There are many issues related to the implementation of Internet advertising:
how to design ads for the Internet, where and when to advertise, and how to
integrate online and offline ads. Most such decisions require the input of marketing
and advertising experts. Here, we present some illustrative issues in
online advertising.
UNSOLICITED ADVERTISING. Spamming is the indiscriminate distribution of
electronic ads without permission of the receiver. E-mail spamming, also known
as unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), has been part of the Internet for years.
Another form of spamming is the pop-up ad. Unfortunately, spamming seems
to be getting worse over time. The drivers of spamming and some potential solutions
are described in Online File W4.9 and Chapter 16. Permission marketing
is one answer to e-mail and pop-up spamming.
On October 22, 2003, the U.S. Senate passed an antispam bill requiring
spammers to clearly identify themselves and the products they are selling. Since
the bill became law, several companies were fined in court.
PERMISSION MARKETING. Permission marketing asks consumers to give
their permission to voluntarily accept online advertising and e-mail. Typically,
consumers are asked to complete an electronic form that asks what they are interested in and requests permission to send related marketing information.
Sometimes consumers are offered incentives to receive advertising; at the least,
marketers try to send information in an entertaining, educational, or other
interesting manner.
Permission marketing is the basis of many Internet marketing strategies. For
example, millions of users receive e-mails periodically from airlines such as
American and Southwest. Users of this marketing service can ask for notification
of low fares from their hometown or to their favorite destinations. Users
can easily unsubscribe at any time. Permission marketing is also extremely
important for market research (e.g., see Media Metrix at comscore.com).
In one particularly interesting form of permission marketing, companies
such as Clickdough.com, Getpaid4.com, and CashSurfers.com have built customer
lists of millions of people who are happy to receive advertising messages
whenever they are on the Web. These customers are paid $0.25 to $0.50 an
hour to view messages while they do their normal surfing. They may also be
paid $0.10 an hour for the surfing time of any friends they refer to the site.
VIRAL MARKETING. Viral marketing refers to online “word-of-mouth” marketing.
The main idea in viral marketing is to have people forward messages to
friends, suggesting that they “check this out.” A marketer can distribute a small
game program, for example, embedded with a sponsor’s e-mail, that is easy to
forward. By releasing a few thousand copies, vendors hope to reach many more
thousands.
Word-of-mouth marketing has been used for generations, but its speed and
reach are multiplied manyfold by the Internet. Viral marketing is one of the
new models being used to build brand awareness at a minimal cost. It has long
been a favorite strategy of online advertisers pushing youth-oriented products.
Unfortunately, though, several e-mail hoaxes have spread via viral marketing.
Also, a more serious danger of viral marketing is that a destructive computer
virus can be added to an innocent advertisement, game, or message. However,
when used properly, viral marketing can be both effective and efficient.
INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING AND MARKETING. All advertisers, whether online
or not, attempt to target their ads to the desired market and, if possible, even
to individuals. A good salesperson is trained to interact with sales prospects, asking
questions about the features they are looking for and handling possible
objections as they come up. Online advertising comes closer to supporting this
one-to-one selling process than more traditional advertising media possibly can.
Ideally, in interactive marketing, advertisers present customized, one-on-one
ads. The term interactive points to the ability to address an individual, to gather
and remember that person’s responses, and to serve that customer based on his
or her previous, unique responses. When the Internet is combined with databases,
interactive marketing becomes a very effective and affordable competitive strategy.
ONLINE PROMOTIONS: ATTRACTING VISITORS TO A SITE. A Web site without
visitors has little value. The following are three representative ways to attract
visitors to a Web site.
Making the Top of the List of a Search Engine. Web sites submit their URLs
to search engines. The search engine’s intelligent program (called a spider) crawls
through the submitted site, indexing all related content and links. Some lists generated by search engines include hundreds or thousands of items. Users that
view the results submitted by a search engine typically start by clicking on the
first 10 or so items, and soon get tired. So, for best exposure, advertisers like
to be in the top 10 on the list.
How does one make the top 10? If a company understands how a search
engine’s program ranks its findings, it can get to the top of a search engine’s
list merely by adding, removing, or changing a few sentences on its Web pages.
However, this is not easy, as everyone wants to do it, so there are sometimes
several thousand entries competing to be in the top 10. It may be easier to pay
the search engine to put a banner at the top of the lists (e.g., usually on the
right-hand side or the top of the screen at google.com’s results).
Online Events, Promotions, and Attractions. People generally like the idea
of something funny or something free, or both. Contests, quizzes, coupons, and
free samples are therefore an integral part of e-marketing. Running
promotions on the Internet is similar to running offline promotions. These mechanisms
are designed to attract visitors and to keep their attention. For innovative
ideas for promotions and attractions used by companies online, see Strauss
et al. (2003).
Online Coupons. Just as in offline advertising, online shoppers can get discounts
via coupons. You can gather any discount coupons you want by accessing
sites like hotcoupons.com or coupons.com, selecting the store where you plan
to redeem the coupons, and printing them. In the future, transfer of coupons
directly to a virtual supermarket (such as Peapod.com or Netgrocer.com) will be
available so that you can receive discounts on the items you buy there. Coupons
also can be distributed via wireless devices, based on your location. As you
approach a restaurant, for example, you may be offered a 15 percent discount
electronic coupon to show to the proprietors when you arrive.
how to design ads for the Internet, where and when to advertise, and how to
integrate online and offline ads. Most such decisions require the input of marketing
and advertising experts. Here, we present some illustrative issues in
online advertising.
UNSOLICITED ADVERTISING. Spamming is the indiscriminate distribution of
electronic ads without permission of the receiver. E-mail spamming, also known
as unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), has been part of the Internet for years.
Another form of spamming is the pop-up ad. Unfortunately, spamming seems
to be getting worse over time. The drivers of spamming and some potential solutions
are described in Online File W4.9 and Chapter 16. Permission marketing
is one answer to e-mail and pop-up spamming.
On October 22, 2003, the U.S. Senate passed an antispam bill requiring
spammers to clearly identify themselves and the products they are selling. Since
the bill became law, several companies were fined in court.
PERMISSION MARKETING. Permission marketing asks consumers to give
their permission to voluntarily accept online advertising and e-mail. Typically,
consumers are asked to complete an electronic form that asks what they are interested in and requests permission to send related marketing information.
Sometimes consumers are offered incentives to receive advertising; at the least,
marketers try to send information in an entertaining, educational, or other
interesting manner.
Permission marketing is the basis of many Internet marketing strategies. For
example, millions of users receive e-mails periodically from airlines such as
American and Southwest. Users of this marketing service can ask for notification
of low fares from their hometown or to their favorite destinations. Users
can easily unsubscribe at any time. Permission marketing is also extremely
important for market research (e.g., see Media Metrix at comscore.com).
In one particularly interesting form of permission marketing, companies
such as Clickdough.com, Getpaid4.com, and CashSurfers.com have built customer
lists of millions of people who are happy to receive advertising messages
whenever they are on the Web. These customers are paid $0.25 to $0.50 an
hour to view messages while they do their normal surfing. They may also be
paid $0.10 an hour for the surfing time of any friends they refer to the site.
VIRAL MARKETING. Viral marketing refers to online “word-of-mouth” marketing.
The main idea in viral marketing is to have people forward messages to
friends, suggesting that they “check this out.” A marketer can distribute a small
game program, for example, embedded with a sponsor’s e-mail, that is easy to
forward. By releasing a few thousand copies, vendors hope to reach many more
thousands.
Word-of-mouth marketing has been used for generations, but its speed and
reach are multiplied manyfold by the Internet. Viral marketing is one of the
new models being used to build brand awareness at a minimal cost. It has long
been a favorite strategy of online advertisers pushing youth-oriented products.
Unfortunately, though, several e-mail hoaxes have spread via viral marketing.
Also, a more serious danger of viral marketing is that a destructive computer
virus can be added to an innocent advertisement, game, or message. However,
when used properly, viral marketing can be both effective and efficient.
INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING AND MARKETING. All advertisers, whether online
or not, attempt to target their ads to the desired market and, if possible, even
to individuals. A good salesperson is trained to interact with sales prospects, asking
questions about the features they are looking for and handling possible
objections as they come up. Online advertising comes closer to supporting this
one-to-one selling process than more traditional advertising media possibly can.
Ideally, in interactive marketing, advertisers present customized, one-on-one
ads. The term interactive points to the ability to address an individual, to gather
and remember that person’s responses, and to serve that customer based on his
or her previous, unique responses. When the Internet is combined with databases,
interactive marketing becomes a very effective and affordable competitive strategy.
ONLINE PROMOTIONS: ATTRACTING VISITORS TO A SITE. A Web site without
visitors has little value. The following are three representative ways to attract
visitors to a Web site.
Making the Top of the List of a Search Engine. Web sites submit their URLs
to search engines. The search engine’s intelligent program (called a spider) crawls
through the submitted site, indexing all related content and links. Some lists generated by search engines include hundreds or thousands of items. Users that
view the results submitted by a search engine typically start by clicking on the
first 10 or so items, and soon get tired. So, for best exposure, advertisers like
to be in the top 10 on the list.
How does one make the top 10? If a company understands how a search
engine’s program ranks its findings, it can get to the top of a search engine’s
list merely by adding, removing, or changing a few sentences on its Web pages.
However, this is not easy, as everyone wants to do it, so there are sometimes
several thousand entries competing to be in the top 10. It may be easier to pay
the search engine to put a banner at the top of the lists (e.g., usually on the
right-hand side or the top of the screen at google.com’s results).
Online Events, Promotions, and Attractions. People generally like the idea
of something funny or something free, or both. Contests, quizzes, coupons, and
free samples are therefore an integral part of e-marketing. Running
promotions on the Internet is similar to running offline promotions. These mechanisms
are designed to attract visitors and to keep their attention. For innovative
ideas for promotions and attractions used by companies online, see Strauss
et al. (2003).
Online Coupons. Just as in offline advertising, online shoppers can get discounts
via coupons. You can gather any discount coupons you want by accessing
sites like hotcoupons.com or coupons.com, selecting the store where you plan
to redeem the coupons, and printing them. In the future, transfer of coupons
directly to a virtual supermarket (such as Peapod.com or Netgrocer.com) will be
available so that you can receive discounts on the items you buy there. Coupons
also can be distributed via wireless devices, based on your location. As you
approach a restaurant, for example, you may be offered a 15 percent discount
electronic coupon to show to the proprietors when you arrive.
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