NONE: RE: ONLINE-ADS>> Qualified Hits
RE: ONLINE-ADS>> Qualified Hits
Global Exposure (exposure_at_usa.net)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 13:34:18 -0800
Michael Skaff <mike_at_E-BENEFITS.COM> wrote:
>My company posted a banner advertisement to Yahoo's "Web Release"
> section at a very steep price tag, and ended up with around 22,000
> hits for the week. However, out of all of these
>hits, we did not record a single sale.
Michael,
I empathize with your frustration. $1,000 is a lot of money to pay
for no sales. However the exposure-to-Clickthru ratio you obtained
was pretty good (Yahoo guarantees 120,000 exposures. The first
place I look when analyzing effective advertising is:
Is the customer getting to your site? The answer in your case is
yes.
Next I looked at your site presentation: Your site is easy to navigate,
and it is easy to see what you are selling from your design. You
have added content to your site to make it more interesting to me;
however two things puzzle me that might be creating problems for you:
1. Your entire site (or the URL you gave me) is done in Encrypted
format (secure server). There are pages where users don't need
to input any information, yet you still have it on a secure server.
Being a Netscape user, I had no problems whatsoever; but when I thought
about what would happen if I was using an America Online browser,
Compuserve or some other browser, I wonder whether your site is
navigatable with all browsers/services.
I would suggest that you test this out if you have not already done
so.
2. I noticed that you state that the purpose of your company is:
"E-Benefits leads the market by enabling small businesses to
easily and cost effectively select, purchase and manage employee
benefits via the Internet."
And I notice that you also state that you have the capacity to
search hundreds of California Benefits programs. Knowing nothing
about the Employee Benefits industry, a person might easily think
that you business only serves those businesses located in California.
Is it possible for a business to be in New Jersey or Canada, for that
matter, and buy insurance in California? Why do you only search one
state out of fifty states?
If you do indeed only service California, then you need to really
fine tune your marketing target more. Not only do you need to reach
small business owners who are looking to set up benefits packages,
but now you need to reach only small business owners in California.
On the Internet, which is such a global spectrum it is difficult
to target a certain state or local with your marketing efforts.
>>Does anyone have any suggestions, based on what
>>has worked for their company?
If it is California-only, I suggest you canvas the California
newsgroups and participate in discussions actively, using a
4 line email signature at the end of all your posts.
If your business can provide service to all locales, then I would
suggest that you specifically target small business owners by
sponsoring small business newsletters and e-zines, small business
resource sites, Inc. Magazine Online, etc. Yahoo is far to broad
of a spectrum to reach qualified clients interested in purchasing
benefits for their employees.
In addition, I would specifically add a section on your web site
that tells me as a business-owner, WHY I should use YOUR service
instead of the Yellow pages or some other service. What makes
you so UNIQUE?
Hope this helps!
Adam Boettiger
Editor, EXPOSURE! Internet Marketing Newsletter
http://www.exposure-usa.com/exposure/
For information on getting your web site evaluated,
mailto:exposure_at_usa.net Subject: Evaluation Info
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