Email vs. The Web
What Works Best for Selling Online? Email or Web Pages?
Good question right? I always thought so! That is until I went
through my little learning curve. I can save you from the same
lessons if you have a few moments...
You see, I do a ton of classified advertising on the net. I
utilize ezines, AOL, newsgroups (carefully thru my sig), and
many web sites. I also use targeted direct email although I'm
extremely picky in this area.
So why is it that all everyone talks about is banner ads? Click
throughs, CPM, page impressions, etc.., . How about the folks
like me that can't afford to slam down a few thousand bucks each
month to have my banner pop up on Yahoo every time someone types
"Internet Marketing".
Now don't get me wrong here, banners are great and I rely on
banners to drive traffic to my site too. But the fact is, a
large part of my marketing campaign revolves around simple
effective classifieds and I am not alone. It's cheap and it
works.
That's why I've decided to pass along the results of my
"research" as I like to call it. (Learning curve is a little
more honest!)
My question was this: Should I be using my URL, or my email
address when advertising with classifieds and direct email?
Before my web site existed it was pretty much a no brainer. I
used my email address in my classifieds until I smartened up and
got some autoresponders. AR's made much more sense for two
simple reasons: They allowed me to do MUCH less work and my
prospects received my sales letters almost instantly, which
always results in more profits.
Then I finally migrated to the World Wide Web and had a URL to
use in my classifieds. I immediately "upgraded" my ads to allow
people to find my new web site. (Maybe I was a little too proud
of it!) I figured why bother with autoresponders any longer when
I could show them color, sound, and graphics.
A valuable lesson learned.
My response dropped and I found out the hard way the there are
literally millions of people who use email but DO NOT surf the
web. Many simply do not care to surf the web and there are a
good number of folks who do not have access to it.
My autoresponders immediately went back into my ads and since I
was paying for each word or line, I decided to stick with ONLY
the AR's. The extra few bucks to add my web site address was
probably not worth it, I guessed. Wrong again.
Luckily I had my own email newsletter to do a little more
experimenting. I changed my ads so they contained BOTH my
autoresponder address AND my URL.
Bingo. The perfect mix. My total inquiries (autoresponder plus
page hits) went up by about 20% and remained there as long as my
ad contained both contact methods. Along with these increased
prospects came increased profits. Another valuable lesson
learned.
I know, a lot of you are saying hey, that's not a tough
decision. Well to you I say take a look at the classified ads in
almost any ezine on the net. Count the number of ads that have
both an AR and a URL. You'll find that about one out of every
three of them qualify. Point made.
I hope I've managed to shed a little light on YOUR marketing
campaign today. If you're not marketing with both AR's *and* a
URL, you're missing out on some revenue!
Remember, as many have said before me, marketing is now, and
always will be, a numbers game. The more numbers you reach, the
more numbers you'll count!