| First things first. Let's define the two. | | | | |
| Advertising is the act of getting your | | | | Do you use (LEGAL) e-mail methods to |
| message in front of an audience. There are | | | | advertise? This technique will also work in |
| any number of ways to do this, but that's | | | | that forum. Simply alter your URL, as |
| really not the theme of this message. Being | | | | described above in each of your different |
| able to track a sale backwards to the | | | | promo letters and you're able to track which |
| advertising that produced it, is. | | | | ones produce the most traffic. Then discard |
| | | | the ones that don't produce. Just as you |
| Second, marketing is the overall process you | | | | will the e-zine, newsletter, or banner |
| use to promote your products and services. | | | | campaign that's not paying its way. |
| This includes advertising, but is in no way | | | | |
| limited to that. Again, the idea here is not | | | | As an added bonus, you can do exactly the |
| to talk about marketing techniques, but the | | | | same type of thing with e-mail responses, |
| methods you can use to track their success. | | | | rather than having 10 different response |
| | | | addresses. |
| The very nature of the Internet provides you | | | | |
| with a variety of unique tracking methods. | | | | You place an ad with an e-mail link or have |
| At its very simplest, you can produce 10 | | | | an e-mail link rather than a URL attached to |
| separate web pages to advertise in 10 | | | | a banner or any other response link. As in |
| different forums. | | | | the URL example you vary the link according |
| | | | to where it will be seen. |
| Example: You have a page selling widgets, and | | | | |
| you want to do a banner campaign with 10 | | | | EXAMPLE: Ad running in 4 E-Zines |
| different banners. You can create 10 mirror | | | | |
| pages i.e. Widgets.html, Widgets1.html, | | | | 1st one has e-mail link here: 2nd one has |
| Widgets2.html etc, etc. | | | | e-mail link here: 3rd one has e-mail link |
| | | | here: 4th one has e-mail link here: |
| In this way a different URL is associated | | | | |
| with each of the different banners you send | | | | As you can, see the reply you receive has a |
| out, and your able to track which banner is | | | | different text in the subject field. This |
| producing the most traffic. | | | | allows you to track where your responses are |
| | | | coming from. |
| There is a much simpler, and less time | | | | |
| intensive way however, to achieve that same | | | | No matter which way you choose to track your |
| result. | | | | promotional efforts, it's important that DO |
| | | | track them. You can waste countless hours |
| You have your index page and rather than | | | | and dollars on a strategy that is actually |
| mirroring it 10 times you simply add | | | | producing no results. You may well find that |
| ?Widgets1 , ?Widgets2, ?Widgets3, etc, to the | | | | the less costly method works as well if not |
| URL you add to the link associated with each | | | | better than the one that cost you an arm and |
| banner. | | | | a leg. |
| | | | |
| TEST IT HERE: | | | | Again, it matters not which method you |
| | | | choose, it only matters that you choose one |
| Even though the same page is served up to | | | | and use it faithfully. You'll be surprised |
| your visitors, your server logs treat it as | | | | how much information you will have at your |
| 10 different pages! | | | | disposal. |
| | | | |
| You can use this method to track any type of | | | | "Your Success Is Our Success"jbp |
| campaign, not just banners. If you were to | | | | |
| advertise in a publication such as this one | | | | [ jim Peters is Manager of NSI "SOLUTIONS". |
| (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, by the way), as well as | | | | NSI specializes in custom website design, |
| others, using the same URL in all of them, | | | | promotion, maintenance, domain registration , |
| you would have no way of knowing that 80% of | | | | site hosting , graphic design, as well as |
| the traffic produced from those ads came from | | | | e-commerce packages for small to medium sized |
| here. If however you used a different URL | | | | companies. In other words "SOLUTIONS". |
| ?index2, ?index3, etc., you would know which | | | | Copyright © 2004 by NetServe |
| ad drew how much traffic. | | | | International, Inc. |