The art of advertising

If you’re a supplier to the marine industry, your website isn’t helping you if nobody visits. Advertising on leading websites can be an effective way to generate traffic, as long as you adhere to some basic principles.

1. Look for websites that are tightly focused on the shipping industry and that have done the work to build a large visitor base. ShipServ Pages, the maritime search engine, generates thousands of searches every day and offers some extremely cost-effective advertising options (if we do say so ourselves).

We also advertise on the International Marine Purchasing Association website – which has the added benefit of supporting the association that works so hard for us all!

2. Make the ads distinctive – they need to jump off a crowded web page.

3. Make an offer – people need a reason to click. Make a special discount or offer a free piece of literature that will help buyers do their jobs.

4. Click through to a ‘landing page’ – just sending people who click on your ad to your Home page may not be the best thing. You might want to create a special landing page that delivers the offer quickly. For example, here’s one we did to promote a specific savings message to maritime buyers.

Remember, click-throughs are the main benefit of web banner ads but they’re not the only benefit. You also get the exposure and awareness-building benefits of just being seen in the right places by the right people.

In summary, banner advertising CAN be a cost effective way to spend those precious marketing dollars. But as, ever, buyer beware!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 3:36 pm.