What are the benefits of advertising during good times or bad times?

The more familiar people become with your brand, the more favorable they feel toward it, and the more likely they are to buy from you. Maintaining brand recognition should be considered an on-going investment. Studies have shown it takes four to six months to see the results of an advertising campaign, and cutting back during a downturn is like throwing away your investment.

Know your competitors, and their advertising strategies

Your competition is probably scaling back, just like you. This creates fewer messages vying for your potential customers’ attention – meaning your message can stand out and create more awareness. You should work to get the most out of your advertising dollars by eliminating emotion-based, image-building advertising and use informative ads that demonstrate your products’ superiority.

Focus on consistency in your advertising instead of size

If scaling back your advertising budget, it is better to reduce the size of your ad rather than run less frequently. The key to getting customers is increased awareness and desire. This only happens if your ad is repeatedly in front of them.

Advertise clearance sales to increase cash flow and traffic and to decrease inventory stockpiles

With the tight economy, customers are looking for ways to save money now more than ever. This generates added business from current customers and it brings in new leads and prospects.

Network with other businesses that have tie-ins to what you offer your customers

Referring customers to a related (but not competing) business is a great way to foster connections with other businesses, and they will return the favor.

The above information was gathered from online sources including PaperChain Link & Learn, American Association of Advertising Agencies, ARS Group, Harvard Business School, Marketing Consultant Robert Wilson, and Daily Journal of Commerce.

Getting the Most Out of Coupon Advertising

Make Offers As Strong As Possible

To receive the greatest ad response, your coupon must be strong, exciting, and motivating. Think, would you be enticed by a similar offer from another company? If not, you’re offer is not strong enough. As such, try to incorporate deals for popular, sought after goods along with your specials to clear higher inventories. This is the best way to get large numbers of new customers through your doors.

Create Generic Offers

You will receive the most response from an ad if your coupon has one great generic offer, or your ad incorporates a great mix of offers. For example, use 20% OFF Any Menu Item for a generic coupon, or $5 OFF Any Lunch Item, $10 dollars OFF Any Entrée Item, and $4 OFF Any Desert Item creates a good coupon mix, appealing to a broad range of potential customers.

Choose the Most Enticing Wording

FREE is more eye catching to consumers than $ or % OFF, even if the amount of money saved is less. Offer FREE Hair Products up to a maximum dollar amount, rather than just 15% OFF All Hair Products.

Be Consistent in the Wording of Offers

Your offer will appeal to the widest range of consumers if you use the clearest, most straightforward language in your coupons. Switching between $ OFF and SAVE $ will limit response.

List the Best Offer First

Hook your potential customers by listing the most appealing first, or make it the most prominent in the ad. If the first offer that readers see isn’t that enticing, they won’t take the time to read the rest of your ad.

Don’t Limit Offers

Limiting offers to only certain days of the week or to a certain stylist at a salon will limit the possible success of the ad. Make sure the widest possible audience is able to redeem your coupon.

Choose the Expiration Date Carefully

The expiration date is often overlooked as an important component of ad content. However, it creates urgency, leading to desirability in your business. For a business that has a high turnover of products, a shorter window of opportunity is necessary. If the offer is for a high-ticket item that won’t be repeated in the next issue, then the expiration date can be further out in the future.

To get started with Coupon Advertising, contact our ShopSmart Central Manager today. 914-962-3871 x 383

Variable Data Publishing and How It Can Work for You

Today's marketers have a wide array of media options through which to communicate with consumers. However, with such inundation, making your message resonate becomes more crucial than ever. This requires using the most relevant, targeted, and individualized messages to grab the attention of your audience.

Variable Data Publishing (VDP) is the solution for this need. Also called targeted, data-driven, or one-to-one marketing, VDP has become an integral new technology in the world of marketing. VDP is mainly used for direct marketing, customer relationship management and advertising. It is a form of on-demand printing in which elements such as text, graphics and images may be changed from one printed piece to the next. It allows for printing the piece and the variable data at the same time. This can be done without stopping or slowing down the printer, using information from a database or external file.

You can use full variable data not just for addressing and salutation or text, but also with product-specific color images. The variable picture goes way beyond just data. There can be a thousand or more variations to a given promo piece. For example, the location of the dealer you visited, day of your visit, color of the interior as well as exterior of the model that attracted you, and on and on are all changeable. It allows for hyper-personal direct mail communication, greatly increasing the chance of reader action.

Those businesses that employ VDP technology have the benefit of:

• 36 % Increase in Response Rates
• 25 % Increase in Average Value of Order
• 48 % Increase in Repetitive Orders/Retention
• 32 % Increase in Overall Revenue/Profit

Utilizing VDP technology leads to greater effectiveness of your marketing dollars. Especially in these difficult economic times, utilizing VDP on standing print communications that you send to your customers easily maximizes your marketing efforts in the most cost-effective way. And now with advancements in digital color printing and new bulk mail rates, creating exciting and motivating direct mail pieces is easier than ever.

The above information was gathered from sources including RISO Ink and Ingenuity, Direct Mail Consultant Amy Bambace,and Adobe VDP Resource Center. To get started with Direct Mail and VDP, contact our Direct 2 Market Account Executive today. 914-962-3871 x 353